What is the ruling on seeking the permission of one's parents for jihad in the path of Allah?

The questioner : O Shaykh ... does one who goes out for jihad seek the permission of his parents, or does he go out without it?

The Shaykh : This varies depending on the type of jihad. If it is an individual obligation (fard 'ayn) — such as jihad in Afghanistan, in my opinion — then one does not seek the permission of his parents except in one case: when they are in need of him because he is their only son and they have no one else to serve them. In this case, he fulfills his duty of serving them, and that takes precedence over going to jihad. However, if the parents have another son or a servant, for example, who attends to their needs and cares for them, then he does not seek their permission, because seeking permission is only required when there is a necessity for him to remain to serve his parents. This is the first scenario. As for the other scenario, where there is someone to serve them and the jihad is an individual obligation, then there is no need to seek permission. But if it is a collective obligation (fard kifayah) — meaning the Muslims are safe in their homelands, and the jihad is for the purpose of conveying the Islamic call to other lands of the world — then this is a collective obligation, and if some people fulfill it, it is lifted from the rest. In this case, it is necessary to seek the permission of the parents. Here the first and second hadiths come in: , and so on.