Is the mother obligated to do household chores such as cleaning and cooking, and are her daughters required to help, or is it better to provide a housemaid?
A wife must serve her husband in tasks that women like her typically perform. As for a woman serving her daughters, it is not obligatory as long as they are capable of doing so themselves. Regarding a child serving their mother, whether male or female, it is obligatory when there is a need. However, if the child provides her with a maid, then they are not required to do the service themselves. If the daughters serve their mother themselves, that is more preferable, better, and more righteous. The daughters' assistance to their mother is religiously required, and it is an act of kindness and righteousness, especially in old age, based on the Prophet's (peace be upon him) saying: "May his nose be rubbed in the dust, may his nose be rubbed in the dust, may his nose be rubbed in the dust." It was asked, "Whose, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: "He who reaches his parents in their old age, one or both of them, and does not enter Paradise." The rights of parents are immense, and children will never fully fulfill them, no matter what they do, based on the Prophet's (peace be upon him) saying: "A child cannot repay his father unless he finds him enslaved, buys him, and sets him free."
Summary from Ftawy's records · added here
Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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- 98380
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- Summary from Ftawy's records, reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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