The Ruling on a Father Preventing Visits to Relatives
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
It is also mentioned that Shaykh Salih says that their father prevents them even from visiting their relatives, and describes them as unsuitable for companionship. So what is Shaykh Salih’s guidance?
Answer:
The default ruling on visiting relatives is that it is an act of devotion. Indeed, visiting brothers in faith, even if they are not relatives, is also an act of devotion.
This is among the acts of obedience and the nearness to Allah that our religion has encouraged, because it fosters love and cooperation in righteousness and piety, and removes hostility from hearts. Visiting one another for the sake of Allah the Exalted is an act of obedience. However, if visiting relatives or others involves a religious concern, and if the person being visited is not on the straight path and his influence negatively affects his visitors, then should one leave off visiting him? Yes. Is it not permissible to visit him if it leads to harm in religion and character? If your father has this concern, then it is a valid concern. But if that is not the case, and it is merely due to excessive strictness or bad suspicion without any basis for it between you and him, then...
Give him private advice between you and him. Because this is more likely to be accepted. And it is closer to being dutiful to the father and showing kindness to him.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good. And may Allah reward you.
It is also mentioned that Shaykh Salih says that their father prevents them even from visiting their relatives, and describes them as unsuitable for companionship. So what is Shaykh Salih’s guidance?
Answer:
The default ruling on visiting relatives is that it is an act of devotion. Indeed, visiting brothers in faith, even if they are not relatives, is also an act of devotion.
This is among the acts of obedience and the nearness to Allah that our religion has encouraged, because it fosters love and cooperation in righteousness and piety, and removes hostility from hearts. Visiting one another for the sake of Allah the Exalted is an act of obedience. However, if visiting relatives or others involves a religious concern, and if the person being visited is not on the straight path and his influence negatively affects his visitors, then should one leave off visiting him? Yes. Is it not permissible to visit him if it leads to harm in religion and character? If your father has this concern, then it is a valid concern. But if that is not the case, and it is merely due to excessive strictness or bad suspicion without any basis for it between you and him, then...
Give him private advice between you and him. Because this is more likely to be accepted. And it is closer to being dutiful to the father and showing kindness to him.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good. And may Allah reward you.
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 01/156 — archive.org (3:47)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.