What are the necessary conditions for the obligation of financial support (Nafaqah)?

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Three conditions are stipulated for the obligation of financial support (Nafaqah). First, the recipients must be poor, possessing neither wealth nor sufficient earning capacity to dispense with the support of others. If they are wealthy, Nafaqah is not incumbent because it is a support based on sympathy (*muwasah*), and the wealthy are self-sufficient from such sympathy. Second, the provider must have surplus funds or earnings beyond their own necessary sustenance. This is supported by the Hadith where the Prophet, peace be upon him, commanded, "If one of you is poor, let him start with himself; if there is a surplus, then upon his dependents; and if there is a surplus after that, then upon his relatives." Another narration states, "Start with yourself, then those you support." Furthermore, a narration from Abu Hurayrah shows the Prophet instructing a man regarding his money to spend first on himself, then his child, then his wife, then his servant, indicating a priority of support based on need and relationship. Third, the provider must be an heir, based on the statement of Allah: "And upon the heir is likewise" (Quran 2:233). This is further reasoned because the kinship between the inheritors warrants the heir being most entitled to the inherited wealth, thus they should be exclusively responsible for supporting them through Nafaqah.