The eminent scholar Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “A woman who has been irrevocably divorced is entitled to neither maintenance nor housing, in accordance with the authentic Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, which itself concurs with the Book of Allah. This is also what sound analogy requires and what the hadith-based jurists hold.”

The sole exception is when the irrevocably divorced woman is pregnant; in that case she is owed maintenance. Allah the Exalted says, “If they are pregnant, then provide for them until they deliver their burden” (Qur’an 65:6), and He also says, “House them where you yourselves dwell, according to your means” (Qur’an 65:6). The Prophet ﷺ likewise said to Fāṭimah bint Qays, “You are not entitled to maintenance—unless you are pregnant.” The fetus is the child of the divorcing husband, so he must spend on it, and that can only be achieved by spending on its mother.

Al-Muwaffaq and others state: “This ruling is unanimously agreed upon by the scholars; their only disagreement concerns whether the maintenance is for the fetus itself or for the mother on account of the fetus.” Many derivative rulings stem from these two opinions; their details are found in the works of jurisprudence and legal maxims.

A wife’s right to maintenance from her husband lapses for several reasons:

• If she is detained away from him, her maintenance is no longer due, because he has lost the ability to enjoy her companionship, and maintenance is only obligatory in return for such availability.

• If she displays nushūz (marital recalcitrance) toward him, her maintenance likewise ceases. Nushūz is: