The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page ccxcviii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION Treatment of Relatives Most people suffer from the failing that when they marry and set up house for themselves, they begin to neglect their parents. The Holy Prophet, therefore, laid great stress upon the meritoriousness of serving one's parents and treating them with kindness and consideration. Abu Hurairah relates: "A man came to the Holy Prophet and asked to be told who was most deserving of kind treatment at his hands. The Prophet replied: 'Your mother'. The man asked 'And next to her?' The Prophet repeated, 'Again thy mother'. The man asked a third time, 'And after my mother?' and the Prophet again replied, 'Still thy mother', and when the man asked him a fourth time, he said: 'After her thy father and after him thy nearest relatives and after them thy more remote relatives'. " The Prophet's own parents and grandparents had died while he was still a child. The parents of some of his wives were, however, alive and he always treated them with great consideration and deference. On the occasion of the surrender of Mecca when the Holy Prophet entered the town as a victorious general, Abu Bakr brought his father to meet him. He said to Abū Bakr: "Why did you trouble your father to come to me? I would gladly have gone to him myself" (Ḥalbiyyah, Vol. 3, p. 99). One of his sayings was: "Unlucky is the man whose parents live to old age and he fails to earn Paradise even then", meaning that the service of one's parents particularly when they reach old age attracts the grace and favour of God and, therefore, a person to whom is afforded the opportunity of serving his aged parents and who avails himself of the opportunity to the full is bound to become confirmed in righteous ways and a recipient of the grace of God. A man once complained to the Holy Prophet that the more benevolence he exercised towards his relations the more hostile they became towards him; and that the more he treated them with kindness the more they persecuted him; and the more he demonstrated affection towards them the more they frowned upon him. The Prophet said: "If what you say is true you are very fortunate, for you will ever be the recipient of God's succour" (Muslim, Kitābul-Birri Waş-Şilah). On one occasion when the Holy Prophet was exhorting people to give alms and charity one of his Companions, Abū Ṭalḥah Anṣārī, came to him and offered to dedicate an orchard for charitable purposes. The Prophet was very pleased and exclaimed, "What an excellent charity! What an excellent charity! What an excellent charity!" and added: "Having dedicated this orchard to the service of the poor, I want you now to divide it among your poor relatives" (Bukhārī, Kitābut-Tafsīr). A man came to him on one occasion and said: "O Messenger of Allah! I am prepared to make a covenant of Hijrah and I am prepared to make a covenant to take part in the holy war, for I am anxious to win the pleasure of God. " The Holy Prophet cclxxii