[Explanation]
The author—may Allah have mercy on him—says in his Riyad al-Salihin: Chapter: The prohibition of preferring some of one’s children over others in gifts. The term “children” includes both sons and daughters, and the “gift” intended here is a pure donation, not obligatory maintenance. As for maintenance, each child is given what he needs, whether little or much. Thus, if one of them is pursuing knowledge and needs books while another is not, and the parent provides the first with the required books, there is no harm in that. Likewise, if one of them needs clothing and another does not, he gives clothing to the one who needs it; if one falls ill and needs money or medicine, he may give it to him without issue; and if one reaches marriageable age and the parent pays for the marriage, that too is permissible.

The crucial point is that, with respect to covering needs, fairness means giving every child what he requires. When it comes to a purely voluntary gift, however, equal treatment is obligatory. The scholars have differed over what form that equality should take: should the father give the son and the daughter the same amount—so that if he gives the son one hundred, he also gives the daughter one hundred? Or should the equality follow the apportionment Allah has set in inheritance, whereby the male receives the share of two females—so that if he gives the son one hundred, he gives the daughter fifty? The latter view is the sounder opinion, for no division is more just than the division ordained by Allah.

Accordingly, after giving each child what he needs, if the parent wishes to make a purely voluntary gift, we say: if you give the daughter one dirham, give the son two dirhams—this is true equality. Should he act otherwise, favoring some of his children over others, he must return the excess he gave; so if he