Our beloved Prophet (saw) instructed us to respect all those who are old and at the same time we are to have mercy on the young. The Prophet (saw) said:” I advise you to be good to the elderly, and to have mercy on the youth.” (Ad-Daylami).

Any young person, who respects the elderly, is to be respected when he becomes old. In one hadith, the following is reported:” Any young person who is kind to an elderly because of his age, Allah will send him someone who will be kind to him when he becomes old.” (Tirmidhi)

In another place, our beloved Prophet (saw) denounce the young if they don’t respect the elderly in as much as the elderly are denounced if they don’t have mercy on the young. The Prophet (saw) said:” He is not of us, the one who does not have mercy on our young ones, and the one who does not know the respect of our old ones.” (Dawood and Tirmidhi)

The respect that the Prophet (saw) instructed us to give to the elderly is also in the field of prayer itself. We are to feel sympathy and concern for the elderly while we are performing the prayer. We should not extend or prolong the congregation prayer especially if there are elderly among the faithful.

In one hadith the Prophet (saw) said:” When a person leads a congregation prayer, let him make it short, as there may be around the weak, the sick and the elderly. However, when a person prays by himself, he may extend his prayer as much as he wishes.” (Agreed)

Narrated by Abu Musa (ra) saying that the Messenger of Allah said:” Among the respect that Allah bestows is to the one who is elderly, gray-haired Muslim, the one who memorized the Qur’an without bragging or deserting it, and the respect is to the just ruler.” (Abu Dawood)

Muslim should do his best to respect the elderly and especially his parents. It is a bad habit to send our elderly to senior citizen homes. It is also bad to rid of our parents and send them to nursing home. The presence of our parents in our own homes is a blessing from Allah (swt). The presence will bring peace, happiness, concord, tranquillity, mercy and reward from Allah. (swt)

We should try our best to request our parents to stay at our own houses so as to receive the blessings of Allah. We should give a good example to the non-Muslims to do the same with their parents. If we take the initiative and practice this good habit in a Muslim minority country, we will establish a better society where there is no generation gap.

There won’t be animosity between the young generations towards the elderly. Instead, there will be kindness, respect, sympathy, concern, and love toward one another. We feel sorry for the elderly who are living in nursing homes, that they are not wanted in the society that they are deserted, and that arson is committed on them to get rid of them. Poor elderly in this society! Many of them are being attacked while walking on the streets, robbed and killed. Others are killed while asleep in the nursing homes. Still others are strangled for no reason.

Therefore, think ourselves when we will be old. Think seriously about what is going to happen to us in this part of the world when we will become a senior citizen. We are sure none of us want to be deserted, unwanted or to be thrown away in those nursing homes. None of us want to think that he is a liability when he is still an asset to the society.

We are advised to visit some of the nursing homes and see for ourselves the life habitat of the elderly. Try to see the type of treatment they receive, the type of food they eat, the type of atmosphere they live in, and the type of feeling they have. Many of us will run away from those places.

However, if anyone wishes to live in the open society, he will not feel safe either. We hope and pray that we will do something good as of today to improving the situation. Once it was said:” Treat people the way you wish them to treat you.” Also it was once said:” The way you treat people, you will be treated.” The Prophet (saw) said:” Where it not for the elderly who are praying, were it not for the nursing infants, and were it not for the youth who are praying night tahajjud, people would have been destroyed.”

Let us pray that Allah guide us to the straight path. Let us ask Allah’s guidance and forgiveness. Ameen.  (Ends)

(Prepared by Abdul Muhaemin Karim)