When asked about the happiest moment in his life, a famous South Indian writer Vaikom Muhammed Basheer replied:
It is our parents who fended and fostered us at an age when we were able to react only through wide gummy grins and helpless, fretful whimpers. How great an obligation is that! How blissful a relationship is that!!when asked who deserves a man’s companionship the most, Prophet (Peace be upon him) replied “his mother” and he repeated it three times. we can understand the depth of this great enunciation . The heart and hands of a mother adorned with love and care would never hesitate to embrace them, even if her children are known criminals. She would hug them and burst into tears. That’s a Mother!
We constantly remember Prophet Ibrahim (AS) who abandoned his spouse and son in Makkah, obeying to the decree of Allah. We have heard so much about the moments of adieu from his family, with be-dewing eyes. Let us also not forget Hajara- the poor mother who ran between the mountains of Safa and Marwa in search of water, to bridle the hunger her beloved son was burning with.
“When my son was a kid, he fell unconscious due to fever. All panicked, I carried him and rushed to the hospital. Anticipating that he is dead, harrowing pain heaped up in my heart. While racing to the hospital, my foot stumbled upon a rock and I almost fell down. In that shock, he began to cry! A gush of happiness overwhelmed me. Indeed, that is the best moment ever in my life.” (From the book ‘Ya ilaahi’ ).
Even for a profound writer who secured many awards and recognition, it is not any of those achievements, but the feeble mewl he heard when he had almost got convinced that his son is dead, is the best moment to treasure in his mind.
Mom and Dad are the good fortune of our life. The delight we experience through that ever-loving companionship is a heart-warming feeling beyond comparison . Thus is the warmth we feel in their presence that we can’t experience it from anywhere else. Spiritually, when it is with Allah, the Unseen, we maintain the deepest relationship, materially, its our parents who decorate the sanctum of relationship in our worldly life. We can see in Qur’an that Allah mentions the obligation to parents immediately after mentioning about worshipping Allah. (Qur’an 31:13-14).
Ten months of pregnancy through overwhelming sufferings, delivery with excruciating pain, priceless care for the new born befriending sleepless nights, the heart-clinging closeness without wanting to be away even for a second, a lifelong anxiety for the well being of the child, the feeble mind which cannot bear even a whimper…what on earth can be traded for that heart of chaste and spotless love? No matter how high he goes in life, a child can never repay his parents. And thus the supplication decreed from Allah “…My Lord! bestow on them thy Mercy even as they cherished me in childhood.” (Qur’an 17:24) becomes very significant. it is often said that the meaning of the Qur’anic verse …”lower to them the wing of humility…” becomes more apparent as we near senility.
It is our parents who fended and fostered us at an age when we were able to react only through wide gummy grins and helpless, fretful whimpers. How great an obligation is that! How blissful a relationship is that!!when asked who deserves a man’s companionship the most, Prophet (Peace be upon him) replied “his mother” and he repeated it three times. we can understand the depth of this great enunciation . The heart and hands of a mother adorned with love and care would never hesitate to embrace them, even if her children are known criminals. She would hug them and burst into tears. That’s a Mother!
We constantly remember Prophet Ibrahim (AS) who abandoned his spouse and son in Makkah, obeying to the decree of Allah. We have heard so much about the moments of adieu from his family, with be-dewing eyes. Let us also not forget Hajara- the poor mother who ran between the mountains of Safa and Marwa in search of water, to bridle the hunger her beloved son was burning with.
Like the mango tree which returns only plumpy sweet mangoes even if stoned, these two beings with their hearts flourished in the garden of affection, would bring comfort to our eyes. That is why we feel unbearable orphan-hood with our parents’ demise, even if we have got many other companionship in life. The advice of the father Luqman in the Chapter Luqman of Quran should flow from generation to generation. When a person said”Mom is now staying with me” a scholar corrected him “you must say I am staying with my mom.”
When a Companion sought permission to take part in a battle, Prophet (PBUH) advised that protecting and looking-after our senile parents are more rewarding than fighting in the battlefield. Children are the fruits of a coupledom which is clung together like how the fragrance is for a rose. When happiness reciprocates between parents and children, similar to the relationship between a bee and a flower, the ambiance of that house would become blissful.
Our parent are those through whom we got life, who named us, brought us up, delighted more than us in every step of ours, high and fame, grieved utmost in our trails, preserved a relationship with us without any treaty! A life without their shade and shelter would be unbearable. Prophet (Peace be upon him) said: “In the happiness of parents lies the happiness of Allah and in their dissatisfaction is Allah’s dissatisfaction.” (Bihār al-Anwār).
Prophet (Peace be upon him) exhorted us that we should continue the obligation and relation to our parents even after their demise. It is reported: We were sitting with Messenger of Allah when a man of Banu Salamah came to him and asked, “O Messenger of Allah! Is there any obedience to parents left that I can show to them after their death?” He replied, “Yes, to pray for them, to supplicate for their forgiveness, to fulfil their promises after their death, to maintain the ties of kinship which cannot be maintained except through them, and honour their friends.” [Abu Dawud – Riyadussaliheen Book 1, Hadith 343].
There is an incident reported by Abu Tufail (RA): “I once witnessed the prophet (Peace be upon him) distributing meat at a place called ‘Jarana’. Then, a lady appeared and approached near the Prophet (Peace be upon him) . Prophet of Allah spread out his sheet for her and the lady sat on it. I inquired from the people, “Who is this lady?” People told me: “This lady is the foster mother of the Prophet(Peace be upon him). (Abu Daud – as mentioned in ‘International encyclopedia of Islam’ by By A. H. Qasmi. Page 11). Look at the respect our Prophet (Peace be upon him) the greatest of human beings, bestowed to a lady because she had fostered him in his childhood.
The famous journalist Anita Prathap’s auto biography ‘Island of Blood’ starts like this. “I have often been asked to define my happiest moment. What people expect to hear is about the time I got a prestigious international award, or a fancy job, or cracked a story. But my answer is probably the same many women would give: the birth of my firstborn“.
I love u, my parents!
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