He was asked—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—about a man who had been married into a family for a year. A dispute then arose between them, and they demanded a year’s clothing from him, which they obtained. They then demanded maintenance, saying, “She is under legal guardianship, and we did not authorize you to provide for her.” Is this permissible?

He replied:
“Praise be to Allah, Lord of all worlds. If the husband had received her into his household in accordance with Islamic law, and he, his father, or someone similar was feeding her according to customary practice, neither her father nor she herself has any right to demand maintenance. This is precisely the provision of maintenance in a reasonable manner that was practised during the time of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and his Companions, and among Muslims generally in every age and land. The leading scholars have also expressly affirmed this. Indeed, anyone who requires the husband to hand over dirhams to her father so that he may buy her food each day has departed from the practice of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and the Muslims, even though some people have advocated this.

How much more untenable is it, then, if he has already provided for her with her father’s acquiescence in this arrangement and his having entrusted her to them—given that she must, of course, eat—and her father then wishes to demand maintenance without counting what they have already spent on her? This is invalid under Islamic law, which affords it no basis whatsoever.

Anyone who imagines otherwise, believing that maintenance is a right owed to her like a debt, which her guardian must therefore receive, and that he has not authorized this expenditure, is mistaken on several grounds: