done so, we would have said: What Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, did is to be rejected, because the reason existed during the Prophet’s time, yet the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not prescribe anything concerning it. But when the reason for which Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, instituted the first call to prayer did not exist in the time of the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, then his practice is a sunnah to be followed, and we have been commanded to follow it.
“The Fitr charity is not obligatory for a recalcitrant wife; and if someone whose Fitr charity is incumbent upon another pays it himself without that person’s permission, it suffices...”
His statement, “The Fitr charity is not obligatory for a recalcitrant wife,” means that the husband is not required to pay the Fitr charity for a recalcitrant wife, because he is not obliged to provide her maintenance. This is based on the view that a person must pay the Fitr charity on behalf of those whom he supports and whose maintenance is obligatory upon him.
A recalcitrant wife is one who acts haughtily toward her husband and disobeys him in matters in which she is required to obey him; or she obeys him, but resentfully and begrudgingly. Thus, when he instructs her to do something, she refuses or delays carrying it out, and the like. This is because she must give him what is due to him willingly and contentedly, just as he too must give her what is due to her in the same manner.
His statement, “and if someone whose Fitr charity is incumbent upon another,” involves placing the object before the subject; that is, someone whose Fitr charity is obligatory upon another. For example, the wife’s Fitr charity is obligatory upon her husband, and the son’s Fitr charity is obligatory upon his father, and so on.
His statement, “then pays it himself without his permission, it suffices,” means that if someone whose Fitr charity is incumbent upon another pays it without the permission of the one responsible for his Fitr charity, it is valid on his behalf.
An example of this is if the wife pays it for herself without her husband’s permission: it suffices for her. It is known that the wife’s Fitr charity is obligatory upon her husband and is not incumbent upon