Your parents are your responsibility

Halima Baba, 38 year- old civil servant asks, “Which child has survived the trouble of this world without his/her parents taking care of them? Any child that says such has a curse placed on him already. Parents are precious to every child no matter what, especially the mother, she carried you for nine months, passed through labour and immeasurable pain just to bring you to this world, nursed and through day and night, no mother even father is at peace when their child is in pains or hungry and at the end of the day such a child comes up with an ungodly illusion not to care for his/her parents because it’s not their right! Really! May Allah not allow us see such children. Ameen.”

Jamila Adamu, a 39-year-old teacher says: “Our various religious books tell us to honour our father and mother, at least that’s the first commandment when we are talking of commandments from God. How on earth can someone decide to go against the commandment of God? It’s cruel to even think of such towards people who brought you into this world.”

Kemi Falola, a 40-year-old chemist, says, “Sometimes, children from broken homes and those that were abandoned when they were young grow up to dislike their parents and along the line believe that they owe their parents nothing when they become something in life. On the other hand also, some parents know their children’s financial status but want more, making the children  to go out of their ways to satisfy their parents. But that notwithstanding, parents are people God said we must respect as they are our ticket to paradise (my Muslim sisters and brother will also agree with me on this) and I am an advocate of taking care of parents within your capacity and not above your capacity.”

Rashida Liman, a 40-year-old architect, says: “May Allah not allow the day I would say I owe nothing to my parents come through. How can any right thinking person think that way? As children, we can’t appreciate what our parents have given to us no matter how much we try. Every day, I continue to pray and thank my parents for what they have done and given to me as a child, we were an average family but I will never trade the love and care they gave us as children for anything. I wish they were alive to reap the benefits of their labour and investment in us their children. I cry and weep as I send this to you because I fear for what this world is becoming. Any child who thinks that way should immediately seek forgiveness from his/her parents before he/she can seek forgiveness from God.”