Wedding Expenses and Islam

Allah SWT says in the Quran “Those who, when they spend, are not extravagant and not niggardly, but hold a just (balance) between those (extremes);” From among the standards of islam for livelihood, one is to restrain from spending extra and also to restrain oneself from being a miser.

The verse mentions that the correct way to spend is to be balanced while spending. This golden rule is so affective that if all people start following it, the bad economic conditions will transform dramatically, but unfortunately, people do not consider them worth noting.

We see many examples of extravagance in our society in many forms. One of them is spending lavishly on weddings. No matter who, poor or rich, people spend money on weddings as if they are in some competition and they have to win it.

The lavish display of dowry and other wedding items have made it just like some exhibition. Wedding expenses are not only limited to the people who are going to be wed or their family members, but one wedding affects every person who wants to attend it. Females want new cloths jewelry and shoes for them, for their kids and for their husbands.

Thus one wedding becomes so expensive for a good number of people.

While arguing on this issue, some people say, this all is due to our cultural mix with Hinduism. Others say that people just want to have an upper hand over their relatives and wedding gives them a fair chance to do so. whatsoever the reasons brought forth, we being muslims should not forget that whatever we do is recorded instantly and will be shown to us when we will be raised again.

Our beloved prophet s.a.w.w could marry his daughters in the best way by spending as much as he could and people would help him any possible way, but the way he s.a.w.w married his daughters and himself got married should be taken as best examples for every person in muslim society.

Muhammad s.a.w.w never spent any extra money to show off. He found for his daughters best husbands, and he found for himself wives not because they were beautiful or rich. He s.a.w.w set for us a decent criteria of how to arrange marriages and how to look for a spouse on what basis.

All the righteous muslims followed this example until people started diverting from the right path. Islam does not asks believers whether they have given their daughters or sisters trucks of dowry or whether they served 10s of dishes on walimah.

The concept of barat is also not there in islam, simple nikah and walimah to validate nikah are two main events of marriage. Mehndi, obten and all other related events are not Islamic and they should not be celebrated because they are plain wastage of money.

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