How can a Muslim woman balance caring for her sick, infirm mother, who lives alone in her home country, and her responsibilities toward her family (husband and minor children) who live with her in another country, taking into account the noble verses and prophetic hadiths that urge filial piety?

We ask Allah to grant your mother well-being and recovery, and to guide and enable the questioner to fulfill the rights of her mother and family.

The questioner must serve her mother, who is afflicted with an incapacitating illness, by taking care of and serving her.

She is not obligated to directly perform the service herself; rather, she can hire a maid for her mother. If the mother is wealthy, the maid's wages are her responsibility. If she is poor, the wages are incumbent upon the questioner.

If this is not feasible, then she must return to serving her mother herself, even if it leads to her divorce, and she should take her children with her, due to the danger of their residing in lands of disbelief.

If she fears for herself and her children due to security conditions, she can emigrate to a Muslim country, provided she takes her mother with her.

As for the maintenance of poor young children who have no wealth, it is incumbent upon their father, by consensus of the scholars.

As for the maintenance of adult children, scholars have differed on this matter. The preponderant opinion is that an adult child's engagement in education obligates his father to provide for his maintenance, even if he is healthy.