The rights of parents do not come to an end with their death. In fact, some of their rights take effect after their death, and it is a religious obligation for the children to fulfill them.

As explained before, obeying one’s parents and treating them with respect and affection is great virtue – and atones for one’s sins. Similarly, to ask Allah to have mercy on them after their death, is an act which brings comfort to them in their graves and serves to atone for one’s sins.

After the death of one’s parent among other duties should be to pray for their forgiveness and treat their relatives and friends wth due respect. Abu Usaid Sa’idi (RA) relates that a person came to the prophet (SAW) and asked him, “O prophet of Allah, are there some rights of my parents, on me, which I have to fulfill even after they have died?” “Yes” the prophet replied, “these are to pray for mercy and forgiveness on their behalf, to fulfill the promises they have made to anyone, to pay due regard to the bonds of relationship from their side and to be respectful to their friends.

In the Qur’aan, Muslims have been urged to pray for the salvation of their parents as shown in the verse. And say, “My Lord, have mercy on both of them, as they cared for me when I was little.”

Advantages of obedience to parents
The real reward for serving the parents, with great attention, is paradise and the pleasure of Allah. But the Almighty bestows a special favour, in this world too, on the believer who fulfills the parents’ rights devotedly.

Jabir (RA) reports that the prophet (SAW) said, “Allah prolongs the life of a person who obeys his parents and serves them devotedly.” In another hadeeth, the prophet (SAW) is reported to have said, “obey your parents and treat them with kindness, your children will be kind and obedient to you.”

Great sin for disobeying the parents
Just as the prophet (SAW) declared that serving ones parents well is an act of great virtue, he condemned the showing of disobedience to them, as a most serious and detestable sin. When asked about the major sins, the prophet (SAW) replied, “To associate anyone with Allah, to disobey the parents, to kill unlawfully and to give false evidence.”

The above-mentioned acts have been condemned as Akbarul-kabaair i.e. the most serious of the major sins. The order in which the prophet said them, shows that the disregard of parents rights is next, only to polytheism (shirrk) and it is even more serious then murder.

The prophet (SAW) has said, “to abuse one’s parents is also a major sin”. He was asked, “can anyone abuse his parents?” “Yes”, the prophet (SAW) replied. “if a person abused someone else’s parents and that person, in refaliation, abused his parents – then it is as though he himself had abused his parents.” We can imagine, from this, what an important place respect for parents occupies in the moral and social teachings of Islam and how careful one should be about it.