Under Muslim law, a person, who is in easy circumstances, i.e., not poor, has an obligation to maintain his poor relations within the prohibited degrees. According to the Fatwai Alamgiri, “Every relative within the prohibited degrees is entitled to maintenance, provided that, if a male, he is either a child and poor, or, if adult, that he is infirm or blind and poor, and if a female, that she is poor, whether a child or adult.
The liability of a person to maintain these relatives is in proportion to his share in their inheritance, not (of course) his actual share, for no one can have any share in the inheritance of another till after his death, but his capacity to inherit.
Muslim law does not recognize any obligation to maintain those relations who are not within the relationship of prohibited degrees by consanguinity, even though poor. The second requirement is that such a relation must be poor, i.e., without means.
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Then, the obligation to maintain these relations is in proportion to the share which the maintainer would inherit on their death. In other words, the obligation is of the presumptive heir in proportion to his presumptive right of inheritance.
When some of the presumptive heirs are not in a position to maintain the relations, then the other presumptive heirs must provide maintenance in proportion to their presumptive rights.
Ordinarily, a Muslim has no obligation to maintain his relations by affinity. Thus, a Muslim has no obligation to maintain his widowed daughter-in-law.
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But it seems that a Muslim has an obligation to maintain the wife of his son, if the son is too young and has neither the means nor the ability to earn. Similarly, a Muslim has an obligation to maintain his stepmother, if she is weak and infirm, and without means to maintain herself. But it seems that it is more in the nature of a moral than a legal obligation.