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Can the husband get back the dowry or what was paid to the wife who sought divorce three weeks after marriage, knowing that she was married before him and the marriage was not consummated?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a woman is divorced after seclusion (khalwa) but before consummation (dukhool), she is still considered a virgin and can be married as a virgin. The فقهاء (jurists) have explicitly stated this. If the dispute is due to deception in the marriage, the matter should be referred to the Sharia court to consider the case. If the wife requests a divorce without any shortcoming on the part of the husband, he has the right to refuse to divorce her or to agree to a khul' (divorce initiated by the wife) in exchange for the return of the mahr (dowry).

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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