Welcome to our weekly program “Path towards Enlightenment” in which we present you a fluent and easy to understand explanation of the ayahs of the holy Qur’an.

 We start from where we left you last Friday and here is ayah 14 of Surah Luqman.

وَوَصَّيْنَا الْإِنسَانَ بِوَالِدَيْهِ حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُ وَهْنًا عَلَىٰ وَهْنٍ وَفِصَالُهُ فِي عَامَيْنِ أَنِ اشْكُرْ لِي وَلِوَالِدَيْكَ إِلَيَّ الْمَصِيرُ

“We have enjoined man concerning his parents: His mother carried him through weakness upon weakness, and his weaning takes two years. Give thanks to Me and to your parents. To Me is the return.”

Last Friday we talked about the Sage Luqman’s advices to his son. The ayah that we now recited to you as well as the next ayah that is number 15, which we would be reciting to you after explaining this ayah, gives valuable guidelines to children, to first desist from polytheism, firm up your faith in monotheism, and then show respect to your parents and express gratitude to them for the trouble they take physically on the basis of love and affection that God has instilled in their nature for nurturing children and bringing them up in a sound manner. Gratitude to parents mean gratitude to the One and Only Creator Who is the Source of all life and goodness. Here the emphasis is on the role of the mother. The Qur’an points to the course of the mother’s pregnancy in order to awaken the moral conscience of children, whom must always remember that the mother bore them and fed them with her own milk. She dispensed with her sleep and food for the sake of the peace, comfort and tranquility of the children, in a manner that no one was ready to bear such troubles. The topic of weakness of the mother has scientifically been proved, and experience has shown that mothers may faint during the course of pregnancy because they allocate nearly all their own milk and the marrow of their bone to the growth of their embryo, and they give her child the best materials of their own vitality out of all of them. For this reason, during their pregnancy, mothers will be in need of kinds of vitamins and if they are not provided there will be some distresses for them. This matter continues even in the suckling course, too, because milk comes from inside of mother’s body. The purpose, of course, is a complete course of suckling, though it may sometimes be less than that. However, during these thirty three months (the pregnancy course and suckling course), the mother performs the greatest self-sacrifice both from the spiritual and emotional points of view, and also from the point of body, and from the point of services to her child. It is interesting that at first the Qur’an recommends about both parents and at the time of stating the labours and services, it emphasizes on the mother’s labours in order to draw attention to her greater rights.

From this ayah we learn that:

1. It is part of innate human nature to be respectful towards parents, even if they happen to differ with us on religious or political grounds.
2. Islam places greater emphasis on the role of the mother in view of her physical strain in going through the stages of pregnancy and then suckling.
3. Obedience to God has been emphasized, since the eventual return of the soul of every person is to the Almighty Creator.

Now we listen to and read ayah 15 of Surah Luqman:

وَإِن جَاهَدَاكَ عَلَىٰ أَن تُشْرِكَ بِي مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ فَلَا تُطِعْهُمَا ۖ وَصَاحِبْهُمَا فِي الدُّنْيَا مَعْرُوفًا ۖ وَاتَّبِعْ سَبِيلَ مَنْ أَنَابَ إِلَيَّ ۚ ثُمَّ إِلَيَّ مَرْجِعُكُمْ فَأُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ

“But if they urge you to ascribe to Me as partner that of which you have no knowledge, then do not obey them. Keep their company honourably in this world and follow the way of him who turns to Me penitently. Then to Me will be your return, whereat I will inform you concerning what you used to do.”

Here, God makes it clear that in case the polytheist parent or parents, try to force the child or children to follow the despicable and irrational practice of ascribing partners to the One and Only God, the monotheist children should not obey them. In other words, the children should not deprive themselves of their intellectual independence by accepting whatever deviated ideas the disbelieving parents try to impose. To be more precise from the point of the world and material life, we must have love, affection, and respect for the parents, even if they are not Muslims, but from the point of belief and religious concepts, we must not surrender to their wrong thoughts and suggestions. This is exactly the essential point of equilibrium in which the rights of Allah and parents are gathered. At any rate, from the point of view of Islam, children do not have the right to cut off relations with parents, and as long as they are alive, they should be treated with kindness. The eventual return, as said earlier is to Allah, the All-Wise Who is aware of all things, even the minute details.

From this ayah we learn that:

1. Obedience of parents is conditional and not absolute, as long as it does not contradict the laws of God, but respect and kindness towards them is necessary.
2. Blind imitation of the deviated customs of ancestors on the assumption of national culture or tradition, is against the intellect and the rationality of the laws of God.  
3. Islam allows peaceful co-existence with non-Muslims as long as there is no deviation of beliefs or cultural deformities.

Now we listen to and read ayah 16 of Surah Luqman:

يَا بُنَيَّ إِنَّهَا إِن تَكُ مِثْقَالَ حَبَّةٍ مِّنْ خَرْدَلٍ فَتَكُن فِي صَخْرَةٍ أَوْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ أَوْ فِي الْأَرْضِ يَأْتِ بِهَا اللَّـهُ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ لَطِيفٌ خَبِيرٌ

“O my son! Even if it should be the weight of a mustard seed, and [even though] it should be in a rock, or in the heavens, or in the earth, Allah will produce it. Indeed Allah is All-Attentive, All-Aware.”

Normally when a person calculates his good or evil deeds, he just sees the bigger ones and neglects the small ones, whereas repetition of these small mistakes brings about bigger catastrophes. Mustard is a plant which has some very small black seeds the smallness of which is often said as a parable. This refers to the fact that a person’s good and evil deeds, even the smallest and the most worthless of them, even if hidden like a mustard-seed in a rock or deep in the earth, will be brought forth by God Almighty on the Day of Reckoning, as recompense for reward or retribution, and nothing will be lost in this system.

This ayah once again refers to the Sage Luqman’s advices to his son and impart the message to us on the Infinite Power of God in the awareness and calculations of even the minutest act of deed. Luqman means to tell his son: for God Almighty, it does not matter whether your deed is small or big, overt or covert; even the slightest act in the most hidden places is not concealed from the Almighty Creator.

From this ayah we learn that:

1. It is the part of the duties of parents to draw the attention of children to the Day of Resurrection and the reckoning of deeds.
2. God the Omnipresent is fully aware of all human acts whether small or big, which means that in order to reform ourselves we ought to desist from even the slightest disobedience of God.

AS/ME/SS