The Sunday Guardian | May 04, 2025

The Quran states:

We have enjoined on man kindness to his parents: his mother bore him, in pain and in pain she gave birth to him, and his bearing and weaning takes thirty months. At length, when he reaches the age of full maturity and attains forty years, he says, ‘O my Lord! Help me to be grateful for Your favours which You have bestowed upon me, and upon both my parents, and to do good deeds that will please You. Grant me righteousness in my offspring. Truly, I have turned to You and, truly, I submit to You.’

We accept from such people the best of what they do and We overlook their bad deeds. They will be among the people of Paradise—this is a true promise that has been given to them. (46:15-16).

A new human generation comes into existence with each child born of a man and a woman. This child, cared for and nourished by its parents, grows up to be a fully-rounded human being. This is a system devised by nature for the nurturing of human life. Its purpose is to inculcate in man a proper sense of rights and duties; to produce such feelings within man as will make him grateful to his benefactors and pay homage to them. This feeling tells man, on the one hand, to fulfill his obligations to those who have helped him to grow up and, on the other, to pay the far greater dues to his Creator and Sustainer.

Those who learn such lessons from nature as make them thoroughly aware of what is due to their parents and to God and act accordingly, are the people who will be deserving of God’s eternal blessings in the life to come.

Home serves as the first training ground for man and this training, which starts with the parents, later extends to the whole of society. If man fully accepts such training from the outset, he will be morally equipped not only to give human beings their due, but also to render to God what he owes Him in the vaster sense.

Source: Simple Wisdom