Do we talk with utmost respect and reverence to our mother?
Do we answer her instantly when she calls for us?
Do we comply swiftly to her requests when she asks something of us?
Do we offer her a glass of water when she is thirsty, or carry the shopping to take a burden off of her?
When I chat with an obstetrics patient and more so when I enter the labour room, I ask myself these questions and I wonder in amazement: How is it possible for a child to not love, respect, revere, and cherish his mother with the crux of the meaning of these words.
I have heard stories of children hitting their mother, even killing their mother with their own hands because of something as trivial as a television programme!!! My mind simply cannot accept that such abomination can exist.
The pain and complications that a mother goes through to bear us throughout the pregnancy. Even an uncomplicated pregnancy is a hard thing. What more one riddled with hypertensive disorders, diabetes mellitus, anaemia, placenta praevia, abruptio placenta, and the list goes on.
As if bearing a pregnancy isn't enough comes the delivery. I just can't find words to describe it, and I was only an onlooker, and one that will never have to face the ordeal at that; but after watching mothers give birth, the pain they have to go through to bring us into the world, I cannot even imagine someone talking roughly to his mother.
"Thy Lord hath decreed that ye worship none but Him, and that ye be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in thy life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them but address them, in terms of honour".
[Surah al-Israa'/bani Isra'eel 17 : 23]
Maybe people that don't respect their parents - their mothers especially - should be shown a delivery.
That's the pain part. On a brighter note, obstetrics patients are the brightest patients I have seen so far. Well...who wouldn't be excited to get a cute, cuddly little baby. But even better than that...yeah there is something even better than a happy expecting mother...is the sight of a mother holding her newborn...
It is more beautiful than watching sunrise on a clear, balmy morning with a sweet zephyr serenading around you.
I wonder to myself: how can a child who is loved as such come to show disrespect to his mother? Even an onlooker can feel the warmth of that love and be moved to tears.
To everyone, especially to myself: please, please, please respect, love and cherish your mother. For me, this is the most valuable lesson I got from my obstetrics posting. Alhamdulillah, all thanks and praises to Allah for showing me this.
May Allah place my parents among those who follow in the way of Rasulullah SAW and the companions.
Ameen.
The Last Lecture
15 years ago