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Our Parents are a Gift

Family Matters Series

🎁 | Our Parents are a Gift | 🎁

We are in huge debt. To who? To our parents.

There’s no doubt that parents have been given a high status in Islam. There is a great deal of emphasis placed on respecting and being good to our parents in the Qu’ran, and rightly so.

When we could barely keep ourselves upright and survive in this world on our own, it was our parents who took care of us. Parents sacrifice their time, health and wealth for the well-being of their children. Yet, we still talk back to them, we still raise our voices, we still get disregard what they ask of us, we still neglect our duty to them. Of course, it would be horrible to be disrespectful to our parents to say the least but more importantly, it would be disobeying Allah SWT’s command to be bad to our parents.

It is stated in the Qu’ran, “And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him. And that you be dutiful to your parents. If one of them or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of disrespect, nor shout at them but address them in terms of honour.” [17:23]

Further, it was narrated from ‘Abdullah bin ‘Amr that the Prophet said: “The major sins are: associating others with Allah, disobeying parents, killing a soul (murder) and swearing a false oath knowingly.”

Ultimately, we should take care of our parents and be kind to them in all stages of our life, especially when they reach old age. They become more vulnerable and fragile. Our parents took care of us when we were completely helpless, and it is our duty that we take care of them now AND when they reach old age. As children, we see our parents as our heroes and the ones we turn to for everything. As we get older, and as they get older, their value shouldn’t change for us. Rather, we are blessed with the opportunity to serve them as our duty.

But let’s not fool ourselves. No matter what we do for our parents, especially our mothers, we will never be able to repay them.

Abdullah Ibn ‘Umar saw a Yemeni man performing Tawaf (circumambulating the Ka’bah in Mecca) while carrying his mother on his back. This man said to Abdullah Ibn ‘Umar, “I am like a tame camel for her! I have carried her more than she carried me. Do you think I have paid her back, oh Ibn ‘Umar?” Abdullah Ibn ‘Umar replied, “No, not even one contraction!!” (Source: Al-Adab al-Mufrad Bukhari, 1/62)

For those of us who still have our parents, we are truly blessed. We should not waste another moment and take time out of our busy day to give them the attention and care that we have been commanded to by our Lord.

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “May he be disgraced! May he be disgraced! May he be disgraced, whose parents, one or both, attain old age during his lifetime, and he does not enter Jannah (by rendering being dutiful to them)”.
[Muslim].

*Why wouldn’t we strive to attain Jannah by being dutiful to the people who care about us the most in this world?

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