The status of parents in Islam
human female.
Again, this is a sacrifice the mother makes to bring her child in to this world. Research of the sociologists Sociologists and other social scientists have explained that the body contact of the child to its mother is extremely important in the mental development of the child.
One of the ways mother- child body contact can be accomplished is when the mother is breast feeding the child. Hence, we can see how important breast feeding is.
That is why the reference to breast feeding the child for two years is mentioned in the Holy Qur’aan itself (Ch 31 : v 14).
About fifty years ago, in the wave of modernism, many mothers in the West started to bottle feed their children because they thought it backwards to breast feed.
They are still paying the price for that in the form of many afflictions. Research has shown that breastfed infants are more intelligent than bottle fed infants. Indeed, there is a myriad of other benefits of breast feeding over bottle feeding.
According to sociologists, 75 percent of the child’s personality is shaped in the first three years of its life. Upon birth, the human brain is only 23 percent formed.
That means that three quarters of the skull growth takes place after birth. The normal development of the human brain cannot be accomplished without the help of parents. That must be the reason Carl Jung, the famous American psychologist, had in mind when he said, “the human infant lives in the shadow of his parents.”
And that is why the Qur’aan precisely commands us to be dutiful, kind and thankful to our parents, (especially mothers) to a status second only to the worship of Allah. For further information on Islam or a free copy of the Holy Qur’aan, please contact: Majlisul Ulama Zimbabwe, Council of Islamic Scholars Publications Department P.O. Box W93, Waterfalls, Harare Tel: 04- 614078 / 614004, Fax : 04-614003
e-mail: gence differently. That’s why we are very deliberate as a church,” Apostle Chiriseri said.
Apostle Chiriseri added that apart from church and family, society was also shaped by education, politics and the media.
“Values are determined by people so we believe it’s critical that we come in there and bring godly values that make society strong. Things are changing continuously around us but the values that never change are the word of God,” he said.