A man came to Abu Darda and said, "I have a wife, and my mother is ordering me to divorce her."Abu Darda replied, "I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, 'The parent is the middlemost gate of Paradise. So if you wish, abandon that gate, or guard it.'"
أن رجلا أتاه فقال: إن لي امرأة، وإن أمي تأمرني بطلاقها. قال أبو الدرداء: سمعت رسول الله ﷺ يقول: الوالد أوسط أبواب الجنة، فإن شئت فأضع ذلك الباب، أو احفظه.
Tirmidhi (1900), Ahmad (27511), and Hakim (4/152) all narrated it through the route of Sufyan bin Uyayna, from Ata bin Saaib, from Abu Abdul-Rahman Sulami, from Abu Darda, and he related it. Tirmidhi said, "This is a sahih hadith." I say, it is as he said, and Ata bin Saaib is trustworthy. The scholars affirmed his reliability, except that his memory became confused toward the end of his life, and narrations from him before that are accepted. However, Sufyan bin Uyayna narrated from him before the confusion set in, and he was also corroborated by Shuba, who was among those who heard from him before the confusion. Through his route it was also narrated by Ibn Majah (2089), Ahmad (21717), and Hakim (4/152), and it contains that a man's father or mother, or both of them, ordered him to divorce his wife.