If the parents prevent their daughter from going out to seek religious knowledge and she disobeys them, is she sinful?

The questioner : Regarding the ruling on obeying one's parents in two matters, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : In?

The questioner : In two matters. The first matter.

The Shaykh : Ah

The questioner : It is preventing daughters from going out to seek the necessary knowledge that the Shari'ah has made obligatory for them to learn. So the daughter disobeyed her father and went out. What is the ruling on this daughter?

The Shaykh : She is disobedient.

The questioner : Does that mean that the fact that she went out to seek religious knowledge does not justify this disobedience or mitigate it? She cannot...?

The Shaykh : What is your question? Be patient. Your question now has strayed from the first question. So, when the question is finished... regarding her father's opinion, she is undoubtedly disobedient to her father, because this knowledge for which she went out to seek it is not an individual obligation (fard 'ayn) upon her.

The questioner : ...I spoke of the necessary, the individual obligation (fard 'ayn), O our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Do you speak with your tongue or with your heart?

The questioner : I said necessary, I, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Where? Well, let us then stand by the necessary. I may not have noticed. She went out to seek knowledge, necessary knowledge. Where is this necessary knowledge for the daughter?

The questioner : In the mosque, O our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : In the mosque?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Who teaches in the mosque?

The questioner : A man, meaning a student of knowledge who has knowledge of the Book and the Sunnah.

The Shaykh : Yes. Well, is this knowledge specifically an individual obligation (fard 'ayn)?

The questioner : Yes, my Shaykh.

The Shaykh : We said just now that the individual obligation (fard 'ayn) differs from person to person. And so we entered into the topic that one of the means of seeking knowledge is asking questions. That is, if we suppose a person is holding a book from the books of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and begins to teach from it, it may be that not every individual among those present has an obligation to attend this lesson, because he may not be in need of it, while another is in need of it. So that other one who is in need of it has an obligation to seek this knowledge, unlike the other. So you are now painting a very narrow picture for me that I cannot imagine, but every question has an answer. If you now specify your question and say, "A girl goes out without her husband's permission to seek knowledge that is an individual obligation (fard 'ayn) upon her," we will say in that case that she is not disobedient. But if you say "necessary," and necessity is estimated by its degree, and there will be a lot of interpretation in the words, this is difficult to answer. But if you say that she went out without her father's permission to seek religious knowledge that is an individual obligation (fard 'ayn) upon her, we say that this is not a sin, but rather it is not permissible for her to obey her father in leaving the acquisition of this individual obligation (fard 'ayn) upon her.