namely, the norms and usages that prevail among people according to their time, place, and individual circumstances.

Shaykh al-Islam said: “The correct and incontrovertible position held by the great majority of scholars is that a wife’s maintenance is referred back to custom; it is not fixed by the Sacred Law. It therefore varies with the conditions of different lands, eras, and spouses. Allah the Exalted says, ‘And live with them honourably’ (Q 4:19), and the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Take what suffices you and your child in a manner that is customary.’

5 – The commentator on the book writes: His use of the word ‘customary’ makes clear that only that which people habitually expend, each in accordance with his means, is obligatory; as the Almighty says: ‘Let the affluent spend out of his affluence, and let him whose provision is constrained spend from what Allah has given him. Allah does not burden a soul beyond what He has given it.’ (Q 65:7).

Ibn al-Qayyim remarked: “As for stipulating a set sum of dirhams, there is no basis for that in the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Messenger, the practice of the Companions and Successors, nor in the teachings of the four Imams and others. Maintenance is due only according to what is customary.”

6 – Our jurists stated: “The revocably divorced woman is entitled to maintenance, clothing, and housing just like a wife; but a woman who has become irrevocably separated through dissolution of the marriage is entitled to none of these.”

Al-Muwaffaq said: “This is the consensus of the scholars.”

Ibn al-Qayyim added: “An irrevocably divorced woman has no right to maintenance, as confirmed by the sound Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, in harmony with the Book of Allah. This is also demanded by analogy and is the position of the people of hadith.”

7 – Our scholars said: “If the spouses dispute as to whether she has already received her maintenance, her word is accepted, for the presumption is that nothing has yet been paid.”

Shaykh al-Islam held: “The statement that accords with prevailing custom is the one to be upheld.”

Ibn al-Qayyim said: “The scholars of Medina maintain that a woman’s claim that her husband failed to maintain or clothe her in the past is not to be accepted. This is the correct view, for the visible circumstances belie her claim. It is the opinion by which we worship Allah, and we hold no other to be sound.”