Maintenance may be decreed out of the property of an absent husband, whether it be held in trust, or deposit, or muẓārabah for him.
If the husband become poor to such a degree as to be unable to provide his wife her maintenance, still they are not to be separated on this account, but the Qāẓī shall direct the woman to procure necessaries for herself upon her husband’s credit, the amount remaining a debt upon him.
A divorced wife is entitled to food, clothing, and lodging during the period of her ʿiddah, and until her delivery, if she be pregnant. No maintenance is, however, due to a woman, whether pregnant or not, for the ʿiddah observed upon the death of her husband. No maintenance is due to a woman upon separation caused by her own fault.
A father is bound to support his infant children; and no one shares the obligation with him.
A mother, who is a married wife, cannot be compelled to suckle her infant, except where a nurse cannot be procured, or the child refuses to take the milk of any other than of the mother, who in that case is bound to suckle it, unless incapacitated for want of health, or other sufficient cause.
If neither the father nor the child has any property, the mother may be compelled to suckle it.
The maintenance of an infant child is incumbent upon the father, although he be of a different religion; and, in the same manner, the maintenance of a wife is incumbent upon her husband, notwithstanding this circumstance.
Maintenance of children becomes, however, incumbent upon the father only where they possess no independent property.
When the father is poor and the child’s paternal grandfather is rich, and the child’s own property is unavailable, the grandfather may be directed to maintain him, and the amount will be a debt due to him from the father, for which the grandfather may have recourse against him; after which the father may reimburse himself by having recourse against the child’s property, if there is any.
When the father is infirm and the child has no property of his own, the paternal grandfather may be ordered to maintain him, without right of recourse against anyone; and, in like manner, if the child’s mother be rich, or the grandmother rich, while its father is poor, she may be ordered to maintain the child, and the maintenance will be a debt against the child if he be not infirm, but if he be so, he is not liable.