The husband’s duty to support his wife begins the moment she makes herself available to him. If he becomes unable to provide that support, she is entitled to have the marriage annulled. This is based on the hadith narrated by Abu Hurayrah—traced back to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)—concerning a man who cannot afford to maintain his wife: “They are to be separated,” recorded by al-Dāraquṭnī. It is also supported by the Almighty’s words, “Then keep them honorably, or release them with graciousness” (Qur’an 2:229), and keeping a wife while withholding maintenance is certainly not an honorable keeping.

If a well-off husband is absent, leaves his wife without maintenance, and she cannot obtain it from his property or borrow on his account, she may seek dissolution with the judge’s permission. Should she be able to reach his assets, she may take what suffices for her needs, in light of the report in the two Ṣaḥīḥs that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Hind, “Take what is enough for you and your child, in a reasonable manner,” when she complained that her husband did not give her and her son adequate support.

From this and other rulings we perceive the perfection of this sharīʿah and how it assigns every right-holder his due, as it does in all its wise legislations. May Allah disgrace those who turn away from it to other unbelieving codes of law: “Do they seek the judgment of pagan ignorance? Who is better than Allah in judgment for a people who are certain?” (Qur’an 5:50).