Maintenance for past days

Question

Question: If someone married and kept his wife at home for some days, after which the wife went to her parents’ home, and the husband did not bring her back for, say, four or five years, and matters reached the point that the husband gave his wife talaq — the wife now demands from the husband maintenance for the days she stayed at her parents’ home. Will maintenance for those past days be wajib upon the husband? Please write in detail.

Answer

If the husband had promised, “As long as you stay at your parents’ home, I will keep giving you this much maintenance every month,” then the wife has the right to demand it; but if no agreement was made, she has no right to demand maintenance for those past days.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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