Inspirational Stories

4 Rights Our Parents Have Upon Us

4 rights our parents have upon us - Abu Thabit (Madinah University)

Mother: "Eww what an ugly despicable child we gave birth to! Let us throw it in the bin and get rid of it!"

Father: "Burn it with fire! Snatch its soul away quickly, before it is too late!"

Chances are, that this conversation never took place at the time of your birth (otherwise you wouldn't be here reading this article right now, would you) No, in fact the truth of the matter is that your parents did everything they could, to keep you alive.

They fed you, took care of you not to mention, if you ever were to cry they would rush to check on you, and you'd just lay there, making funny noises and drooling.

And this is the reason why I'm written this article (not for the drooling but), for all of those ungrateful teenagers who shout "I hope you die!" again and again to their parents, without realizing that without them (but Allaah first and foremost) they would have suffocated many years ago in their own filthy little blankets.

#4 Our Obedience

How often have our parents not told us to do something only for us to wishfully think they'll forget about it, or think they'll ask one of our other siblings to do it.

We have become so accustomed for them to do almost everything for us on a daily basis, we tend to forget that as we ourselves grow older so do our parents.

But the main difference is, as we grow older and stronger they grow weaker and weaker, thus needing our help more and more. We as children always take it for granted that the fridge has food and drink in it, that our clothes somehow miraculously get washed every day without us even noticing.

Whenever we want money we just ask mum or dad, because I mean they always have money in their wallets somehow. All this and so much more, yet when our parents tell us, do the dishes tonight we get mad and shout, "but I did them last night!"

Imagine how funny it would have been if you asked for food and your mother said but I fed you last night!

#3 Our Love

It is a strange thing that as children we love our parents very very much, and we look at them as these amazing people who can do anything and everything.

My dad is the greatest! You hear some children boast, yet as soon as these same children reach puberty they stop loving them. They quarrel and bicker with their own parents, talking to them as if they were the same age, forgetting very quickly that this person they are shouting "No!" to, use to change their diapers once upon a time, when all you could do was sleep and eat.

SubhaanAllaah you couldn't even burp yourself, they had to help you burp! And it is only once we grow older ourselves, we start loving them again, but who knows if they will be around at that time?

There is a saying that goes, "No one wishes for anyone else to be better than they are, except the parent, he wishes his offspring to become better than he ever was"

How can we not love our parents? They gave us everything, their time, their energy, you became strong only because they became weak.

How many dreams did they not sacrifice for our sake? The love of a parent is truly an unconditional love, a love that even if they wanted to hate you, they could not.

Yet for us children it is so easy to say hurtful words to our mothers making them cry, may Allaah have mercy upon us.

#2 Our help

Ever cooked for your parents? I mean without burning the house down?

This doesn't mean just physical help as in cooking and cleaning, rather it means helping them achieve Jannah. Because if you truly think about it, we are our parents investments, we all know the hadith of how our good deeds benefit our parents even after they pass away.

Do we not want them to enter Jannah with our help? Imagine on the Day of Judgment when your parents are presented with mountains of reward and being told, this is because of your righteous son/daughter, how happy would they not be?

However a lot of us spend our time in sin and useless matters, that might bring sorrow to our parents both in this world and the hereafter.

#1 Our Mercy

May Allaah make our parents proud of us!

As our parents grow older and older, our time with them gets less and less. We see them withering away before our very own eyes. The father who used to lift you high up in the air and play footie with you when you were a child now complains about constant back pain.

The mother who used to nurse you and stay up with you all night when you used to be so sick as a child, is now herself in the hospital, alone.

Who will now look after our parents? The retirement home? A place where some people leave their own parents waiting for them to die?

No, what we need to do is to look after them and have mercy upon them in the same way they had mercy upon us when we were younger.

The funny thing though is though, humans never realize the blessings they have until it is gone, until it is too late.

Ask brothers and sisters who lost their mothers or their fathers, or perhaps both.

Ask them what they would give to just have one more hour with their parents again and to be able to hug them just one last time, to tell them they love them just one more time.

Ask them how they feel...

May Allaah keep our parents safe both in this dunya and the hereafter and may He reunite us with them in Jannah, Aameen!