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Is a husband obligated to divorce his wife if his mother orders him to do so, on the grounds that the wife's mother causes many problems, even though the husband's mother approves of the wife herself, and the father and brothers approve of the marriage? And what is the ruling of Islamic law in this case?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Scholars have differed on the ruling regarding a child's obedience to their parents if the parents command them to divorce their wife. Some have gone to the extent of saying that divorce is not obligatory, citing that disobeying a foolish or idiotic parent in their command is not considered disobedience (ʿuqūq), and that it is better to divorce her in compliance with their command. Others have gone to the extent of saying that it is obligatory to divorce the wife if the parents command it, citing the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar, in which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, commanded him to divorce his wife when his father commanded him to do so, and that obeying a righteous father in truth is from obedience to Allah. Based on this, some are of the opinion that obeying parents in this matter is not obligatory.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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