Answer
Wa `alaykum as-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Children are Allah’s gifts to people. So, parents have to take care of their children and bring them up on the teachings of Islam. In doing so, they have to observe their behavior, friends, interests, and hopes. This is meant to guide them to the straightway and protect them against Satan’s traps.
In his response to the question, Dr. Rif`at Fawzi, Professor of Shari`ah at Cairo University, states:
It is to be stressed first of all that what you referred to in your question is not called ‘spying’. Parents in Islam are permitted to follow up the behavior of their children and to check their morals in order to correct their behavior and to keep them on the right track and not to let them be tempted in the early stage of their life when they can be easily seduced by the morals and behaviors of other people.
Thus, parents are required to take care of their children and to check their behavior, as this is a form of education as long as they are still children. When they grow older, this may happen in a way that does not bother one’s children.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.