In recognition of the extraordinary gift of women to give life, in reverence for power of mothers, the most important right that Islam exclusively recognizes to women is the right of Nafaqa – assurance of means of honorable living and shelter for the Muslim woman by her husband or family.

 WHAT THE RIGHT OF MAINTENANCE IS NOT

 Some historians believe that during the beginning of human history societies were matriarchal. Of course, in these societies the female sex was dominant over the male sex and this was a result of the peoples' awe and wonder at the woman’s ability to give life. Furthermore, men of that time did not think that the children belonged to them. Later, it is said that men came to realize that these children who came as a result of their union with their female partners and who resembled them most of the time are actually their children. In addition, they had discovered their ability to be violent and to acquire material goods through the use of brute force which coincidentally, men have more of than women. Consequently, societies turned in the opposite direction and dominance and rulership seemed like it was forever to be the ownership of man.

 Since the beginning of time, and sadly even today, it can be said that short-lived material pleasures and gains have been the most effective factor swaying the greater part of people. This materialistic view of things sees the value of a human being based on the material goods that they have or that they have the potential to take, even if by force. With the man being the stronger of the two sexes physically, it came to be that all material goods were either the property of, or could become the property of man, had he wished to acquire it by force. It is with this mentality that empires were built, that wars were fought and land and slaves were taken. And, it is because of this mentality that women have historically been ill-treated. This materialistic manner of seeing the world caused women to be seen as little more that a container that had the potential of giving birth to more men that could either control or help control other men.

 During those sad times for humanity, wives were provided for by their husbands just as animals and slaves were fed. Whatever women owned became the property of the husband and the women had no independent identity.

 Islam unequivocally condemns this system. While Islam upheld the right of maintenance to the wife, it was not at all for the same reasons as these.

RIGHT OF MAINTENANCE IN ISLAM

 When Mohammad (saws), the Beloved of God, came to deliver the message of Islam, he came to the same world of materialism over humanity. Mohammad (saws) came to bring back the value and identity of the human being by introducing him to His Creator and to the purpose for which His Creator had brought him to existence. He taught that the humanity within us cannot thrive until we put before our eyes with our every action the development and welfare of our fellow human. He showed that the wealth of the whole universe is not worth a single good man or woman. At the same time, he warned that a proud and arrogant man or woman can reach a point where they would sacrifice all the men and women of the universe to acquire its wealth. In showing who makes the men and women of the future, Mohammad (saws) shocked the world and pointed first to the woman before the man. In this sparking gesture, he placed the arrogant and materialistic man of the patriarchal world back into his place and destroyed completely the idea of man’s dominance over woman.

 And so, Islam came to second those who much later came and said “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world” and replied in advance by saying that “Paradise lies beneath the feet of the mothers”. Islam lets women know about the reverence that is owed to them as a result of their motherhood. It lets women know to what extent they have been empowered with a gift that has been given to them at their very creation, one in which they can make the men and women of the future just as a craftsmen makes a ceramic pot. Mohammad (saws), the Beloved of God, and His Holy Progeny(as), have relentlessly showered their followers with saying after saying, and continuously lived example after example in which they teach their followers what it means to pay their respects to women in general, and mothers in particular. They explain that as the mother feeds the child in her womb with the very content of her bones, she does not only feed a body of flesh and bones, but that she feeds a soul from the realities of her spirit. Islam shows that this process of nurturing in all of its dimensions continues through all of the phases of the child’s growth. Islam recognizes the crucial role of the father in rearing and raising the child. However, in points out that by the natural dictates of motherhood, with every mouthful that is given to the child by the hand of his mother, there is tied with that an extraordinary bank of love and affection that reaches more deeply. It says that with every lesson taught by the mother there is a deep reservoir of feelings of self-sacrifice and utmost devotion that inspire more vividly. In making the generations of the future, Islam says that it is the mother that leads the ship. Consequently, Islam calls upon every Muslim man to recognize the crucial task that the Muslim woman is to play in her motherhood and calls upon the man to support his wife in all stages of her motherhood. Amongst the duties to which a Muslim man commits himself in the way of his support to his wife is to ensure means of decent living and shelter. These are the reasons why Islam has claimed the right of maintenance to the wife. In this fashion, Muslim men and women that follow the way of submission to God – Islam – work together as members of a team, each in his position helping the other in achieving the common goal: making out of their children, the priceless men and women of the future.