Imprisonment of Husband due to Non-Payment of Maintenance: A Critical Review

Abstract

Humans possess natural sexual urge without any exception. To fulfill these
desires, males are attracted towards female and vice versa. When the
Christians, in their pursuit of getting closer to God by becoming nuns and
priests, ignored this human trait and tried to suppress it, this behavior was
vehemently criticized by Allah in the Quran. Due to this deviation from human
nature, the churches turned into the centers of sexuality which has resulted in
a terrible situation well known today. In Islam, human sexual desires are
mainly fulfilled through the institution of marriage. The objective of marriage
is, however, not the mere fulfillment of sexual desires; rather it is a means of
attaining offspring, building moral human beings, physical and spiritual
satisfaction, and the feelings of completeness and attachment. Due to this
unique bond between the spouses, there are certain rights and obligations that
each of the spouses have towards each other. In this article, we analyze one
particular aspect of the mutual rights and obligations of the spouses which is
the non-fulfillment of the right of expenditure which a wife is entitled to
against her husband and the resulting imprisonment of husband due to the
non-payment of expenditure.