As for maintenance, if we state that separation is immediate, she has no maintenance because she is irrevocably divorced from him. If we state that it is suspended until the expiration of the waiting period: if the woman is the one who apostatized, she has no maintenance because the husband has no way to resume the relationship or salvage the marriage, so she has no maintenance, just as is the case after the expiration of the waiting period. If he is the one who apostatized, he is liable for maintenance during the waiting period because he has the potential for enjoyment of her by embracing Islam, and it is possible for him to salvage the marriage, so maintenance is obligatory upon him, like the husband of a woman in a revocable divorce.

Section: If both spouses apostatize together, their ruling is the same as the ruling if one of them apostatizes. If it is before consummation, the separation is immediate. If it is after, then is it immediate, or is it suspended until the expiration of the waiting period? There are two reports on this. This is the school of al-Shafi'i. Ahmad said, in a report from Ibn Mansur: If they both apostatize, or one of them, then they repent, or one of them repents, then he has a better right to her, provided the waiting period has not expired. Abu Hanifah said: The marriage is not annulled by way of juristic preference (istihsan), because the religion did not differ between them, so it is similar to if they both embraced Islam. Our evidence is that it is an apostasy that befalls the marriage, so it is necessary that its annulment be contingent upon it, as if one of them had apostatized. And because everything that the property of the apostate ceases to be his upon his individual apostasy, it also ceases if another apostatizes with him, like his wealth. What they cited is invalidated by the case where a Muslim and a Jewish woman convert to the religion of Christianity, for their marriage is annulled, even though they have both converted to the same religion. As for when they both embrace Islam, they have converted to the religion of truth and are maintained in it, unlike apostasy.

Section: When one of the spouses apostatizes, or both apostatize together, intercourse with her is prohibited. If he has intercourse with her during her waiting period, and we say that the separation was immediate, then she is entitled to a dowry of her peer (mahr al-mithl) from him for this act of intercourse, in addition to that which was established upon him by the marriage, because he has had intercourse with a stranger, so the dowry of her peer is due. If we say that the separation is suspended until the expiration of the waiting period, then the apostate among them embraces Islam, or they both embrace Islam during her waiting period, and the apostasy was on their part,