The divorce is for two times; then keep her with justice or separate her in the best manner, it is not lawful for you to take back what you have given them except when both the couple fear that they will not remain within Lord Allah’s limits. Then if you fear that they both will not remain within the limits of Allah, there is no blame upon the woman to separate by giving back the dowry to the husband. These are the limits set by Allah, then you shouldn’t aggress them; and whoever aggresses the limits of Allah, then such are the only wrongdoers.
According to Lord’s law male has to give the dowry to the female’s guardian. In the period of ignorance, girls were buried alive by the guardians fearing the injustice in the society and the difficulties to bring them up as explained in verses 16: 58-59. So dowry from male to the guardian of female was fixed to bring up the dignity of a woman in the society. Dowry is the rent of the woman paid to her guardian for bringing up her with dignity.
Generally, whatever the male has given to the female’s guardian as the dowry, it should not be taken back. But he can demand his dowry back if she is involved in open sexual misconduct or she desires another marriage and demands the divorce. If a male is unable to fulfill the sexual passion of the woman, and if she desires to break the contract, then she can do it by giving the entire dowry back. This is called ‘Qulh’. Today, the Arabic Quran reading Fujjar are carrying Lord’s Book as donkeys carrying a burden, so the Lord will not guide these wrongdoers as told in verse 62: 5. Verses 3: 94; 5: 45; 9: 23 and 24: 50 also end as: “Then those are the only wrongdoers”. See explanation 2: 254, 258, and 10: 17.