Chapter on the maintenance of wives and the ruling when the husband is insolvent regarding dowers and maintenance

A man is obliged to maintain his wife once he has been summoned to consummation and she has surrendered herself to him, provided that intercourse with her is physically possible. Maintenance does not become obligatory for the husband by the mere act of contracting the marriage until the right of intercourse—whose pursuit is the purpose of the contract—has also fallen due. Therefore, when she places herself at his disposal, maintenance becomes incumbent upon him, whether he intends to consummate or not.

No maintenance is due to a young girl who is not yet fit for intercourse, nor is it required from a minor boy until he reaches sexual maturity. If both spouses are still minors, no maintenance is owed until they each attain majority.

Should a wife become guilty of nushūz (marital disobedience) after consummation, her maintenance lapses, unless she is pregnant. Ibn al-Qāsim, however, differed from the majority of jurists on this point and held that maintenance remains due to a wife in nushūz. If the recalcitrant wife returns to her husband, her future maintenance once again becomes obligatory.

A wife’s maintenance is not annulled by anything other than nushūz—neither illness, nor menstruation, nor post-partum bleeding, nor