In-Laws

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question:

What are the rights that parent-in-laws have over their daughter/son-in-law? and vice-versa?

Answer:

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Walaikum assalam,

In general, the wife's responsibility of obedience is to her husband. His parents do not command this religious right. Rather, respect and deference is due to them as elder family members, and as the parents of her husband. In some ways, they can be thought of as uncles and aunts: one should listen to them, and have deference but, strictly speaking, listening to them is not a religious duty. As such, they do not have the right to impose on the wife's house, which is her domain.

Often, problems arise in wife/in-law relationships through the husband, if he does not manage things properly: parents, while respected, should be made to realize, by their son, that household matters are to be determined by the couple, and that they have an "advisory role", and they should (lovingly, and tactfully) be kept at an arm's length, if any tension seems to be arising. Similarly, it is the husband's relationship and ways that lead the wife to respect her in-laws.

Wassalam,

Faraz

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