Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 388
The Teaching of Justice and Kindness Regarding Relatives 379 partners with Allah of which they have no knowledge, they may never obey them in this. In the above verse Allah does not teach children to show disrespect to their parents, nor does He encourage them to harshly enquire as to who are they to teach them to respect God? Or to reply, I will listen to Allah and not to you! Here, incidentally, humans are taught only to believe what they know to be correct. This is their fundamental right. That which they do not know personally they cannot be forced to believe. Sa‘d bin Ab i Waqq as narrates: I used to pay my dues most respectfully to my idolatrous mother. When I converted to Islam she said to me, 'O Sa‘d, what sort of religion have you accepted? You will have to renounce this faith or I will go into hunger strike till death. Then people will blame you for being the cause of my death. ' Sa‘d responded by saying, 'O my mother, even if you do that I am not going to renounce my faith. ' But his mother disregarded his warning and went into a hunger strike for one day and one night, and suffered immensely. At that, Sa‘d addressed her thus: 'O my dear mother, by Allah, I swear that even if you possessed one hundred lives and gave them up one after the other in my presence, I would still not renounce my faith. ' Observing this resolution on the part of her son, she gave up the hunger strike and started eating normally again. 63