permitted to do so? Must the father rent them out and provide for his son? Or is maintenance obligatory upon him, given the father’s wealth and the son’s financial hardship?

He replied:

Yes, he must provide reasonable maintenance for his son if the son is poor and unable to earn a living, while the father has sufficient means. If providing for the son is possible only by renting out idle portions of his property and renovating whatever can be renovated, or by allowing the son to rent out and renovate property from which he can support himself, then the father must do so. Indeed, anyone who owns property but neither maintains it nor rents it out is foolishly squandering his wealth. The judge should therefore restrict his control over his property for his own good, lest his wealth be lost. If he has a child, this becomes obligatory for both his own welfare and that of his child. And Allah knows best.

He also said—may Allah Most High have mercy on him:

Section

Allah Most High says:

“The one for whom the child is born is responsible for their provision and clothing in a reasonable manner.”

The expression “the one for whom the child is born” is more apt than “the father” for several reasons. It encompasses both the father and a slave’s master, and it makes clear that the child belongs to his father, not his mother. This establishes that the child belongs to his father, as we maintain when we say that the father may lawfully benefit from his child’s wealth and services. It also explains the basis of his obligation: the child belongs to him, not to the mother. Furthermore, it is the mother who actually gives birth to the child, not the father. These are four reasons.

Hence one says, “A child was born to so-and-so,” and, “A child was born to me.”