children should be given according to what Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, has stipulated in His Book concerning their inheritance: “For the male is the share of two females.” [al-Nisa’ 4:11] There is no doubt that no division is more just than Allah’s division. Whoever claims that there is a distinction between life and death must provide evidence for it. We therefore say: their situation is the same during one’s lifetime and after death.

The author, may Allah have mercy on him, also indicates by his words, “in giving gifts,” that maintenance is not to be apportioned among them according to their inheritance shares, but according to their needs. Thus, fairness in spending on one’s children is obligatory, in proportion to their needs. If, for example, the daughter is poor while the son is wealthy, one should spend on the daughter without giving the son an equivalent amount, because maintenance is intended to meet a need. Fairness among children in maintenance means giving each of them what he or she needs. Thus, if one of them is at school and needs school expenses—such as books, notebooks, pens, ink, and the like—while the other is older but does not study, then if he gives the first child something, he is not obliged to give the second the like of it.

If the son needs a ghutrah and a skullcap worth, for example, one hundred riyals, while the daughter needs earrings worth one thousand riyals, then fairness is to buy the son the ghutrah and skullcap for one hundred riyals and to buy the daughter the earrings for one thousand riyals—even though this is ten times what is given to the son. This is what fairness entails.

Likewise, if one of them needs to marry while the other does not, fairness is to give to the one who needs to marry and not to give the other. For this reason, it is mistaken for some people to arrange the marriages of their children who have reached marriageable age, while