Essentials and Items the Husband Must Provide for His Wife

25-8-2022 | IslamWeb

Question:

Does a husband need to provide his wife with food, clothing, accommodation, hygiene products, make-up and jewellery?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

The husband must provide the essentials of life to his wife, including food, drinking, clothes, and dwelling. As for the point on whether he is obliged to provide other matters that she might need, then the jurists have different opinions about it: Some of them narrow down the scope of these items while others widen it, to the extent that they included in the expenditure the items (accessories) she needs to wash her body or comb her hair, such as combs, creams, etc. Some jurists even included in this obligatory expenditure the perfume she needs to stop odor; some others also included the adornment that would cause her any problem upon not using it, such as kohl for example. As for jewelries, they are not included in the expenditure obligatory on the husband.

In actuality, the husband should provide for his wife what he could from these items, since this would promote and endorse affection and help marital life to continue.

Allah knows best.