Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 185
185 loved, but his love is not controlled by his reason or his judgment, and is not, therefore, a moral quality. The second condition is that it should have greater regard for past benefits received than for present enjoyment, or the hope of receiving benefits in the future. Under this condition love for one’s children becomes an instinct and love for one’s parents becomes a moral quality. The love of parents for their children is merely a manifestation of the instinct of preservation of the race, but the love of a child for his parents is a moral quality, for the parents have already done what nature wanted them to do, and now they are almost useless. A son, therefore, who loves his parents exercises a good moral quality, for he does so in remembrance of the benefits received by him from his parents during his childhood and in return for that kind and loving care he considers it a duty to treat them kindly and to provide every comfort for them even at the sacrifice of his own. That is why Islam has said, 'Paradise is under the feet of one’s mother,' and has not said, 'Paradise is under the feet of one’s children,' for every sane person instinc- tively loves his children, but every person may not instinctively love his parents, and, therefore, does not love them as they deserve. Instances are not wanting of persons who neglect their parents in order to provide for the smallest needs of their children. Nobody would say that this is a good moral quality. The third condition necessary to convert love from an instinct into a moral quality is that it should have regard not merely to immediate benefits and enjoyments but also to remote ones. For instance, a man