When Parents Are a Blessing and a Test

DAILYREFLECTION

Your parents may be your greatest blessing, or your greatest test. Often they are both. Their upbringing, their lessons, even their mistakes, become a voice in your head that follows you for a lifetime. Islam does not ignore that complexity. It gives you a way to honor their sacrifice, protect your heart, and choose a different path where needed.

Allah Sees What You Do Not Remember:

You cannot remember the miracle of your birth. You cannot remember the contractions, the sleepless nights, the quiet panic of your parents in those first months.

Allah reminds you:

“We have commanded the human being to treat his parents with excellence. His mother carried him in hardship and delivered him in hardship… until when he reaches his full strength and reaches forty years, he says: ‘My Lord, inspire me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do righteous deeds that please You, and make my offspring righteous for me…’” (Surah Al-Ahqaf 46:15)

Many people only begin to understand their parents in their thirties and forties, when life starts to look the way it looked to them. The Qur’an places that moment inside a dua.

Gratitude for your own blessings.
Gratitude for the good your parents did.
And a plea that your children turn out better.

When Your Parents Were Part of The Test:

Not everyone grew up with gentle, emotionally healthy parents. Some of the greatest believers did not.

• Musa grew up in the palace of Firawn, the most towering tyrant in history, yet his heart aligned with Asiya, the selfless believer who raised him with mercy. He could have become another narcissistic ruler. Instead, he became a defender of the oppressed.
  

• Ibrahim had an abusive father who threw him into a fire, yet he grew into a soft, merciful father to his own children. Some scholars even see in his name the meaning of “a compassionate father.”
  

• Umar ibn al Khattab hated the cruelty of his father, Al Khattab. Before Islam, he was on track to mirror that harshness. Through Islam, that same strength turned into justice, tenderness for the weak, and tears in the night.

Sometimes the test of bad parenting is whether you repeat it. Sometimes the test of good parenting is whether you take it for granted. In both cases, Allah gives you a choice: What will you carry forward, and what will you unlearn?

REFLECT ON THIS:

Today, if we quietly sit with Allah and think of our parents, what is one trait we want to consciously carry forward to our children, and one trait we are asking Allah to help us lovingly unlearn

^{Share your reflections in the poll at the end of the email.}

WATERMELONWATCH

• Israel bombs Syria and Gaza as new footage from Jenin shows Israeli forces shooting two unarmed Palestinian men who appear to be surrendering, while rights groups demand criminal investigations and sanctions so that Palestinians are not left to face this violence in silence.

• UN agencies warn that winter rain, overcrowded tents, and damaged sanitation are driving illness in Gaza and that raids in the northern West Bank are forcing whole communities into lockdown and keeping children out of school, even as UNRWA, UNICEF, and partners keep expanding vaccinations, water trucking, and winter clothing distributions for displaced families.

• European officials visiting the Rafah crossing today urged Israel to open all routes for food, fuel, and medicine and warned of a catastrophic winter if aid remains restricted, adding diplomatic pressure that aid groups hope will translate into more trucks and safer access for humanitarian workers on the ground.

• Gaza children in a Khan Younis displacement camp have turned a sandy lane between tents into a small basketball court where they train twice a week with volunteer coaches, carving out moments of play, friendship, and normal childhood in the middle of loss and uncertainty.

• Youth delegates at a Model OIC summit in Istanbul are centering Gaza in debates on justice and international law, while groups like the Turkish Red Crescent send continued convoys of food, water, and medical aid, showing how student organizers and relief workers in many countries are trying to turn solidarity into practical support.

QURANCORNER

Antum (أنتم) — You (plural)

Antum speaks to the many nations, groups, or gatherings of hearts. It calls communities to account, invites them to believe, and warns them to reflect. Sometimes it uplifts, sometimes it questions. But always, Antum reminds us that faith is not just personal, it’s shared, tested, and lived together.