Meaning of Quran 7:151 Fatwa No: 187557
- Fatwa Date:2-10-2012
Assalamu Alaikum, In the Quran, the verse 6:151 starts with Say, "Come, I will recite what your Lord has prohibited to you". The verse includes the phrase "to parents, good treatment". Why is this phrase included when the verse lists all prohibition list?
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
The rights of parents and being kind and dutiful to them comes straight after the rights of Allaah in many verses, like in the verse which you mention in the question, and in the saying of Allaah (which means): {Worship Allaah and associate nothing with Him and to parents do good.} [Quran 4:36]
And in His saying (which means): {And your Lord has decreed that you not worship except Him, and to parents, good treatment.} [Quran 17:23]
Also, in His saying (which means): {Be grateful to Me and to your parents.} [Quran 31:14]
Severing ties with parents is forbidden in the same manner as Shirk is forbidden. Since it is an obligation to be kind and dutiful to parents, and since it is forbidden to abandon an obligation, then the command to be kind and dutiful to parents came (with prohibiting Shirk) in the same context.
Ash-Shinqeeti said in his book entitled Adhwaa’ Al-Bayaan: “It appears from Allaah’s saying (which means): {…what your Lord has prohibited to you.}, that it includes what Allaah has commanded you to do and what He has commanded you not to do, because both of abandoning an obligation and committing a prohibition are forbidden, so the meaning here is: He commanded you {…not to associate with Him} and to be kind and dutiful to parents.
Allaah Knows best.