Question 1: A couple separated and have a child (boy) six years old. What scale should be used to determine the amount of maintenance due to him?
Answer: The necessary maintenance cost for a minor would have to be calculated to include; decent food, drink, clothes, shelter, medical treatment & medicines etc. A father is obligated to provide all this to his minor children whether they stay with him or not, all to that which is within his capacity.
Fatāwā Dārul Ulūm Zakariyyā, Vol. 4, Pg. 364-365
Question 2: If a child under the age of 7 years is denied any contact with his father due to his parents’ separation (divorce), then is the father still duty-bound to maintain his child?
Answer: Yes he is still obliged to maintain him. However, in all circumstances denying access to the father is forbidden, he must be given his right.
Question 3: In the event that a seven-year-old child (boy) is not handed over to his father, then is the father still duty-bound to maintain the child at the child’s mother’s house?
Answer: In the circumstances a seven-year-old child (boy), being able to look after himself (feeding, drinking, wearing of own clothes, performing istinja on his own) and the father is denied access, then he is not obliged to maintain him.
Fatāwā Dārul Ulūm Zakariyyā, Vol. 4, Pg. 371-372-373