Nafqa (the wife's maintenance)

A duty tied to marriage

The wife's maintenance (nafqa) is due as soon as the marriage places her at her husband's disposal, following the schools' logic: Hanafis attach it to the wife's effective delivery within the valid marriage; Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis require it as part of shared life and the contract's rights. Ibn Taymiyya sums up the Muslims' agreement: a man must feed his wife and children, by consensus.

The amount: kindness, not a figure

Take what suffices you and your child, in kindness.al-Bukhari 5049 ; Muslim 1714

Hind complained of Abu Sufyan's stinginess; the Prophet ordered her to take in kindness, without fixing a figure. This is the general rule of the four schools: the nafqa depends neither on a sum fixed by the Law nor on the husband's whim alone, but on the wife's standard of living, the land's custom and the household's means. Hanafis, Malikis, Shafi'is in one view and Hanbalis add a measuring criterion: the means of both spouses are considered together; the wealthy owes his wealthy wife the maintenance of the wealthy, the hard-pressed owes that of the hard-pressed, based on "let the wealthy spend according to his wealth" (at-Talaq 7).

What maintenance covers

• food: the ordinary products of the land;
• clothing: owed by consensus, to the standard of kindness;
• housing: a home matching the usage of similar families;
• household equipment: bed, blanket, kitchen and table ware by custom;
• a servant for one accustomed to one, and medical care under the widespread Maliki view; among Malikis again, the customary adornment she cannot do without (kohl, henna).

When it ends

The jurists specify: if the wife eats with her husband, she cannot claim money on top as long as the table remains open to her standard; if he leaves her in proven need, the judge fixes a pension in cash. The disobedient wife who leaves without right loses her maintenance until she returns to obedience; the wife divorced before consummation loses maintenance and housing under the majority rule. If the husband becomes insolvent, the judicial divorce page details the schools' solutions.

Practical note

The nafqa guards the wife's dignity: eating as the land provides, dressing decently, housing properly. It weighs the husband's means: neither crushing pressure, nor an excuse for neglect. In conflict, the judge rules by the schools' criteria.