Question
What do the scholars of the Din and muftis of the Sacred Law state regarding the following issue: Can I stop my wife from meeting her parents? I cannot allow her (to visit them) every time. Can I ask her to seek permission from me to visit her parents? Can a woman visit her parents without her husband’s permission? Questioner: A brother from Birmingham, UK
Answer
بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب
If there is no shari’i (legal) interdict, a man cannot stop his wife from meeting her parents. A woman can visit her parents for an entire day during the week even without her husband’s permission or even if he stops her. However, she must spend the night at her husband’s home.
It is mentioned in al-Durr al-Mukhtar:
“فَإِنْ قَبَضَتْهُ فَلَا تَخْرُجُ إلَّا لِحَقٍّ لَهَا أَوْ عَلَيْهَا أَوْ لِزِيَارَةِ أَبَوَيْهَا كُلَّ جُمُعَةٍ مَرَّةً أَوْ الْمَحَارِمِ كُلَّ سَنَةٍای فَتَخْرُجَ بِلَا إذْنِهِ۔۔لَا فِيمَا عَدَا ذَلِكَ، وَإِنْ أَذِنَ كَانَا عَاصِيَيْنِ”
“If she has acquired her mahr (bride money), she cannot go out without permission, except to meet her parents every Friday, for the entire day. She can visit other maharim (unmarriageable kin) in a year, without permission. She cannot visit relatives other than her maharim. If the husband grants her permission (to visit non-maharim), both of them will be sinners.”
[al-Durr al-Mukhtar, Kitab al-Nikah, Bab al-Mahr, vol. 4, pg. 286]
It is mentioned in Bahar-e Shari’at:
“If she has acquired her mahr, she cannot go without permission, except to meet her parents for an entire day during the week.”
[Bahar-e Shari’at, vol. 2, part 7, pg. 77]
واللہ تعالی اعلم ورسولہ اعلم صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم
کتبہ ابو الحسن محمد قاسم ضیاء قادری
Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qadri
Translated by the Akhuwat-e-Islami Team
Read the original answer in Urdu here – [Q-ID0378] Can a woman visit her parents without her husband’s permission?
Also see:
Published by the Dar-ul-Ifta of Akhuwat-e-Islami as Q-ID0378. Read it on Akhuwat-e-Islami