Home
Discover Islam
Quran Recitations
Lectures
Fatwa
Articles
Fiqh
E-Books
Women
Boys & Girls 
Enter Question
View By Subject
Fatwa Of The Week
Selected Fatwa
Fatwa CenterTraveling to seek knowledge without parents' permission
Question
Assalaamu alaykum, Scholars. I want to know the meaning of ''if the parents are in need of you" or "if they would face hardship" in regard to travelling for seeking knowlege. We live in Tarragona, Spain. My father is around 60 years old, and my mother is younger than him, perhaps 55 or 56. They both work and both earn money: my father is a university teacher in the field of engineering, and my mother teaches language classes. So my parents have a lot of money. They both drive. They each have their own car. They live in a big house, not a flat, but an actual house. Furthermore, I have two sisters who are younger than me, one is 9 years old, more or less, and the other is 13 years old, more or less, and I am 19. As for their health, they are both healthy, generally speaking, although they have the typical problems that start appearing at this age, such as my father having high cholesterol, for instance, or my mother getting very tired due to house work, but nothing strange or nothing of gravity. My parents have been living here in Spain for about 20 years, and they are proficient in the language, and they have all the facilities here in Spain. However, the fact that they ask for help while being with them makes me doubt whether they need me or not. For instance, they constantly send me to the supermarket to buy things although they can do this for themselves, but as I am here, they ask my help (this is obvious), or they ask me to do some housework. Furthermore, they ask me to buy water for them, but I do not know for what reason; perhaps my father finds it diffcult to carry the heavy 8L water bottles. In fact, I think he does. However, if I was to study engineering or the like abroad or simply go for a trip, they would not say anything, but I fear that if I ask them whether they need me they will say 'yes' because they do not want me to go study in Madinah. Please, scholars, tell me whether this situation falls into the phrases which I quoted since traveling for seeking knowdlge against the parents' will is permisible as long as they do not need you.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Some scholars stated that for seeking knowledge, even if it is a communal obligation – and it is not possible to get this knowledge in the same country – there is no obedience to the parents in this regard unless it is feared that they would not be cared for in their son's absence.
Therefore, based on the details in your question, it seems that nothing prevents you from travelling to seek Islamic knowledge that you cannot receive in your country, even if your parents dislike that. However, you should be very gentle with them so that they would give you their permission and you would thus have both: seeking knowledge and pleasing your parents.
At-Tartooshi 
said, "If his parents prevent him from travelling to seek the knowledge of Fiqh, Quran, Sunnah, Ijmaa’ (consensus), the difference of opinion and its categories, and the categories of Qiyaas (analogy), then if such sciences are available in his country, he does not travel except with their permission; otherwise, he travels, and he does not have to obey them if they object to him, because attaining the degrees of the Mujtahids (those who make Ijtihaad [making a legal decision by independent interpretation of the legal sources, the Quran and the Sunnah]) is a communal obligation."
An-Nawawi said in Al-Majmoo’, "The author of Al-Muhaththab decisively stated at the start of the chapter on As-Siyar (biographies) that: 'If the son wants to travel to seek knowledge, it is permissible without the consent of the parents...The same applies to traveling for trade, as it is safe in general.'"
For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 302203.
Allah knows best.
Search Fatwa
Fatwa Subject
