Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
6. The Rights of Husband and Wife
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responsibility that a man has to fulfill in regard to
his wife till his last breath.
What is this responsibility? It is that man will
maintain and protect his wife for life. In the family
organization the
shari’ah
has basically entrusted the
woman with looking after the house, bringing up
and training the next generation. This task is not a
profitable one. That is why a woman’s maintenance
is entrusted to her husband. If a woman had to
shoulder both the responsibility of looking after the
house as well as making money, she would not be
able to perform either of the two duties properly.
That is why her economic maintenance has been
entrusted to her husband so that the proper upkeep
of the home and family is guaranteed. At the
beginning of marital life a man makes this pledge
symbolically by giving the woman a sum of money
in the form of
mahr
.
108. Qur’an, 4:4.
MAINTENANCE
The specific monetary form of the symbolic pledge
is called “maintenance.” Each office brings with it
