4. THE STATUS OF WOMAN

4. The status of woman ~ 58 ~ second Caliph. It concerned the amount of money or goods which had to be given as dower (given by the husband to the wife at the time of marriage as a token that he will meet all her expenses in future). In the Prophet’s lifetime this had been a very nominal amount, but with the increase in resources after the conquest of other countries, people had begun to apportion more substantial dowers. Feeling that this was an unhealthy trend, ‘Umar once addressed an assembly of his people from the pulpit, saying that he did not know who had increased the amount of dower to more than 400 dirhams. ‘The Prophet and his Companions handed over 400 dirhams or even less. Nobody should fix a dower of more than 400 dirhams. If it comes to my knowledge that anyone has exceeded this amount, I will confiscate the excess amount for the State Treasury.” When he had had his say, a woman got up from one comer of the gathering and said, “O Chief of the Faithful, is the Book of God (Qur’an) to be followed or what you have to say?” ‘Umar replied that it was certainly the Book of God that was to be followed. The woman then retorted, “You have just forbidden