, not for her on account of her being his wife. This is Mālik’s view and one of the two positions in the schools of al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad. The Quran supports this, for Allah Most High says:

“And if they are pregnant, spend on them until they give birth.”

Then He says:

“If they breastfeed for you, give them their payment.”

And here He says:

“The father must provide for them and clothe them in a reasonable manner.”

Thus, He places payment for breastfeeding upon the same person who must maintain the pregnant woman. It is well known that payment for breastfeeding is obligatory upon the father because he is the father; the same therefore applies to maintaining the pregnant woman. Moreover, the pregnant woman’s maintenance—her provision and clothing—is to be according to what is reasonable, and He has prescribed the same for the nursing woman’s payment. He also says:

“The heir bears the same duty.”

This means the child’s heir: He requires the heir to fulfil the same obligation as the father. All of this shows that maintenance during pregnancy and breastfeeding falls under “a father’s maintenance of his child,” not “a husband’s maintenance of his wife.”

Accordingly, even if she were not his wife, but had become pregnant through intercourse mistakenly believed to be lawful, with the child’s lineage attributable to him, or if she were pregnant by him and he had emancipated her, he would be obliged to provide maintenance during pregnancy, just as he must pay for breastfeeding. If, however, the unborn child belongs to someone else—as when a man has intercourse with another man’s slave woman through marriage, a mistaken belief in its lawfulness, or inheritance—the child belongs to the slave woman’s master. The man who had intercourse with her therefore owes nothing, even if he is her husband.

If a male slave marries a free woman and she becomes pregnant by him, the child’s lineage is attributed to him, but the child is free. A slave father is not obliged to maintain his free child or pay for its breastfeeding, since he has no wealth from which to maintain his child, and his master has no right over his child. His child is either free or belongs to the slave woman’s master.

However, if the pregnant woman were enslaved and the child free—as in the case of a deceived man who purchased a slave woman, only to discover that she