Maintenance (Nafaqa) In The Works Of Al-Ṣadr Al-Shahīd Al-Bukhārī And Its Relevance To Contemporary Family Issues

Abstract

Maintenance is one of the central institutions of Islamic family Received: 15-05-2026 law, regulating the financial obligations that arise from marriage and kinship. Accepted: 28-05-2026 This article examines the doctrine of maintenance in the works of Ḥusām al-Dīn ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Ṣadr al-Shahīd al-Bukhārī (483–536/1090–1141), Published:09-06-2026 particularly his commentaries on al-Khaṣṣāf’s Kitāb al-nafaqāt and Adab al- qāḍī and his fatwa collection ʿUmdat al-fatāwā. After defining maintenance in its lexical and technical senses and outlining the structure of al-Ṣadr al-Shahīd’s commentary, the article analyses his positions on the legal basis of maintenance, the role of the judge, the standard of “what is customary” , maintenance during Copyright: © 2026 by the authors. the waiting period, the rights of a wife whose husband is absent, the effect of Submitted for open access publication imprisonment and disobedience, and the question of whether a wife is obliged under the terms and conditions of the to perform housework. It then turns to issues with contemporary relevance: Creative Commons Attribution (CC the maintenance of a sick wife on the basis of juristic preference (istiḥsān), the BY) license maintenance of students and of adult children without a trade, the maintenance of (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ a non-Muslim wife, the role of local custom and climate in determining clothing, by/4.0/) the rights of needy relatives, custody disputes and the mother’s right to relocate with the child, and maintenance obligations regarding jointly owned property and animals. The study argues that al-Ṣadr al-Shahīd’s approach, which balances the economic circumstances of both spouses, protects the weaker party and adapts rulings to local custom, offers a valuable legal and ethical resource for addressing present-day family disputes.