🏡 Rights & responsibilities · #16
A wife wants to visit her parents' home: does she need her husband's permission?
According to the Shafi'i school, a wife needs her husband's permission to leave the house, including to visit her parents, but the husband should not prevent it without reasonable cause.
Maintaining ties with parents is obligatory and cutting them is a major sin. So a husband who prevents his wife from visiting her parents without a Shariah-recognised reason has acted wrongly. If the parents are gravely ill or in need, many scholars hold that the wife may go even if the husband refuses. The best practice is early agreement on a visiting schedule and sharing Hari Raya turns fairly. See Rights of husband & wife.
Maintaining ties with parents is obligatory and cutting them is a major sin. So a husband who prevents his wife from visiting her parents without a Shariah-recognised reason has acted wrongly. If the parents are gravely ill or in need, many scholars hold that the wife may go even if the husband refuses. The best practice is early agreement on a visiting schedule and sharing Hari Raya turns fairly. See Rights of husband & wife.
Difference between schools. Hanafi: a wife is entitled to visit her parents once a week even without her husband's permission. Shafi'i and Hanbali: permission is needed, but it is disliked for the husband to prevent her.
Sources
Surah an-Nisa' 4:1Surah Muhammad 47:22-23Surah an-Nisa' 4:19