Answer
Based on official Jordanian legal texts
The Jordanian Personal Status Law makes clear that maintenance is not limited to food but covers the other essentials of a dignified life. Article 59 provides that a wife's maintenance includes food, clothing, housing, and medical care to the customary degree, and a servant for a wife of comparable status.
For child support, Articles 190 and 192 add core items: Article 190 obliges the father to maintain his children's education, and Article 192 obliges him to maintain their treatment, so education and medical care fall within maintenance alongside food, clothing, and housing. Article 179 also addresses the wage for the custodian's housing as part of maintenance.
Maintenance is thus a comprehensive concept covering what life requires — food, clothing, housing, treatment, and education — according to custom and the payer's means, comfortable or constrained, under Article 64.
Determining what falls within maintenance and its amount remains within the Sharia Court's competence according to the entitled person's need and the circumstances of each case.
This is a general explanation based on Jordanian Personal Status Law and does not replace advice from a qualified lawyer in a specific dispute.