and the husband men’s belongings, even though both have physical possession of both kinds, because customary practice establishes that each uses the belongings appropriate to their own sex.

Here, too, customary practice is that a man provides his wife with maintenance and clothing. If she has no known source from which to support herself, the matter is decided according to that customary practice.

“The sixth argument”

This woman must have had food and clothing during the period in question, and these must have come either from her husband or from someone else. The presumption is that there was no other provider, so they are attributed to him. Likewise, according to the sounder of the two views, we have stated that his word is accepted when he says that he taught her the craft and reading which he had undertaken to teach her as her dowry. This is because a newly arising condition is attributed to the known cause.

Similarly, if an impurity falls into water and the water is subsequently found to have changed, but there is doubt whether the change resulted from that impurity or something else, the sounder of the two views is that the change is attributed to the impurity. This is supported by the report established in the two Sahīh collections: the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—ruled for ‘Adī ibn Hātim that if he shot an animal while hunting, it disappeared from his sight, and he then found no mark on it other than that of his arrow, he could eat it. This is because the presumption is that no other cause brought about its death. This differs from a case in which it fell into water or his dog mingled with other dogs, for those causes also contributed to its death. A detailed discussion of these questions belongs elsewhere.