At Their Feet: Piety Towards Parents
In the Name of Allâh, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi
Allah the Most High Said: "And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him. And that you be dutiful to your parents.." [17:23]
After Allah Almighty, there is none who has realised a greater favour to any person than one's own parents. His mother bore him in extreme difficulty and went through great hardship and trouble while carrying him. Both parents performing their best in raising him, providing love and compassion and working hard to spend on him; spending sleepless nights tending to him while ignoring their own wants and desires.
Islam has gone to great lengths in impressing piety towards parents and indicating reward and punishment associated to it. A person with basic common sense understands the rights of the one who renders favours to him; not recognising such
rights is from the most deprived qualities one can assume. A person who is dutiful and good to his parents should know that no matter how diligent he is towards them, he can never repay or thank them for their rights and privileges granted to them by Allah.
The renowned and eminent scholar, Ibn al-Jawzi penned this emotive book upon witnessing disregard and neglect some of the youth in his time had for their parents and kin, and not regarding it to be a necessary part of religion. He therefore felt the need to compile a short tract on these obligations so that the unaware may take heed and reassess the shortfalls in regards to their own obligations. He arranged it into seamless chapters touching on divine basis for being dutiful to parents and enjoining ties of kinship.
This English rendering of Ibn al-Jawzi's 'Birrul Walidayn' will assuredly lead to marked positive realignment of our own relationships with our parents and families. And Allah grants the means and ability to whomsoever He Wills.
About The Author
'Abu'l-Faraj Jamal al-Din Abdul Rahman ibn Ali Ibn Muhammad ibn Ali Ibn Ubayd Allah Ibn al-Jawzi al-Qurashi al Tamimi al Bakri al-Baghdadi al-Hanbali (509/510-597) was the Imam of Hanbalis and foremost orator of kings and commoners in his time, whose gatherings reportedly reached one hundred thousand. A hadith master, philologist, commentator of Qur'an, expert jurist, physician, and historian of superb character and exquisite manners.
Ibn al-Jawzi was a prolific author of over seven hundred books. He was the author of a vast number of works of which several have been printed in recent times. He was famous as a preacher and the traveller Ibn Jubair gives an enthusiastic account of two of his sermons heard in Baghdad.
He was born in 509/510 AH the city of Baghdad and grew up studying under the leading scholars of the time, He also was noted for his scholarship in the fields of history, linguistics, tafseer and fiqh. In fact, he became the leading scholar of the Hanbali Madhab of his time and played an important role in reviving and spreading it, especially after the become a favorite of the Abassid Caliph, al Mustadi.
Ibn al-Jawzi was severely tried towards the end of his life when his criticism of Shaykh Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani - his senior of forty years - led to accusations made against him to the Sultan al-Nasir by the Shaykh's children and supporters. He was taken from Baghdad to the city of Wasit where he remained imprisoned for five years.
Ibn al-Jawzi passed away in 597 AH, two years after his release from Imprisonment.
