هُنَالِكَ دَعَا زَكَرِيَّا رَبَّهُ قَالَ رَبِّ هَبْ لِي مِن لَّدُنكَ ذُرِّيَّةً طَيِّبَةً إِنَّكَ سَمِيعُ الدُّعَاءِ
My Lord, grant me a pious progeny, as a special favor [upon me] from Yourself. Indeed, You hear our supplications1
Note: This is a part of the supplication of the prophet Zachariah (pbuh), when he prayed to God to give him a child.
The great blessings in the life of this world are also the strongest challenge in the way of man’s success in the Hereafter. What we desire and love the most is more likely to become our stumbling block in our submission to the directives and the likes of God. A person’s children are no exception. It is, therefore, that the prophets of God, though they too were subject to all of man’s natural desires, always prayed for a ‘pious progeny’. The piety of the progeny is not a license to Paradise, merely for itself, but can go a long way in helping the parents to tread the path of everlasting success.
- Aal Imraan 3:38 [↩]