What has this world turned into? There is so much brutality, so much hatred, so much bloodshed! What’s even worse is that I have noticed that many of those murder cases I read about these days are about ‘a mother or father killing their child’ or ‘a child killing his parents!’ Respect has been lost almost completely for parents! They are the people who brought us into this world. They are the people who raised us up, put up with all the stress and distress we made them go through when we were young. And we, in return, disrespect our parents using foul language, cursing them, hurting them emotionally and showing not even an atom’s weight of respect for them!
I would like to mention a story that really woke me up:
There was a very loyal companion of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) whose name was Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas (radhiyallahu ‘anh). He was one of the companions who showed the most respect for his mother and he loved her greatly. But when he embraced Islam and became a Muslim, his mother was extremely angry.
She told him:
“Give up Islam, or else I will go on hunger strike until I die. Then you will feel shame before the Arabs, as they will say, ‘He killed his mother.’”
Now tell me guys, how could a son, especially a son like Sa’d (radhiyallahu ‘anh), watch his mother go on a hunger strike and eventually die? This had hurt Sa’d (radhiyallahu ‘anh) a great deal but he was just a new Muslim and believed that he cannot ever give up Islam.
So Sa’d (radhiyallahu ‘anh) responded by saying:
“You should know that, by Allah, even if you had a 100 souls, and they left your body one by one, I would never give up Islam.”
This showed how firm his belief was in Allah and the Messenger (peace be upon him) but it was the ‘wrong’ response.
Allah immediately revealed a verse from the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him):
“However, if they force you to ascribe partners to Me about whom you (can) have no (source of) knowledge, then do not obey them. Remain with them in this world with due fairness, but follow the way of the one who has turned himself towards Me. Then, towards Me is your return, so I shall tell you what you had been doing.” [Qur’an 31:15]
Sa’d (radhiyallahu ‘anh) was a very good companion but this incident was destined to happen in order for the rest of the Ummah to learn from it. It wasn’t right the way Sa’d (radhiyallahu ‘anh) spoke to his mother although he was put in a very uneasy and painful position. We must treat our parents with patience and thought, even if they tell us to go against Islam. But how many of us born into a Muslim family, have parents who are asking us to go completely against Islam?
Even if our parents interfere in the choice of our friends, we assume that they’re ruining our lives; hence we attack them with our loud and abusive words.
Have the parents in this world given birth to their masters?
Have they raised their children so they can be ruled by them?
If we are shouting at and arguing with our parents today, what is our next step?
A push?
A stab?
A new murder case in the Metro?
May Allah discourage these ruthless acts within our Ummah.
We need to be careful how we treat our parents, because the Satan will always be there to encourage us to take a step further towards Hell.
Always remember what our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught us that whoever pleases their parents, pleases Allah and whoever angers their parents, angers Allah.
If you feel that you haven’t done much for your parents, do something. The least we can do is make sincere du’a for our parents and this is a recommended du’a that we can recite:
“Rabbighfir lee Wa Liwaalidayyah Wa Lil Mu'mineena Yauma Yaqoomuk Hisaab.Rabbir HamHumaa Kamaa Rabbayaanee Sagheeraa.”
O Lord, forgive me, my parents and Muslims in the Hereafter. O Lord, show mercy on them as they have nourished me when I was young.
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