There are certain people you meet who stay with you long after that meeting has passed. There is one such sister I met years ago. Her face is a blurred memory but she crosses my mind often.
A few ʿEīds ago, during ʿEīd prayer, she enters the masjid with a throng of children of all sizes but mostly little. A lot of hustle and bustle, a lot of shushing, some little screeches, quite a few giggles… and her whispered threats and duʿāʾs.
Her sentences did not end in full stops, they ended with duʿā. Every command was followed with a duʿāʾ, every pleading, every request and every threat ended with a duʿāʾ: Allāhuma aṣliḥ-hum.
Allāh rectify them.
“Sit down. Allāh rectify you.”
“x run after your brother and bring him back. Allāh rectify you.”
“Be quite or I’ll tell your father. Allāh rectify you.”
We converse. A joyful lady with joyful, playful and blessed children. Blessed because their mother’s duʿāʾ for their eternal success is a constant.
What parent doesn’t make duʿāʾ for their child? But only blessed parents skip every other breath to make one duʿāʾ—the duʿāʾ for their children’s ṣalāḥ (rectification). And the ṣalāḥ of their children. And of their children.
Your child isn’t the one that you give birth to only. It’s every child that follows. And so the duʿāʾ of our Prophet Ibrāhīm wasn’t limited to his own children, but it extended to his entire lineage. As was the duʿāʾ of Maryam’s mother, and the duʿāʾ of every guided person who follows their example.
Being a parent is not a privilege, it is a responsibility. A responsibility that one needs to understand well. A parent’s duʿāʾ for their children is always answered. One must never abuse that responsibility, for you will be questioned about it. A guided person is one who is aware of this responsibility and uses it for his betterment and the betterment of his progeny.
It is also this responsibility that dictates that you raise your children in a manner pleasing to Allāh—not how your culture dictates nor how you yourself were raised.
Coming back to our sister above; may Allāh rectify her children, and ours.
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