Before entering into a marriage contact...

Before entering into a marriage contact, it is obligatory upon women who suffer one of the following seven defects to declare so: (1) insanity, (2) genital mass that prevents sexual intercourse, (3) leprosy, (4) muteness, (5) vitiligo, (6) blindness, and (7) union of the urinary and vaginal canals or the vaginal and anal canals. It is obligatory upon all men and women to commit themselves to the conditions they have agreed upon in the marriage contract or any other irrevocable contract.

Such conditions may involve teaching the other party the Holy Qur’an, financing the hajj pilgrimage of the other party, not taking a wife away from her homeland, etc. It is obligatory upon wives to obey their husbands in sexual matters and to provide him with any type of sexual gratification he desires, whether through sexual intercourse or other means, unless she has a religiously valid excuse. It is forbidden for a wife to deny their husbands from having such pleasure and enjoyment.

It is obligatory upon husbands to provide their permanent wives with such livelihood expenses like food, clothing, and housing in a generally acceptable manner. This is also applicable to the alimonies during the period of waiting of revocably divorced wives.

It is obligatory upon both wives and husbands to treat each other kindly through such praiseworthy behavior like nice language, good manners, high individual and social moral standards, and familiar family etiquettes, refraining from which is considered misbehavior. It is obligatory upon the wealthy to ensure the living expenses of their needy fathers, mothers, paternal and maternal grandfathers and grandmothers, children, and grandchildren.

Even if they do not intend to divorce, in case the husbands are wealthy enough to pay, it is obligatory upon husbands to pay their wives’ dowries, identified in the marriage contracts, whenever the wives demand them. In case the husbands have not yet had sexual intercourse with their wives who demand them to pay their dowries, half of the dowry must be paid. If the dowry has not been identified yet and copulation with the wife has taken place, a familiar dowry[^5] ( mahr al-mithl ) must be paid.

However, if neither the dowry has been determined nor has copulation taken place husbands are not required to pay anything unless they divorce their wives before copulation.