Kindness Towards Parents

If someone came to you today and offered you a free lunch, what would be your response? No doubt you would smile, speak kindly to them, and reserve a special place in your heart for their memory. Why is it then that our parents receive only cold stares, harsh words and bitter treatment and they are who they are in our lives? For twenty or thirty years they fed us, clothed us, washed us, and showered their mercy on our soft skin. Their love for us never dies even if we do, love that goes even beyond us, to our children and even their children.




Dear Brothers and Sisters, we all have parents – whether they are with us or not – and many have not understood the severity of their position in our lives and their right to be respected and revered. Today I want to remind you and I of the true position of our Parents, may Allah have mercy on them all.

Birr Al-Waalidayn (Kindness Towards Parents) is a characteristic of the believer. Al-HasanSound, agreeable and good. In this science of Hadeeth, according to Al-Khattabi (d. 388): "It is the one (i.e. the Hadeeth) where its source is known and its reporters are unambiguous." Al Basree defined it saying,

Al-Birr is to obey the parents in everything that they ask so long as it is not to disobey Allah. Uqooq is to disown your parents, denying them all of your goodness.
By the IjmaLegal and Unanimous Consensus of the Scholars. ’ of the Ulamaa’, being respectful and obedient to ones parents is Fardh! Ibn Hazm said,

“(Obeying ones parents) is Fard!” and he quoted the verse: {And your Lord decreed that you should worship none but Him and that you be dutiful to your Parents.}