I don't think Umm ul-Shaheed thinks that hadith says that should be married for their wealth. She's just asking why is that men
would marry for wealth, why does the hadith have to tell them it's
not something to do, when it's a given that the man must provide for the household? As in, isn't it a
given that women should not be married for wealth, since their resources are not
expected to contribute to the household expenses?
Umm ul-Shaheed, despite that hadith being so well known, we see it all the time that men marry a woman for her wealth...or if not solely for her wealth, then certainly it's one of the main criteria they look for. Why? It's the chasing after this dunya, whichever means there is to get it. When you look at the writings of the fuqaha, so many of them warn a man not to marry above himelf socioeconomically, and they give reasons why not. One reason is that a woman has every right to expect to be treated by her husband as she was treated by her father. At the same time, she has
no obligation whatsoever to treat her husband to the lifestyle that her father gave her. A man marrying her
expecting that he is going to get the benefits of that might be sharply disappointed. (And
should be sharply disappointed, if you ask me!)
Another reason they do it is because the women and their families let them. For example, if a girl (or her family) has wealth, and her family is worried about her not getting married soon enough, it will be easy to marry her to a man with the promise of handing over some of the wealth to him. Why should a man say no, when the dunya glitters so brightly? It's a form of selling the woman...except that the wealth is going in the other direction.
I'm sure there are a few other reasons it's done...and boy, it is certainly done. Well, it's done out here in the States anyway, within the Indo/Pak community.
