I wanted to ask your advice about this. I’m not planing to get married, and niether am I very rich so I am merely asking this out of curiosity.
Are pre-nuptual agreements un-islamic?
These are agreements where a couple would agree not to split their wealth 50/50, should they break up. So, if a girl marries a rich boy and they divorce, he gets to hold onto his wealth and she gets, well…not much at all (or vice versa).
If I am not mistaken, the Quran says that divorces should get 50% of the wealth (however I could very well be mistaken).
Quran does not say that the wealth is to be split 50-50 after a divorce. Allah forgive me if I am wrong.
Islam has a pre-determined way of having a prenuptial agreement in the form of 'mehr'. Mehr is mandatory, and is given to the wife by the husband. Then there is the optional and willful practice of dowry, in which the girl's parents give her things, which may include money, clothes, utensils, or other items of value.
According to the Quran and practices of Prophet SAW, all these are the property of the woman in case of a divorce. The mehr is paid by the husband to the wife, and in case of a divorce, she keeps it. The dowry that she brings into the marriage is hers to take away, if a divorce occurs.
In the presence of these failsafe statutes, I dont see any reason for any further agreements. Financial security of the woman after divorce is ensured by establishing a decent amount of money to be paid by the husband, based on his financial status.
However, if another agreement is made to supplement the haq mehr, I dont think it would be unislamic.
To add on to what Akif has said, the value of Mehr is entirely dependant on the husband and wife. Although Quran does recommend that the value of Mehr should be consistent with the financial position of the husband: if he is rich, the mehr should be high, and if he is poor the mehr should be low.
In case of divorce, the wife gets the mehr and her dowry back. The husband is responsible for the upkeep of any children they had. (I am not sure on this part, but I think the husband is also responsible for the upkeep of his ex-wife, till the time she re-marries).
In case of "khula" (wife seeking divorce), the wife does not get mehr, but can keep her dowry. The husband is still responsible for the upkeep of the children. He is not responsible for upkeep of wife.
So since the value of Mehr is determined before the marriage, so you can say it is a sort of pre-neptual agreement, which is perfectly allowed.
I may be wrong on some parts above, but I hope you got your answer.