Luqman (Luqman)

15. “And if they (both) contend with you that you should associate with Me what you have no knowledge of, do not obey them, and keep company with them in (this) world kindly, and follow the way of him who turns to Me, then unto Me is the return of you (all) and then will I inform you of what you were doing.”

It is not necessary to obey parents when there is a deviated thing, but the ordinary way of life must always be observed.

Therefore, since the recommendation on kindness to parents may create this thought for some individuals that even in relation to the subject of beliefs whether faith and infidelity, one must comply with them, the Qur’an says:

“And if they (both) contend with you that you should associate with Me what you have no knowledge of, do not obey them…”

One’s communication with his parents must never be prior to his communication with Allah, and relative affections must never dominate the theological beliefs.

The Qur’anic term /jahadaka/ points to this factual matter that sometimes parents, considering that they wish the happiness of their child, try to drive him toward their own deviated belief, and this action has been seen in almost all parents.

The duty of children is that they should never surrender these pressures and they should protect their own ideological independence and do not exchange the belief in Monotheism for any thing else.

By the way, the Qur’anic sentence:

“…what you have no knowledge of”

means that if supposing we ignore the reasons of nullification of polytheism, at least, there is no reason to prove it, and no seeker of pretext can bring a reason for proving polytheism, either.

Moreover, if polytheism were a reality, there would exist a reason for proving it, and since there is not any reason to prove it, this itself is a reason upon its nullification.

Again, since it is probable that this commandment brings this imagination into being that the irreligious parents must be encountered violently and disgracefully, immediately after it the Qur’an implies that the lack of obedience to them in the subject of disbelief and polytheism is not an evidence for absolute rupture of relation with them; but in the meantime we must have an appropriate manner to them in the world.

The verse continues saying:

“…and keep company with them in (this) world kindly…”

From the point of the world and material living we must have love, affection, and benignity to them but from the point of belief and religious programs we must not surrender to their wrong thoughts and suggestions. This is exactly the essential point of equilibrium in which the rights of Allah and parents are gathered.

That is why, next to it, Allah says:

“…and follow the way of him who turns to Me, then unto Me is the return of you (all) and then will I inform you of what you were doing.”

The successive negations and affirmations as well as enjoinments and prohibitions mentioned in the above verse is for the sake that Muslims find out the main line when in such issues there may consider, at first glance, a contradiction between the fulfilment of two duties, and they follow the correct path without the least excess and defect.

This accuracy and delicateness of the Qur’an in these narrow things is out of the features of its deep elegance and rhetoric.

However, the abovementioned verse is completely similar to what is mentioned in Surah Al-‘Ankabut, no. 29, verse 8 which says:

“And We have enjoined on man goodness unto his parents; and if they strive with you that you should associate (others) with Me, of which you have no knowledge, then do not obey them, unto Me is your return, and I will inform you of what you were doing.”