Islam honors and respects mothers and acknowledges their rights in an unprecedented manner. Islamic Sharia thus declares filial duty as a foundational virtue. Here, good treatment of mothers and care for them is a filial duty, and so is charity and kindness to them. The Qur’an underscores such meanings in verses that read, “For your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him. And honor your parents. If one or both of them reach old age in your care, never say to them even ‘ugh,’ nor yell at them. Rather, address them respectfully. And be humble with them out of mercy, and pray, ‘My Lord! Be merciful to them as they raised me when I was young.’” (Qur’an 17: 23-24) This is a manifestation of absolute tenderness and compassion towards them in the way that makes it obligatory for children to be humble with them. This is close to the Prophet’s (pbuh) saying to Jahima ibn Al-ˁAbbas ibn Mirdas As-Sulamī, when he sought to go out with the army (to participate in Jihad), “Do you have a mother?” Then, when the man said, “Yes,” the Prophet (pbuh) said to him, “Stay with her, as Paradise is beneath her feet.” He order Jahima to serve his mother in the way a slave serves a master. Undoubtedly, the mother’s merit exceeds the father’s, as the Prophet (pbuh) replied to a man asking him thrice about the person most entitled to one’s company, saying, “Your mother.” Then, in the fourth time, the Prophet (pbuh) said, “Your father.” For it is the mother who endures the throes of childbirth and who spends sleepless nights tending to her children. She is the reason behind the children’s life. Commenting on the excessive pain suffered by the mothers at childbirth and the consequent filial duty on the children towards them, including honoring and treating her fairly well, the Qur’an reads, “We have commanded people to honor their parents. Their mothers bore them through hardship upon hardship, and their weaning takes two years. So be grateful to Me and to your parents. To Me is the final return.” (Qur’an, 31: 14) This makes it obligatory for us all to maintain filial duty and to know that good treatment of the parents entails blessings in provision and lifetime.

While commemorating Mother's Day - which falls on March 21 of each year, Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif, through all its academic and educational bodies, extends to the mothers of the martyrs the highest expressions of gratitude, coupled with pride and reverence, appreciation, and respect. They represent a lofty example of heroism, sacrifice, patience, self-denial, and graceful endurance of sadness and pain.

The mothers who lose their beloved children should know that Allah Almighty blesses them and prepares for them unparalleled gifts and dwellings in Paradise. Compared to such heavenly gifts, short-lived mundane pleasures are worthless. It is enough honor that they gracefully and forbearingly sacrifice their children in wait for heavenly rewards that are more transcendent that any human mind can imagine.

If we are to bow in reverence to any mother, we should bow first to ‘the mother of the martyr’!