are Muslims and he wishes to undertake voluntary jihad, he must have their permission. If they grant him permission, then he may go; otherwise, jihad is prohibited for him.

If someone were to ask: Must one seek his father’s and mother’s permission for every voluntary act, by analogy with jihad? That is, if he wishes to stand in prayer at night, is the permission of both parents a condition? If he wishes to perform a regular sunnah prayer, or to seek knowledge, must he seek their permission?

We say: This is not a condition. The difference is that jihad involves danger to one’s life, and the hearts of the parents will be attached to their child who has gone out for jihad, causing them anxiety. This is unlike travelling to seek knowledge in a safe land, or performing some voluntary act in one’s own town, for this causes no harm to the parents and benefits the person himself.

Therefore, we say: In any matter that benefits a person and causes no harm to his parents, he is not required to obey his parents in their preventing it or permitting it, because it involves no harm and contains benefit. Any parent who prevents his child from something that benefits him, while causing no harm to the parent, is mistaken and guilty of severing kinship ties. A father ought to encourage his children, both sons and daughters, to do every good deed.

A comparable case is that some women prevent their daughters from fasting the three middle days of the lunar month, or from fasting on Mondays and Thursdays, on the pretext that this is difficult and burdensome for them, even though those who experience the burden and hardship are the fasting daughters themselves. It is not lawful for a parent to prevent his child, male or female, from performing an act of obedience, unless it causes harm to either parent—for example, if either the father or the mother requires nursing care