excluded. The Qadi and Abu al-Khattab said, regarding an impoverished son and a wealthy brother: there is no maintenance upon either of them, for the son has no maintenance due to his poverty, and the brother has no maintenance due to his lack of being an heir. Furthermore, his kinship is weak such that it does not prevent his testimony for him, so if he is not an heir, maintenance is not obligatory upon him, just as with other blood relatives (dhawi al-rahim). It is possible to derive two views regarding every heir, were it not for the exclusion (hajb), if the one who excludes him is insolvent: one of them is that there is no maintenance upon him, because he is not an heir, resembling a stranger. The second is that maintenance is upon him, due to the existence of the kinship that necessitates inheritance and maintenance, and the impediment to inheritance does not prevent the obligation of maintenance; for he is insolvent and cannot provide maintenance, so his existence in relation to maintenance is as his non-existence.

Section: As for the blood relatives (dhawi al-arham) who do not inherit by a fixed share (fard) or by residuary (ta'sib), if they are from outside the vertical line of lineage, there is no maintenance upon them. Ahmad explicitly stated this, saying: There is no maintenance upon the maternal aunt or the paternal aunt. The Qadi said: There is no maintenance for them according to a single report (riwayah); this is because their kinship is weak, and they only take his wealth when there is no heir. They are like the rest of the Muslims, for the wealth is distributed to them if the deceased has no heir, which is what the Public Treasury (Bayt al-Mal) takes, and for this reason, the return (radd) is prioritized for them. Abu al-Khattab said: Another report is derived regarding them, that maintenance is incumbent upon them in the absence of residuaries and those with fixed shares, because they are heirs in that circumstance. Ibn Abi Musa said: This is applicable based on the meaning of his statement, and the first is what is explicitly reported from him. As for the vertical line of lineage, the Qadi mentioned what indicates that maintenance is obligatory upon them, whether they are from the blood relatives, such as the maternal grandfather (31) and the daughter's son, or others, and whether they are excluded or are actual heirs. This is the school of al-Shafi'i; this is because their kinship is a kinship of partiality and part-to-whole, and it necessitates the rejection of testimony and prevents the execution of retaliation (qisas) upon a parent for killing a child, no matter how far down the line, so it necessitates maintenance in every case, like the kinship of the nearest father.

Section: It is not a condition for the obligation of maintenance for parents and offspring that there be a defect in physical constitution, nor a defect in legal status, according to the apparent view of the madhhab and the apparent words of al-Khiraqi; for he made their maintenance obligatory absolutely if...