The Committed Believer · Parents, Kinship & Neighbours

Family and Neighbor Challenges in Islam

Addressing dilemmas involving parents, relatives, and neighbors.

4 questions · Medium · about 3 minutes

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4 questions, about 3 minutes.

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1. What should someone do if a maternal aunt and her husband keep causing trouble and harm?

  • Maintain kinship ties as much as possible while protecting oneself from their harm. (correct answer)
  • Sever all ties immediately.
  • Help them spoil other family relationships.
  • Retaliate and speak ill of them.

Why

The maternal aunt has a status similar to the mother and has rights of kinship and kind treatment. The person should be patient, advise her and her husband, and seek help from wise people who may influence them. If mixing with them leads to harmful consequences, then keeping distance is appropriate, but without severing ties altogether, reviling them, or backbiting. Contact may be limited to phone calls and checking on them while protecting oneself and one’s family from their harm.

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2. What should a daughter do if her father continues allowing a relative who molested her to enter the home?

  • Seek help from trusted, religiously committed, wise relatives and avoid the abuser completely. (correct answer)
  • Stay silent to preserve family comfort.
  • Keep greeting and sitting with the abuser because he is a relative.
  • Assume she must remain in the same house no matter what.

Why

The father is responsible for protecting his household and should not allow a relative who molested his daughter to stay overnight, visit freely, or mix with her. If the father does not take the matter seriously, she should speak frankly, seek help from her mother and siblings, and if necessary complain to trusted, religiously committed, wise family members who can intervene. She must avoid the abuser completely: she should not sit with him, greet him, or be where he can see her. If possible, she may stay with a trustworthy mahram until he leaves the house.

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3. What is one common reason a mother may dislike her son’s wife?

  • Jealousy over her son’s love for his wife. (correct answer)
  • The wife being from a different household in every case.
  • The wife having her own family.
  • The son living in a separate home.

Why

A mother may dislike her son’s wife for several reasons, including too much mixing, jealousy, bad treatment from the wife, or the son falling short in his mother’s rights. Jealousy may occur when the mother feels that the wife has taken her son from her. Living separately from the parents may sometimes reduce pressure and help improve relations between the mother and wife. The son should still uphold his mother’s rights, advise his wife to treat her kindly, send gifts and salam, seek wise mediation, and make du‘a for reconciliation.

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4. What should a Muslim do if their animals annoy neighbours with unpleasant smells?

  • Stop the harm by removing the animals or keeping them far from the houses. (correct answer)
  • Continue keeping them if they are useful.
  • Ignore the neighbours’ complaints.
  • Offer gifts while leaving the harm in place.

Why

Causing annoyance to neighbours is a serious sin. If sheep, chickens, or other animals produce smells that annoy neighbours, the owner must stop the harm by getting rid of the animals or keeping them far away from the houses. Regular cleaning does not remove the obligation if the smell still harms neighbours. Animals that are normally kept inside homes as pets may be treated more leniently, but harmful odours from livestock or similar animals must be dealt with.

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A note on these answers

These questions are for learning and self-testing. Explanations are drawn from the sources linked on each question and are not a fatwa. For a ruling on your own circumstances, please consult a qualified scholar.

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