Rights and Status of Parents in Islam

Here is a point to ponder over: We do not find in Noble Qur'an and Hadith so much emphasis on looking after the children as is the case with the rights of the parents. Why?

 

The Sharia (Islamic law) has put a new challenge to those who think. Find out how logical this attitude is. The fact is that the parent's heart is the fountain-head of the love for the child; this affection becomes the life-blood of the parents. Noble Qur'an has alluded to this instinctive parental love in several places.

On the other hand, children especially when they are no longer in need of parental care, do not feel so much love for the parents. We are not speaking about respect. Here the talk is about instinctive love; and experience is a reliable witness to confirm this observation.

It is a known fact that sign-posts are not needed on straight highways; but at a cross-road where several routes branch out, one cannot expect to get onto the right path without a guide or a sign-post.

It is for this reason that Islam does not emphasize in so many words those aspects of life which are taken care of by human nature itself. It is where the hold of natural instinct is loosened that Islam extends its helping hand and leads man on the right path by telling him what he is expected to do.

It was for this reason that Islam did not explain the rights of children so forcefully; but full emphasis was given to the rights of the parents.

When our father irritate us? (Rights of Parents in Islam, Muslim Parent Rights, Rights of Parents)

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An old man was sitting in the courtyard of his house along with his son who had received a high education. Suddenly a crow perched on a wall of the house. The father asked the son: What is this? The son replied: It is a crow. After a little while the father again asked the son: What is this? The son said: It is a crow.

After a few minutes the father asked his son the third time: What is this? The son said: Father, I have just now told you that this is a crow. After a little while the old father again asked his son the fourth time: what is this? By this time some statement of irritation was felt in the son's tone when he rebuffed his father: Father! It is a crow, a crow. A little after the father again asked his son: What is this? This time the son replied to his father with a vein of temper. Father: You are always repeating the same question; although I have told you so many times that it is a crow. Are you not able to understand this?

The father went to his room and came back with an old diary. Opening a page he asked his son to read what was written. What the son read were the following words written in the diary:

'Today my little son was sitting with me in the courtyard, when a crow came there. My son asked me twenty-five times what it was and I told him twenty-five times that it was a crow and I did not at all feel irritated. I rather felt affection for my innocent child.'

The father then explained to his son the difference between a father's and a son's attitude. While you were a little child you asked me this question twenty-five times and I felt no irritation in replying to the question twenty-five times and when today I asked you the same question only five times, you felt irritated, annoyed and impatient with me.

Allah (Glory and Greatness be to Him) mentions in Noble Qur'an:

"And your Lord has commanded that you shall not serve (any) but Him, and goodness to your parents. If either or both of them reach old age with you, say not to them (so much as) "Ugh" nor chide them, and speak to them a generous word. And make yourself submissively gentle to them with compassion, and say: O my Lord! Have compassion on them, as they brought me up (when I was) little." Noble Qur'an (17:23-24)

Imam Zainul Abideen (peace be upon him) says: "It is also said that once a man came to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and asked: "I feed my parents, carry them on my back and clean them, have I fulfilled my duty towards them? The Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) answered: No, because, you are serving them in anticipation for their death while they served you wishing you a long life".