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She is divorced and she does not want to live with her mother, but in her own apartment

16-07-2006

Question 87825

A woman has been divorced once, and she is renting an apartment, and she works hard to provide a comfortable environment for her daughter, and she is not miserly towards her parents and siblings in any way. When her father died he was pleased with her. The problem is that now the mother is forcing her to live with them in a small apartment, and I cannot put up with that because the mother is bad tempered, may Allaah forgive us and her, and she has no respect for anyone, although she does all obligatory duties. If the divorced woman refuses to live with them, is she regarded as sinning? Because she cannot put up with the problems.

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

The great rights of the mother are well known, and it is obligatory to honour her and treat her well, but if the matter is as described, and the woman asked about will be harmed by living with her mother, and she wants to live in her own apartment, there is no sin on her for that, if the place is safe and no bad consequences will result from her living alone, so long as she fulfils her duties towards her mother by honouring her, treating her kindly and serving her if she needs that, or helping her financially. 

The Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas was asked about someone who wanted to live alone, away from his parents, because he could not feel at ease when living with his family.  

They replied: If the situation is as described and you cannot feel at ease living in your parents’ house, there is no sin on you if you live away from your family in a separate house, in order to find peace, but you must also fulfil your duties towards your parents and uphold the ties of kinship, not sever them. End quote from Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (25/169). 

And Allaah knows best.

Honouring Parents
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