Praise and Thanksgiving to Allah Accompanied by Gratitude to Parents

Honouring one’s
parents is one of the greatest means of drawing close to Allah and one of
the best acts of obedience. It is an important right that they are given in
Islamic sharee’ah (law), so much so that Allah has mentioned obedience to
parents alongside obedience to Him, and their rights alongside His rights,
in more than one place. 

Allah says
(interpretation of the meaning): 

“And We have
enjoined on man (to be dutiful and good) to his parents. His mother bore him
in weakness and hardship upon weakness and hardship, and his weaning is in
two years – give thanks to Me and to your parents. Unto Me is the final
destination.” [31:14]. 

Al-Qurtubi (may
Allah have mercy on him) said in his Tafseer (exegesis): The scholars said:
Those who are most deserving of gratitude, kindness, honour and obedience
after the Creator are those whom Allah mentions kindness towards alongside
worship, obedience and gratitude to Him; namely one’s parents. Allah says
(interpretation of the meaning):

“Give thanks to Me
and to your parents.” [31:14]. 

It was narrated
that ‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘As (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “The
Lord is pleased when the parents are pleased and He is angry when the
parents are angry.” Al-Albani said: It is hasan li ghayrihi (sound because
of corroborating evidence). 

Clearly expressing
gratitude to the parents and acknowledging their virtue is undoubtedly
included in the meaning of the verse, but the verse should not be understood
as meaning this only, rather what is meant by giving thanks here is more
general than that: a person should fulfil the rights that his Lord has over
him in his heart and his words as well as his physical actions, and he
should fulfil his parents’ rights over him in a like manner. 

Ibn al-Qayyim (may
Allah have mercy on him) said in Madarij al-Salikeen: 

Gratitude is based
on five foundations: 

Humility of the
thankful one towards the One Who is thanked, his love for Him, his
acknowledgement of His blessing, his praise of Him for that and not using it
for anything that He hates. 

These five are the
foundations of gratitude which is built on them. If one of them is missing,
then one of the foundations of gratitude is missing. Whoever (of the
scholars) speaks of gratitude as an independent quality must be referring to
all of these five foundations. 

Gratitude is shown
in the heart by humility, on the tongue by praise and acknowledgement, and
in one’s physical actions by obeying and submitting. End quote. 

In his commentary
on this verse, al-Shaykh al-Sa’di (may Allah have mercy on him) said: When
He enjoined fulfilling His rights by giving up shirk, which means
establishing Tawheed, He also enjoined fulfilling parents’ rights, and said:
“And We have enjoined on man” i.e., We have commanded him and made it an
obligation upon him, and We shall question him about his fulfilment thereof,
did he fulfil it or not? And We have enjoined on him “(to be dutiful and
good) to his parents” and have said to him: “give thanks to Me” by
worshipping Me and fulfilling your duties towards Me, and not seeking the
help of My blessings in disobeying Me; “and to your parents” by treating
them kindly, speaking gently to them, treating them nicely, being humble
towards them, honouring them, respecting them, taking care of them and
avoiding mistreating them in any way, in word or deed. 

We have enjoined
this upon him and We have told him that “Unto Me is the final destination”
i.e., you will return, O man, to the One Who enjoined this upon you and
ordained these duties for you, and He will ask you: Did you fulfil them? In
which case He will reward you greatly, but if you failed, He will punish you
severely. End quote.

There is nothing
wrong with accompanying thanksgiving to Allah with thanksgiving to one’s
parents, and combining the two, but he should not do that all the time as if
it were a dhikr (form of prescribed remembrance) narrated from the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), because there is no such report
from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). 

There are a number
of questions on our site that discuss the command to honour one’s parents.
Please see:

13783,

22782 and

35533.

And Allah knows
best.