apply when it involves committing a sin or abandoning a personal obligation; rather, their obedience is required only in matters that are permissible.
In Sharḥ al-Iqnāʻ it is stated: “There is no obedience to one’s parents if that entails neglecting an obligation such as acquiring the knowledge he must have and those acts by which his religion is upheld—purification, prayer, fasting, and the like. Even if such knowledge cannot be obtained in his own town, he may travel to seek it without their permission, for there is no obedience to any created being when it constitutes disobedience to the Creator.”
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With regard to obeying one’s parents in permissible matters, Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said: “What benefits the parents and does not harm the child when he obeys them falls into two categories:
a) If his refusal would harm them, there is no doubt that obedience is obligatory.
b) If they merely benefit from his compliance and he is not harmed by it, obedience is likewise obligatory.” -
Ibn Taymiyyah also said about a son whose mother instructs him to divorce his wife: “It is not lawful for him to do so; rather, he must honor her, and divorcing his wife is not part of honoring her.”
Al-Ādāb al-Kubrā states: “If a father commands his son to divorce his wife, the son is not obliged to do so,” a position held by most scholars of the school. A man once asked Imām Aḥmad, “My father is ordering me to divorce my wife.” He replied, “Do not divorce her.” The man said, “Did not ʿUmar order his son ʿAbd Allāh to divorce his wife?” Imām Aḥmad answered, “When your father becomes like ʿUmar,” may Allah be pleased with him.