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What is the ruling of Islamic law regarding ongoing family disputes between the mother and the wife, the interference of sisters, and the severing of ties of kinship with the wife's family, especially given the wife's suffering from psychological and physical illness due to these disputes, and how can one reconcile honoring one's parents with preserving the cohesion of the marital family?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The mother's ill-treatment of the wife and her family is wrong, but the son abandoning his mother because of it is a greater wrong, as it contradicts Allah's command to humble oneself before the mother and to associate with her in kindness, as stated in His Almighty words: "And your Lord has decreed that you shall not worship except Him, and to parents, good treatment..." and His saying: "And We have enjoined upon man [care] for his parents. His mother carried him in weakness upon weakness..." Therefore, one must repent from abandoning the mother, exercise patience and forbearance, and strive to appease the mother without wronging the wife. Intermediation by righteous people can be sought. It is not an act of righteousness to obey the mother in wronging the wife, for injustice is a sin. If there is no solution except for the wife to live away from the mother, then this is permissible if financially possible and if it does not lead to a severing of ties with the mother.

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

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