The Wife’s Maintenance

Maintenance for the wife is her Shar’i right. It is also among her rights to have a maid to assist with the housework. Some rules pertaining to the right of maintenance:

1. She is entitled to maintenance as long as she remains in the marital home.
2. If the husband is annoyed with her for any reason, he cannot withhold or curtail her rights of maintenance as long as she is in the marital home.
3. If she refuses to do the housework, e.g. refuses to prepare his food, etc., the husband cannot refuse maintenance.
4. If the husband has not paid her maintenance she is entitled to demand payment before expiry of one month. After expiry of one month, her right to demand  the past maintenance lapses.
5. She has the right to waive her right of maintenance. But such waiver is valid only in relation to the present and the past. Thus, if she tells her husband that she forgives him of all future maintenance, or a marriage is contracted on the basis of her having waived her right of maintenance, such waiver and condition are not valid. She retains her right of maintenance.
6. If her husband expels her from the house for any reason, whether just or unjust, he has to maintain her. However, if he calls her home and she refuses, then she will not be entitled to maintenance.

According to the Shariah, the husband pays his wife maintenance on account of her movement being restricted. She is not allowed to leave the home without his consent. The maintenance is not in lieu of domestic services rendered by the wife. Marriage does not mean the introduction of a servant into the home. It is therefore not permissible for a man to demand that his wife tends to his relatives. If she renders service to her in-laws out of her own will and wish, it is the result of her goodness for which she will reap the benefits in the Aakhirah.

(The Majlis Archives)