Tradition

يَلْزَمُ الْوالِدَيْنِ مِنَ الْحُقُوقِ لِوَلَدِهِما مَا يَلْزَمُ الْوَلَدَ لَهُما مِنْ حُقُوقِهِما

The Prophet (S) is narrated to have said: “Just as the children are responsible if they don’t uphold the rights of their mothers and fathers, the mothers and fathers are also responsible if they do not uphold the rights of their children.”1

Brief Commentary

In this world, wherever we find a right that has been enjoined, we will also find a responsibility which has been attached to it. Rights and responsibilities have been created alongside one another, and as the rights increase in scope, so the responsibilities become heavier in relation as well. Just as parents have a great right upon their children (a right mentioned in the Quran as being of the same rank as the right that God has upon us), similarly, the children also have a great right upon their parents.

Parents must never be negligent in teaching and educating their children, not even for a moment. They must do everything possible in order to build up their children physically and spiritually, and protect them from intellectual and ethical corruption. The busyness and entanglement of day to day life is no excuse and it should not prevent the parents from fulfilling their great responsibilities towards their children.

• 1. Narrated from the book Aqwal al-A’immah.