Is a woman’s maintenance on her husband or on her son from a previous marriage?

Question

Question: A certain man’s father died when he was four years old. Some time later his mother contracted a second nikah, but he kept living with his mother and stepfather, until they had seen to his education and upbringing for ten or twelve years and he began earning his own food. During this time his mother had three or four children by the new husband, and taking all the children she came to live away from her husband with her son for eight or nine years.

Answer

Since the mother’s husband is present, the mother’s expenses are wajib upon her husband; they are not wajib upon the children. Yes, if the mother, despite living with her husband, is in straitened circumstances, or the husband does not give her expenses, then the expenses will be wajib equally upon all the earning children.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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