and because they do not inherit from one another either: a Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever, nor does a disbeliever inherit from a Muslim.
Others say that maintenance is obligatory, on account of the general import of Allah’s saying: “Give the relative his due” [al-Isra’ 17:26], and His saying regarding polytheist parents: “Keep their company in this world with kindness” [Luqman 31:15]. The correct view is that it is not obligatory; rather, maintaining ties of kinship is obligatory. Maintaining ties is different from providing maintenance, for it may be fulfilled through whatever people customarily regard as maintaining ties, even gifts and the like. Providing maintenance, on the other hand, entails bearing all the expenses of the person maintained.
Some scholars have said that unity of religion is a condition, except in the case of ascendants and descendants, for whom it is not a condition. They cited the verse to which we referred: “Keep their company in this world with kindness” [Luqman 31:15], and because the bond between ascendants and descendants is stronger than that between collateral relatives. However, the view closer to the truth is what the author mentioned: no maintenance is due where there is a difference of religion. As for maintaining ties, it is obligatory to the extent required by that kinship.
His statement, “except by reason of the bond of manumission”: is this exception connected or disconnected? It is disconnected, because we are discussing the maintenance of relatives, whereas the bond of manumission is not a kinship relation; rather, it is an independent cause. Someone may say that the general wording of the author’s statement, “and everyone who inherits from him by fixed share or residuary succession,” includes those who inherit by kinship and by the bond of manumission; in that case, the exception would be connected. Whether the exception is connected or disconnected, however, a difference of religion does not prevent maintenance from being obligatory when its cause is the bond of manumission.
An example is a man who emancipates his slave; then the slave becomes poor, while being a Christian. Is his former master obliged to provide for him? According to the madhhab