Subsistence of the Wife and Subsistence of Relatives, Conflict between Two Concepts of " Debt and Obligation"

According to Imami jurisprudence, subsistence of wife has not only certain superiorities to subsistence of relatives, its nature is different as well. This difference is the cause and basis of superiorities of wife’s subsistence and wife is protected within this different nature. Unlike subsistence of relatives, wife’s subsistence is one of the provisionaleffects of marriage and wife has a proprietary right towards it. None of conditions of being obliged such as husband’s financial ability is involved in making this right; and if it is not paid, it will be husband’s liability which he has to pay whenever it is demanded. Thus, it is not subject to statute of limitations and it does not cease to be valid.Subsistence of relatives, however, is of an obligatory nature and has no provisional effect; or it is at best considered as a pure obligation. For this reason, even if one who provides the subsistence avoids paying it, no reliability is made for him, unless in cases in which, according to the ruler’s permission, subsistence is paid as a debt by the third party. Results of this study show that differences between wife’s subsistence and subsistence of relatives may be, in Islamic Law, justified on the basis of two institutions of “debt” and “obligation”.