Does he have to support me and pay for housing during my iddah?
After a revocable divorce, the schools agree he owes her maintenance and housing during the iddah.1234 If she is pregnant, even after a final divorce, he owes her maintenance and housing until she gives birth, by consensus.56 After a final divorce when she is not pregnant, the schools differ.135
What the four schools say
The schools agree on the revocably divorced woman and on the pregnant one. For a finally divorced woman who is not pregnant they differ: the Ḥanafī school gives her maintenance and housing, the Mālikī and Shāfiʿī schools housing without maintenance, and the Ḥanbalī school, as Ibn Qudāmah states it, neither.
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Ḥanafī الحنفية
Maintenance, housing and clothing are owed to a woman divorced revocably and to one divorced finally.1
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Mālikī المالكية
A divorced woman, final or revocable, is owed housing.9 The revocably divorced woman’s maintenance does not fall; a woman separated finally, by khulʿ or a final divorce, loses maintenance unless she is pregnant, when she has the maintenance of the pregnancy.2
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Shāfiʿī الشافعية
Housing is owed to a divorced woman, even after a final divorce.10 The revocably divorced woman is owed all provision except grooming costs; a finally divorced woman who is not pregnant has no maintenance or clothing, and a pregnant one has both.3
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Ḥanbalī الحنابلة
He owes the revocably divorced woman maintenance, clothing and housing as for a wife, and a finally separated woman who is pregnant has maintenance.4 After a final divorce with no pregnancy, she has no housing and no maintenance; if she is pregnant she has both, by consensus.5
What can change this
- The difference goes back to Fāṭimah bint Qays: divorced finally, she was told, "There is no maintenance due to you from him."7
- The Qurʾān: "Lodge them [in a section] of where you dwell out of your means and do not harm them in order to oppress them. And if they should be pregnant, then spend on them until they give birth."6
- A khulʿ can be agreed in return for the iddah maintenance; the Ḥanafī text mentions a woman who took khulʿ on that basis.8 Bring your agreement to your imam.
In the US
- Support ordered by a US court is a separate, civil matter. For child support, custody and immigration questions, the US practical page has links.
Sources
- 1
Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār ʿalā al-Durr al-Mukhtār (Ḥanafī), 3:609
- 2
al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr ʿalā Mukhtaṣar Khalīl, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 2:514–515
- 3
al-Nawawī, Minhāj al-Ṭālibīn (Shāfiʿī), p. 264
- 4
al-Buhūtī, Kashshāf al-Qināʿ ʿan Matn al-Iqnāʿ (Ḥanbalī), 5:464
- 5
Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 8:232
5 more sources, 6 to 10
- 6
Qurʾān, al-Ṭalāq 65:6
- 7
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1480a · No grade shown on sunnah.com (in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)
- 8
Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār ʿalā al-Durr al-Mukhtār (Ḥanafī), 3:535–536
- 9
al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr ʿalā Mukhtaṣar Khalīl, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 2:483
- 10
al-Nawawī, Minhāj al-Ṭālibīn (Shāfiʿī), p. 256–257