Kindness to Parents — report 6

6. A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khalid from his father from ‘Abd Allah ibn Bahr from ‘Abd Allah ibn Muskan from those whom he has mentioned from Abu ‘Abdillah عليه السلام who has said the following: “Once the Imam spoke to ‘Abd al- Wahid al-Ansari, while I was present, about kindness to parents mentioned in the words of Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, ‘Be kind to parents.’ We thought it was the verse in Chapter Seventeen that says, ‘. . . the Lord has ordained that you must not worship anyone other than Him and that you must “Be kind to your parents. . . .’ (17:23) Later I asked the Imam and he said, ‘It was verse 14-15 of Chapter 31, that says, “(Concerning his parents), We advised the man, (to be good to parents). . . . (31:14) If they try to force you to consider things equal to Me, which you cannot justify to be equal to Me, do not obey them.” (31:15) The Imam then said, ‘This shows greater significance of maintaining good relations with them in all cases.’ I asked about: ‘If they try to force you to consider things equal to Me, which you cannot justify to be equal to Me, do not obey them.’ (31:15) The Imam said, ‘It, in fact, is a command to establish good relations with parents even if they struggle to make him consider things equal to Allah. It only shows the greatness of the rights of parents.’” (Note: al-Majlisi in Mir’at al-‘Uqul has expressed concern about the authenticity of this Hadith. For details one may refer to this work.)