Feature

by Senior Citizens Saturday, May 23, 2015 0 comments

Senior citizens in Islam

  

Humour helps us to think out of the box, the average child laughs about 400 times per day, the average adult laughs only 15 times a day; what happened to the other 385 laughs?? And that’s something to give a thought to. What’s the reason behind this? Work load, Pressure Or maybe just a little bit of missing love and respect.

Unfortunately the behaviour of today’s young generation with our senior citizens tends to be the reason behind their lesser number of laughs and more depression. Life in 21st century is hectic, and we are often overwhelmed by the worldly concerns so much so we tend to forget that morals and manners are a huge part of this way of life that is Islam.

Islam is a religion of justice and compassion that teaches morality and forbids bad conduct in society. Special merits have been accorded with the elderly; they are treated with respect and dignity. Muslims are urged to honour them. In one of the hadith, the prophet disavows those who do not venerate the elderly and consider them alien to Muslim society:

“He is not one of us who does not show mercy to our young ones and esteem to our elderly”

(Al-Tirmidi and Ahmad)

It’s a young one’s duty to respect and care for the elders, Islam emphasis on good behaviour with elders regardless of the relation with that person. Here follows the hadith which specify: Anas-Ibn-Malik (May Allah be pleased by him) narrated that prophet (PBUH) said:

“If a young man honours an elderly on account to honour him in his elderly”

(Al-Tirmidi)

The Prophet (SAWW) here advices the youngsters of the society to respect the elderly  as they too will be tomorrows elderly. The continuous application of this prophetic advice helps bridge the gap between generation and spread an atmosphere of love and understand between young and the old. Consider also the generalization in prophets words, the hadith requires to honour the elderly regardless of their colour or religion.

They define the characteristic of an old age, which are Slowness of behaviour, They may listen to high pitch, Slowness of task performance, They might get impulsive, They can be stubborn at times etc. But still the young ones are obliged to stay polite and kind with them, prophet urged the young ones again and again to be kind with these people. Since these are the assets of our society they are those priceless treasures who behold the important history, past information and moreover a lot of experience. Islam teaches us to protect them and give them their complete rights because they are not physically and mentally eligible to take care of themselves. The Prophet keeps reminding the young ones about the circle of life, where you will get what you have been doing; everything will come back to you, so, be kind. Islam forces the children to take care of their parents and not throw them out when they are old. The society would be glorious if and only if we would have followed our religion, the Prophet’s footprints (Sunnah).

Starting from nowhere but home, what are we doing with our assets in our so called Islamic Republic of Pakistan? Here, parents work day and night to give their children a better lifestyle and good education, but unfortunately once these children gets educated enough to become independent; they leave parents here and go abroad with their families. I personally, , met 7 old couples left in old homes or their own homes to be nurtured by strangers; where they wanted to live with their children’s. In our country the trend of keeping parents and old age people of family in old homes is more common in urban areas than in rural areas; as compared to urban areas old people in rural areas are respected in their families, they are the decision makers, and family members takes care of them like babies. We must understand that, Islam recognizes the importance of the family unit, and good an loving relationship between parents and children is essential. After God, our parents deserve our gratitude and obedience. A Muslim is obligated to show goodness and mercy to his or her parents. There is only one exception to this if, if parents expect their children to associate anything to god or do something regarded impermissible in Islam, then the child must not obey their parents, however nothing removes the obligation to be kind and respectful. This obligation is not limited to one’s parents mere, but extended to every old age person one meet; regardless of the religion they follow; the race they belong to; the color they have ; the language they speak; as discussed before.