Faizel Patel, Radio Islam – 10-06-2019
A mother breaks her sleep, wakes up her husband and together they rush to the adjacent bedroom of their modest home to sooth and calm the cries of their infant child. Its 3am, the time for Fajr draws near and soon it will also be time for work. This is the love and dedication parents afford their children. The sleepless nights, the concern for when the child is sick are tasks that parents go through in raising a child.
Amongst the many bounties and favours of Allah upon humans is the gift of parents. It is unfortunate and tragic that this reality of the gift of parent’s dawns upon us very late and the most unfortunate of these are those children that reality dawns upon them only when their parents have left this world. In the Qur’an and hadith it is stated that after Allah and Nabi Muhammad (pbuh) a person is most obligated to his parents.
In Islam, every day is a mother’s day and every day is a father’s day. There is no day in your life where you are not duty bound to your mother. Allah arouses our sentiments in the holy Qur’an and conscientises us to our obligations to our mothers whose challenges and difficulties began prior to us coming in to this world from the day of conception our mothers were in pain for us.
Allah says in the Qur’an, our mothers bore us, she delivered us, she suckled us and it took a great portion of two and a half to three years of the strength and energy of this woman in the initial phases of our lives. Allah singles out this bond and a favour to the mother, which is a very critical juncture as the strongest of bonds is the bond between a nursing mother and a nursing child.
The love of a mother is unparalleled. Allah commanded Moosa (AS)’s mother to give up her son while children were killed in the laps of their mothers, she was hysterical, and this is an action, which every woman can understand because mothers are very protective of their children. We see this even in nature how a lioness guards her cubs with protective superiority daring to devour any human or animal that comes close. Every woman’s story is different when they conceived their children, but the mere fact that our mothers conceived us, justifies our obligation not as long as she lives, but even long after she leaves this world.
What has happened to our sons of today that have all grown up and taken a woman in nikaah? They have dropped and lost their morals to such a degree that they sit in seclusion with their wives and speak ill of their mothers, to such an extent that the earth must split open and swallow such a person and because he is so foolish and ignorant that he doesn’t realize that he can always find another wife, but he will never find another mother. A person that remembers or visits his mother is constantly in the duas of his mother and those that abandon their mothers; their mothers shed tears of blood and never forgets him even if he has forgotten her. In a beautiful hadith Allah tells Moosa (AS): “O Moosa, if you have secured the joy of your mother, you have secured My joy and O Moosa, if your mother is hurt with you, I am hurt with you.”
The importance of mother can never be overs stressed. In a hadeeth in Bukhari, a Sahabi comes to Nabi Muhammad (pbuh) and asks:
“O Nabi of Allah who is most deserving of my best relation?”
Nabi (SAW) replies: “Your mother.”
“O Nabi of Allah, next in merit?”
Nabi (SAW) replies: “Your mother”
“O Nabi of Allah, next in merit?”
Nabi (SAW) replies: “Your mother”
“O Nabi of Allah, and after that?”
Nabi (SAW) replies: “Your father”
Three times in succession, Nabi Muhammad (pbuh) replies with the mother and only on the fourth time does he mention the father. Today’s mothers want only joy and happiness, yet so many mothers complain to the Ulama, begging them to counsel and advise their children not to hit them, be vulgar to them, raise their voices to them. Where are those children that can make their mothers smile instead of making them cry? Nabi Muhammad (pbuh) says that your presence before your mother and speaking kindly to her is better for you than holding a sword in your hand and fighting in ferocious battle and killing the kuffar.
In Jum ul Hawaaith, Aisha (RA) narrates that Nabi Muhammad (pbuh) said the greatest obligation a woman owes is to her husband and the greatest obligation a man owes is to his mother. Therefore, we make dua to Allah that if you have offended your mother, take heed of Nabi SAW words where he says: “If you disobey your parents, two doors of Jahannam are opened.”
However, what happens if your parents oppose or oppress you? Even to this question Nabi Muhammad (pbuh) answers beautifully by saying: “Even if they oppress you once, twice or three times, if you disobey them, Jahannam is open for you.” He will be guilty for his wrong, she will be guilty for her wrong, but as a child, you have no right to raise your voice in front of that woman who bore you and took you from pain to pain.
To those of us that our parents have gone, let us go the graveyard and cry. Let us make dua to Allah for those that our parents are alive that Allah grant them a long life, give them barakah in their health and their wealth and befitting reward. Insha’Allah Ameen.
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