A tale of two prenups:
A cautionary thread ๐งต
What is a prenuptial agreement?
It's an agreement made by a couple before they marry concerning the ownership of their respective financial rights should the marriage fail.
1/
A cautionary thread ๐งต
What is a prenuptial agreement?
It's an agreement made by a couple before they marry concerning the ownership of their respective financial rights should the marriage fail.
1/
In the United States if you do not make an agreement on how your marriage and your marital property are managed then those decisions will be made for you.
Meaning who owns what and who owes what will be determined by the state.
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Meaning who owns what and who owes what will be determined by the state.
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Recently I've heard some people suggest that just not getting married legally and instead just doing an Islamic marriage ceremony is sufficient.
What they don't realize is that even if you don't get married legally the state will still consider you to be married under the law.
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What they don't realize is that even if you don't get married legally the state will still consider you to be married under the law.
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This means if there is a dispute about who owns/owes what & one spouse takes the other to court they're still going to consider you to be married even if you don't have the license.
Attempt to hide assets or evade responsibility & you can place yourself in a lot more trouble.
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Attempt to hide assets or evade responsibility & you can place yourself in a lot more trouble.
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And yes while the nuances of this differ from state to state you still will be taken to task in some way or another.
So being unprepared for the reality of marriage and it's legal and financial consequences is unbecoming of a believer.
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So being unprepared for the reality of marriage and it's legal and financial consequences is unbecoming of a believer.
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From Hudhayfa in Tirmidhi "It's unbecoming of a believer to humiliate himself." They said "How does he humiliate himself?"
The Prophet ๏ทบ replied "He exposes himself to afflictions he cannot bear."
ูุชุนุฑูุถู ู ู ุงูุจูุงุกู ูู ูุง ูุง ูุทููู
So preparing oneself is imperative.
6/
The Prophet ๏ทบ replied "He exposes himself to afflictions he cannot bear."
ูุชุนุฑูุถู ู ู ุงูุจูุงุกู ูู ูุง ูุง ูุทููู
So preparing oneself is imperative.
6/
So if you have a state marriage you need a prenup in order to designate how your assets & your debts will be dealt with after marriage.
If you only do a religious ceremony then you need additional documents to manage assets and debts (@NaveedHusain covers this in @nikahclass)
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If you only do a religious ceremony then you need additional documents to manage assets and debts (@NaveedHusain covers this in @nikahclass)
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Now on the two tales:
1- Tale number one: Man forgoes pre-nup, loses millions, pays alimony to ex.
2- Tale number two: woman forgoes pre-nup, is saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, loses half her own property to ex.
Here are the details:
1- Tale number one: Man forgoes pre-nup, loses millions, pays alimony to ex.
2- Tale number two: woman forgoes pre-nup, is saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, loses half her own property to ex.
Here are the details:
Tale number one: A man out in CA gets married prior to COVID. He and his new bride move in with each other, then the pandemic starts shortly thereafter. She is uninterested in marital life, and demands to leave to her parents home. They spend a sum total of 3 weeks together.
As he asks her to go to therapy or reconcile, he keeps himself busy with work, investing, & taking risks to make it through the pandemic, while living on his own. Meanwhile, she files divorce and demands half of all his wealth, the home she lived in for 3 weeks, and alimony.
Living in a community property state, she's entitled to half under the law. He never imagined he'd get a divorce, so while he knew of pre-nups he didn't think it was necessary. He negotiated to settle out of court, she refused. She's now living off her settlement.
Tale number two: a woman marries an entrepreneur in Arizona. She wants a pre-nup but her family refuses insisting the man is a good man. He runs his families business, and starts another business with her for extra income.
As time passes she notices strange mail and issues with her credit report. Upon investigation, she discovers he's maxxing out credit cards in her name, personally assumed a 500k debt from his family's business, & is falsifying information to under report income on their taxes.
She files for divorce, luckily they have no kids. She has bill collectors coming after her because he was funneling money to his parents business. He demands half of her retirement savings (around 125k). And bc he has "no assets or income" he demands alimony as well.
In both of these cases, had they properly executed prenuptials before the marriage they would have had to disclose their financial status to each other well before the wedding and it would have been a red flag that could have been avoided if they saw the reaction.
Additionally even if that red flag wasnt seen they would have been able to maintain their Islamic rights to personal financial autonomy & save their own $$$ instead of allowing themselves and the rest of their family members to be disenfranchised by an unscrupulous spouse.
These are just two examples of why a prenuptial is important. Because as the analogy goes although I may not like to wear my seatbelt I am very happy that my seatbelt was on when I get into a car crash.
** End **
** End **
Remember
ุฅูู ูุง ูุฑุจู ูุญู ู ูุจูุช ู ู ุณูุญุชู ุ ุฅูุง ูุงูุช ุงููุงุฑู ุฃููู ุจู
Never is flesh fed from illicit gains except that the hellfire has more right to it.
ุฅูู ูุง ูุฑุจู ูุญู ู ูุจูุช ู ู ุณูุญุชู ุ ุฅูุง ูุงูุช ุงููุงุฑู ุฃููู ุจู
Never is flesh fed from illicit gains except that the hellfire has more right to it.
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