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Is maintenance obligatory for the wife who left the marital home due to her husband's failure to cohabit with her, and the divorce occurred after eight months?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The wife's leaving to refer her husband's matter to the judge without his permission is not an act of disobedience (nushooz), and does not forfeit her maintenance (nafaqah). This is based on the statement of Al-Khatib Al-Shirbini: "Disobedience (nushooz) occurs when she leaves her husband's house without his permission, but not if she goes to the judge to seek her right from him."

However, her staying outside the home longer than necessary for litigation without her husband's permission or a legitimate Islamic reason is an act of disobedience (nushooz) that forfeits her maintenance, because "the exception for the mentioned need is estimated by its extent," and "a disobedient wife (nashiz) has no maintenance during the period of her disobedience."

If the wife retracts her disobedience, her maintenance is restored to her; because "if a disobedient wife retracts her disobedience and returns to her husband, her maintenance is restored to her because the cause for its forfeiture has ceased."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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