Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 23 of 111

Al-Isra 17:23

۞ وَقَضَىٰ رَبُّكَ أَلَّا تَعْبُدُوٓا۟ إِلَّآ إِيَّاهُ وَبِٱلْوَٰلِدَيْنِ إِحْسَـٰنًا ۚ إِمَّا يَبْلُغَنَّ عِندَكَ ٱلْكِبَرَ أَحَدُهُمَآ أَوْ كِلَاهُمَا فَلَا تَقُل لَّهُمَآ أُفٍّ وَلَا تَنْهَرْهُمَا وَقُل لَّهُمَا قَوْلًا كَرِيمًا

“And your Lord has decreed that you worship not except Him, and to parents, good treatment. Whether one or both of them reach old age [while] with you, say not to them [so much as], "uff,"[735] and do not repel them but speak to them a noble word.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Straight after His own right to worship, Allah names your parents, then forbids even a breath of irritation towards them in their old age.

A reflection

The command placed straight after His own

A consultant who manages a team of forty sits beside her mother on the sofa. For the third time that evening she explains which button on the remote brings back the news. She hears her own voice go flat and quick. At work nobody has heard that voice in years.

The ayah opens at the highest point there is. Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him. Then, without a pause, it turns to two elderly people in a living room. One commentator observes that Allah honoured this kindness by setting it in the same decree as His own oneness. Another adds that if nothing else had been said, that pairing would be enough.

Why them, and why straight away? One reading is that Allah is the true cause of your existence, and your parents its visible cause. Honour the real cause first, then the one you can see.

That placement takes the ego apart at home, which is where it hides best. Pride rarely shows itself towards strangers. It shows itself to the two people who once wiped our faces and are now slow with a remote. The adult who has outgrown his parents' world is tempted to feel he has outgrown them. The ayah sets him down beside them, one rung below the command to worship God.

A doubt follows. Does God need our worship, that He decrees it first? He is free of all need (35:15), and whoever strives does so for himself (29:6). Notice what He pairs with His right. Not a ritual, but gentleness to the frail. Worship, read this way, is honour for His command and compassion for His creation, held in one sentence.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.