I am a man of twenty-eight years old, blind, and a student in the second year of middle school at the Institute of Light. I have a father who treats me badly, and there has been constant conflict with me since I enrolled in the institute.

The questioner : I am a man of twenty-eight years old, blind, and a student in the second year of middle school at the Institute of Light. I have a father who treats me badly, and there has been constant conflict with me since I enrolled in the institute. I receive a monthly stipend of three hundred and seventy-five riyals from the institute, which I give to him entirely, hoping that he will give me from it what I need for my necessities. However, when I asked him for an amount to buy what I need, he refused and said, "This amount is only for your food and drink, and you have no right to ask for anything else," knowing that my food and drink are only the basic sustenance that keeps me alive. His financial situation is not bad. When I saw this from him, I tried to keep a part of it for myself, and from there the conflict began. He kicked me out of the house without reason. I tried to return to him with the help of good people, but I did not stay long, and he kicked me out a second time without reason. This situation has repeated, and I are living homeless in the streets of the city without shelter or a place to take me in, which caused me to fail at the institute. He also says, "I did not inform you that his wife is not my mother; she is his wife, my father's woman. I do not think the reason is from her, because I have not found anything from her that is bad toward me. I believe the reason is only my father." He also says, "I am now homeless in the streets. What is the solution, or what is the right path? I ask for your guidance. May Allah guide you."

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah. I say that this behavior from your father is not befitting. Rather, it is obligatory for him to provide for your needs if he is able to do so from his wealth. If he is not able, then from the salary you receive from the Institute of Light. It is not permissible for him to deprive you of your needs, whether he takes the salary from you or not. This is because a father’s spending on his son is obligatory, as Allah the Exalted said: meaning the nursing mothers, because he is the one who spends on his son. What I advise your father is to fear Allah the Exalted in his treatment of you, if what you attributed to him is true, and to provide for your needs in the required manner so that he may thereby receive reward from Allah, and so that this may be a help for you in being dutiful to him in his life and after his death.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : This message reached us from Hajj Adam Hasan Muhammad, a Sudanese.