It should be clear that the general rule in Islam is that every adult person is responsible for his/her behaviour. Neither a husband nor a wife nor parents nor children will be held accountable for the actions of their partners or children as long they have done their part in advising and teaching them.
Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states: Unfortunately, often we find people attribute certain statements to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while they have nothing to do with him; they may be simply statements of people.
According to the Qur’an, the general rule in Islam is that every adult person is responsible for his/her behaviour. Thus we read the following in the Qur’an: (Or has he not heard the news of what is in the scrolls of Moses and Abraham who fulfilled his duty, that no soul shall bear another’s burden and that each can have nothing save what he strives for…) (An-Najm 53: 36-39). (He who is rightly guided, it is for himself, and he who goes astray, it is to his own detriment. No soul can bear another’s burden. Nor do we punish until We have sent a messenger) (Al-Isra’ 17: 15).
However, this does not mean that we must wash hands from counseling those around us to do good and forbidding them from evil. We must fulfill this duty; but ultimately every one is responsible for his/her actions. Just as a man is responsible for his actions a woman is also responsible for her actions. Neither a husband nor a wife nor parents nor children will be held accountable for the actions of their partners or children as long they have done their part in counseling them. Allah has narrated the stories of a number of prophets in the Qur’an whose children and spouses perished because of their sins; and the prophets themselves were not considered as accountable for their sins.