Question :
Is there any financial obligation on a married daughter to her parents, knowing that she helps them without husband`s knowledge to avoid disputes where she pays them from her own salary, which she uses to coverthe household expenses?
The Answer :
Praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds.
All children-male or female-are obliged to provide for their poor parents to provide for their necessities to spare them asking for handouts. If their daughter has a job then she is obliged to pay them the due share. Al-Shirbini says, "Descendants of the same degree of kinship and inheritance, be they males or female, such as two sons or two daughters or a daughter and a son, whether they are of the same degree of solvency or insolvency, are obliged to spend on their parents."{Moghni al-Mohtaj, 5/189}.
However, if the parents are self-sufficient then their working daughter isn`t obliged to pay them any portion of her salary and it is impermissible for the father to demand that she pays him the expenses that he had paidfor her studies, because they are among the obligatory provision due on him and not a debt on her. Nevertheless, it is better that she helps them as a kind of charity or gift to be rewarded by Allah and to free herself from any blame. In addition, she doesn`t have to tell her husband about that since she is paying from her salary, but it is better that she seeks his permission out of pleasing him. And Allah the Almighty knows best.
