a gift to mothers, courtesy of RP

Question : What is the best gift for Mother's Day?

The answer is already given in the Quran: 

وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ بِوَالِدَيْهِ إِحْسَانًا حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُ كُرْهًا وَوَضَعَتْهُ كُرْهًا وَحَمْلُهُ وَفِصَالُهُ ثَلَاثُونَ شَهْرًا حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُ وَبَلَغَ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً قَالَ رَبِّ أَوْزِعْنِي أَنْ أَشْكُرَ نِعْمَتَكَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيَّ وَعَلَى وَالِدَيَّ وَأَنْ أَعْمَلَ صَالِحًا تَرْضَاهُ وَأَصْلِحْ لِي فِي ذُرِّيَّتِي إِنِّي تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَإِنِّي مِنَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ
And We have enjoined on man to be dutiful and kind to his parents. His mother bears him with hardship and she brings him forth with hardship, and the bearing of him, and the weaning of him is thirty (30) months, till when he attains full strength and reaches forty years, he says: "My Lord! Grant me the power and ability that I may be grateful for Your Favour which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and that I may do righteous good deeds, such as please You, and make my off-spring good. Truly, I have turned to You in repentance, and truly, I am one of the Muslims (submitting to Your Will)." (46:15)

this ayah commands all human beings to be kind to their parents, because bringing us up is no easy task.

See, its not an easy thing. Since we first got our legs, we started kicking our moms. After we came out, she needed to change our diapers every few hours. She prepared our food. She helped us walk and talk. In the ayah above, we only reach maturity and full strength at the age of forty. Imagine that looooooooong period of upbringing. And even after forty, our mums will still think of us as her little children. 

I remember one time when we went back to our kampung for Hari Raya. My mum wanted to help my grandma make some ketupat, but she said "takpe, kau tak reti buat ni" (it's ok, you don't know how to make this). Just like what my mum says to us little kids. teehee.

After this period of upbringing, what should be the result? The end product? what should a 'good child' be like?

Allah answers this in the ayah. The good child will ask Allah to "Grant me the power and ability that I may be grateful for Your Favour which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and that I may do righteous good deeds, such as please You, and make my off-spring good. Truly, I have turned to You in repentance, and truly, I am one of the Muslims"

He will ask Allah to

- make him and his parents grateful for Allah's blessings

- make him do righteous deeds

- give him good children

- forgive him

- make him a muslim, a person who submits to Allah

Nowadays, when we want to please our parents, we think of

- getting a good job. preferably being a doctor, lawyer or engineer if you're Asian

- buying them all the things they want

- taking them on holidays

- etc

But Allah is saying that material things shouldn't be our considerations. Material things might bring our parents away from Allah. For all their hard work and sacrifice, do we want to repay them with Allah's wrath?

Surely not.

That's not the right way to obey them.

The best gift that any child could give is

To become a child who obeys Allah in everything, and invites his parents to do the same.