The right of upbringing (hadana)

Question

Question: A man married a widow, and she had two girls with her. After eight or ten years the girls’ paternal grandfather or paternal uncle came to take the girls, saying: “They are our girls and we have the right to them; hand these girls over to us.” According to the Shari‘a, who will pay the expenses incurred during this period on the upbringing of these girls: will the girls’ uncle and grandfather pay these expenses, or was it the responsibility of the one with whom the girls were brought up?

Answer

The guardian (wali) of the girls for nikah is the paternal grandfather, not the mother. The right of upbringing (hadana), however, belongs originally to the mother; and when the mother marries a man who is not a close unmarriageable relative (dhu rahim mahram) of the girls, the mother’s right lapses.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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