By Shaykh Anisul Haque
27 September 2024

﷽

During this week’s Khutbah, I addressed an important yet often neglected aspect of our faith: the Islamic duty to honour our parents. I began by reminding us of our primary purpose in life, as stated in the Qur’an:

And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.

[Qur’an 51:56]

In reciting this well-known verse about the purpose of our creation, I sought to highlight that worshipping Allah encompasses fulfilling the rights and duties He has assigned to His creation. Among these are the rights and obligations we owe to our parents. After Allah, The Most High, they are the most deserving of our service and devotion. Allah has elevated the status of our parents to such a degree that He mentions them immediately after the command to worship Him:

For your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honour.

[Qur’an 17:23]

I shared with the congregation numerous examples from the Qur’an of prophets who perfectly upheld the command to be dutiful to parents.

Allah tells us that Prophet Isa (Jesus) ﷺ said: “And [God] has made me dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant.” [Qur’an 19:32]

Similarly, Prophet Yahya (John) ﷺ is described as being “dutiful to his parents, and he was not a disobedient tyrant." [Quran 19:14]

These verses, I explained, serve as powerful reminders of the importance of treating our parents with kindness and respect, regardless of our own status or achievements in life.

I stressed to our congregation that our success in this life and the hereafter is intrinsically linked to our relationship with our parents. The words of our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ beautifully illustrated this point:

The pleasure of the Lord is in the pleasure of the parents, and the displeasure of the Lord is in the displeasure of the parents.

[At-Tirmidhi]

I urged everyone to recognise that our parents are our gateway to Paradise. To drive this point home, I shared a hadith that always touches my heart. Narrated by Mu‘awiyah ibn Jahima, it tells of a man who came to the Prophet ﷺ seeking permission to join a military expedition. The Prophet ﷺ asked him if he had a mother, and when the man replied affirmatively, he told him:

Stay with her, for Paradise is beneath her feet.

[Nasa’i]

Similarly, regarding fathers, the Prophet ﷺ said something that I find equally powerful:

The father is the middle gate of Paradise. If you wish, you can lose that gate, or you can keep it.

[At-Tirmidhi]

One story that I always find inspiring is that of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d 241 AH, 855 CE). The sacrifice of Imam ibn Hanbal’s mother played a crucial role in his journey to becoming one of the greatest scholars in Islamic history. Ibn Hanbal would place his mother among his greatest teachers. He recounted how from a young age, she sacrificed so much just to see him through his journey of seeking knowledge, and because of her sacrifice, he became one of the greatest scholars this Ummah has witnessed.

I felt compelled to address a concerning trend I’ve noticed in our community: the increasing disrespect and disobedience towards parents. This behaviour, I explained sadly, fulfils a prophecy of our Prophet ﷺ regarding the signs of the Day of Judgment, where he mentioned:

When a slave woman gives birth to her master.

[Al-Bukhari]

Scholars have interpreted this to mean that children will treat their parents like slaves, exerting authority over them – a situation we unfortunately see unfolding in our society today.

I reminded our congregation, with a heavy heart, that disobedience to parents is considered one of the major sins in Islam, second only to associating partners with Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said:

The major sins are associating partners with Allah, disobedience to parents, killing a person, and false testimony.

[Al-Bukhari]

To help our community improve their relationships with their parents, I offered several practical steps that I’ve found helpful in my own life:

1. Listen to and obey parents, even when it may displease us, as long as it doesn’t contradict Islamic teachings.
   
   
2. Provide physical and emotional care and support, especially for elderly parents who may be experiencing loneliness or anxiety.
   
   
3. Consistently make du‘a (supplication) for our parents, using the beautiful Qur’anic invocation: 

   My Lord, have mercy upon them as they brought me up [when I was] small.

   [Qur’an 17:24]
   
   
4. Prepare a legacy for our parents while they are still alive, such as establishing ongoing charitable projects in their name or preserving and sharing their knowledge if they were scholars.

I emphasised that these actions should be done out of love, obedience to Allah, and recognition of our parents’ rights rather than as an attempt to repay them fully – for as Ibn Umar wisely noted, we can never fully repay even a single contraction our mothers experienced during childbirth.

In conclusion, I urged our congregation to reflect deeply on their relationships with their parents and to strive to be the “coolness of their parents’ eyes.” By honouring our parents, we not only fulfil a critical Islamic obligation but also secure for ourselves a path to Paradise and Allah's pleasure.

May Allah make us all dutiful children to our parents, unite us with our loved ones in the highest levels of Paradise, and forgive us for our shortcomings. 

Ameen.

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