How to Advise One’s Parents

Sheikh Faysal Al-Hashidi ḥafidhahullāh mentioned: The ways children advise their parents vary, and it is important to reflect on this so that each person may know his proper place and status: ▪️First: Those who advise using a scolding, reproachful tone and compare their parents to other people’s parents. ▪️Second: Those who advise with anger and severity, mixing truth with harshness and roughness. ▪️Third: Those who suffice with a frown, or cast toward their parents a look of displeasure or disdain. All these methods fall under forms of ‘uqūq (disrespect toward parents), some worse than others. As for the proper, Islamic manner of advising them, it is as Allaah the Exalted said: {And speak to them a noble word, and lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy}. [Al- isra 23-24] Regarding His saying, the Exalted: {And speak to them a noble word} ▫️It is a call to choose gentle expressions words that convey the intended meaning without being offensive. ▫️Advising kindly avoids hurtful reproach, considers the appropriate time, and seeks a state of mutual contentment that opens the parents’ hearts to receive the words and be positively influenced by them. As for His saying, the Exalted: {and lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy} ▫️This means showing humility toward them in speech and action, avoiding harshness, and lowering one’s voice. Extending mercy to them encompasses all forms of good treatment. ▫️People’s hearts are naturally inclined toward gentleness, and their souls respond to kindness with goodness and excellent conduct. @AlMaktabahassuniyyah101