NEW YORK — Should anything go wrong in her marriage, Zaynab Abdul-Razacq is confident her rights will be well-protected. Her husband has guaranteed it — in writing.

The young Muslim couple chose a path advocated by Islamic scholars concerned about women’s rights: drawing up a Muslim marriage contract that takes into account modern needs.

Mrs.Abdul-Razacq’s agreement states that she is in charge of the household finances and that, if her husband abuses her in “any dimension of wellness,” she can automatically divorce him. He stipulated that he could make household decisions without interference from in-laws and other relatives.

“At the outset, we agreed these are things that are pretty important to us,” Mrs. Abdul-Razacq, 29, of Decatur, Ga., and married three years ago, said.

The contract has long been a Muslim tradition. Most, however, contain just one key provision, that of the “mahr,” a gift usually of money, that the man gives the woman.

Islamic law experts who advocate better treatment for women say the documents can help them assert rights under religious law that have long been played down by men. Advocates contend their approach is well within Islamic law, even though skeptics say the interpretation is too influenced by Western thinking.

The contract is especially useful in America, where Muslims come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and follow different customs and levels of observance. The document can accommodate views both liberal and conservative.

An organization of Muslim women lawyers based in Washington, Karamah, is developing a “model” marriage contract that can be adjusted to meet the requirements of family law in different parts of the country, Azizah al-Hibri, a founder of the group, whose name means “dignity” in Arabic, said. In America, civil law governs divorce, but judges have taken Muslim marriage contracts into consideration, sometimes viewing them as prenuptial agreements.

Ms. Hibri, a law professor at the University of Richmond, Va., said the contracts also help couples prepare for the challenges of married life.

“Couples need to define their relationship as they enter the marriage, so that they do not get disillusioned later,” Ms. Hibri said. “They need a meeting of the minds on what their family life will look like. The contract helps them do that by discussing the issues up front.”

It is generally accepted that Islamic law gives women the right to property and financial independence within marriage. Some Muslim scholars contend women are not even obligated to do housework. These and other details can be specified in the contract.

Negotiating the agreement “brings an air of reality and rationality to a process that is often fraught with emotion,”a professor of Islamic Studies at DePaul University in Chicago, Aminah McCloud, said. Mrs. McCloud’s own marriage contract says that her husband must accompany her when she travels and that she is not obligated to cook. Much of the negotiation involves the “mahr,” whose dollar value ranges widely.

Some Muslim women consider the gift archaic in an age when women can earn their own salaries. Others, however, view it as a symbol that the man values the woman, similar to an engagement ring; it is also a gift that is hers alone.

Maryam Sayar and her husband, of Cortlandt Manor, N.Y., kept their contract simple, specifying only the “mahr.”

Mrs. Sayar, 26, a law school graduate, said: “He understands my expectations of life and from the marriage as well. I similarly have an understanding of his expectations of life and marriage.”

Information about the contracts is available online, in women’s magazines including Azizah, and at conventions such as the annual meeting of the Islamic Society of North America, an umbrella group for mosques and other Muslim organizations. Mrs. Abdul-Razacq, who explored the contract at the insistence of her mother, consulted a book with sample documents called “Your Islamic Marriage Contract.”

Mrs. McCloud acknowledges the limits of the document in trying to preserve equality in such an unpredictable undertaking as marriage. But she said the contract does provide some protection if a union fails.

Mrs. McCloud said. “But at least you have written down and witnessed something so that when you go to court to get them, you can get them. And you don’t wind up on ‘Judge Judy.'”