Q: 5 – Title: Is it permissable for parents to go for Hajj and leave their unmarried, adult daughters alone at home without a mahram?

Question

Is it permissable for parents to go for Hajj and leave their unmarried, adult daughters alone at home without a mahram?  There are no family members who are mahrams to their daughters that are available to stay with them but arrangements have been made with their paternal uncle to visit  them everyday and ensure their wellbeing, is this sufficient?

Answer

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Assalaamu `alaykum waRahmatullahi Wabarakatoh

There are two angles to this query. One is a principle angle and the other is the practical angle.

In principle, an adult daughter is responsible for herself. She may stay by herself and look after herself. However, from the practical point of view, we are living in an environment of fitna, we may not know how we are caught up in different types of fitna. It is important for parents to guard their children, especially adult, unmarried daughters against the different types of fitna. They are human beings and as they grow up, they are also faced with attractions and temptations. The parents know that could affect their child and they should keep the child away from that. If the parents do not keep the child away from such attractions and temptations, then the child may get entangled in an evil web. It is the habit of the pious to keep their adult, unmarried daughters very close to them. Some pious and conscious mothers even make their daughters sleep with them in their bedroom. This may seem ridiculous but it is understandable. There may be other evil eyes watching our daughters if we do not watch them. Many nasty incidents prove this point.

It is our suggestion that the tarbiyyat of ones daughters must be properly taken care of before one considers going for Haj. We strongly discourage leaving adult unmarried daughters alone to be only visited by their uncles. They should be under the strict supervision of some Allah fearing and stern mahram.
And Allah knows best

Wassalam

Mufti Ebrahim Desai
Darul Iftaa, Madrassah In'aamiyyah