When the Christian monk Bahira, after recognising the final Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him), on way to his childhood visit to Syria along with his uncle Abu Talib, foretold that the youth was going to be the Final Messenger of Allah, who will be driven out by his compatriots, all on the spot including final Messenger of Allah himself were surprised.
Allah asserts at several places that the time for Day of Judgement is not known to anyone except Himself, but the sayings of the Prophet include several minor and major signs of the hour; some of the minor signs are ‘splitting of the moon’ having already occurred as of now, some being seen in process currently and others expected in fast sequence like the falling of beads of a necklace, whose thread is suddenly cut!
One such sign is that ‘the slave girl will give birth to her master’, which means that girls will be ill-treating their mothers as masters would do with slaves.
Special programmes telecast by various channels to mark “Women’s Day” reveal that even in a relatively orthodox society like India, surveys indicate 93% women senior citizens in urban areas and 77% in rural areas are abandoned by their children and live in more than one thousand odd old age homes across the country, due to mistreatment by sons in 56% of the cases and by daughters in 23% of the cases. Senior citizens to the tune of 1,50,00,000 including 90,00,000 women are driven out of their homes. One such poor old woman complains in tears, her sons insisted ‘why don’t you get out of the home?’
Mu’awiya ibn Jahima narrated: I went to the Holy Prophet, and said: O Messenger of Allah! I intend to join a battle (to fight in the cause of Allah) and have come to you for consultation. The Holy Prophet inquired if my mother was alive and I replied: yes. The Holy Prophet then said: Stay close to your mother (to serve her well), because Paradise lies at her feet.
“We have enjoined on man kindness to his parents: his mother bore him, in pain and in pain she gave birth to him, and his bearing and weaning takes thirty months. At length, when he reaches the age of full maturity and attains forty years, he says, ‘O my Lord! Help me to be grateful for favours which Thou have bestowed upon me, and upon both my parents, and to do good deeds that will please Thou. Grant me righteousness in my offspring. Truly I have turned towards Thou, and truly, I submit to Thou’.” (46:15)
See how beautifully Allah teaches us love for our parents and offspring, who are always watching how we treat our parents and obviously they will pay us in the same coin unless we ourselves try to be exemplarily beneficent and merciful to our parents, as our Creator is in His countless favours and blessings.