A Nikah – an Islamic marriage contract – has to fulfil certain requirements to be considered binding under Islamic law, one of which is the Mahr. A Mahr is a sum of money, jewelry, or any other valuable assets that is given by the groom to the wife as security in case of a breakdown in their relationship or death of the husband. The amount specified in the marriage contract and/or the property to be gifted may vary depending on many things, including the wealth of the groom. That gift becomes the wife’s exclusive property.

Faisal Kutty of the Valparaiso University School of Law says that there is hope for compromise between Western legal systems and Islamic law regarding the adoption of children from Islamic countries...

Conventional wisdom ”” among both Muslims and non-Muslims ”” holds that adoption, as practiced in much of the Western world, is alien and prohibited by dictates of Islam. This, of course, ignores the sophistication and nuances of both Western law and Islamic dictates. Indeed, adoption rights activists have struggled to find ways around the difficulties this simple binary causes for some children and prospective adoptive parents. With the growth of the Muslim population in the West, there is now an increased urgency to tackle this issue as some Muslims wish to adopt children from jurisdictions governed by Islamic law.