or, if their customary food is bread and an accompaniment, he gives her that. If their custom is for him to give her grain which she grinds at home, he does so. If the grain is ground at the mill and the bread baked at home, he does so. If the bread is baked at home, he does so. If he buys bread from the market, he does so. Cooked food and the like are likewise governed by customary practice. He is not specifically required to provide dirhams or grain, whether by religious prescription or a fixed assessment. Insisting on this in every case is objectionable, not reasonable, and harms him at times and her at others.

Likewise, regarding the “quantity,” no uniform amount is prescribed; rather, amounts vary with circumstances.

As for “providing maintenance,” it has been said that he must transfer ownership of the maintenance and clothing to her. Another view is that transferring ownership is not obligatory. This is the correct view, for such a transfer is not customary practice. Rather, the practice of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and of Muslims down to our own day is for a man to bring food home, from which he, his wife, and his slave eat, sometimes together and sometimes separately. Sometimes food remains, and they store it. Muslims have no established practice of a husband giving his wife ownership of dirhams each day to dispose of as an owner would. Rather, if a man conducts his married life on the basis of such a fixed allotment, Muslims would regard the couple as living together contrary to what is reasonable and harming one another in their marital life. One spouse treats the other in this way only when harm has arisen between them, not when they are living together on reasonable terms.