Quazi Saleh Mustanzir :
During my college days, a short story that stroke and stirred my tender emotion vehemently was Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s ‘A Mother in Manville’. It tells a tale of a twelve year boy named Jerry who fabricated a story about his mother whom he lost at the age of four but represented her in the story ‘living in Manville’.
Though he lost her mother at an early age, his fabrication suggested that the long deprivation of motherly love led Jerry to create a mother’s image in his mind. The mother in his imagination gave him affection, comfort and care for the time being. Those who have mothers will rarely feel aches of Jerry’s heart that is eager for a mother’s unadulterated love and care.
A mother gives birth to a child, nurtures and rears him or her until he or she is grown up. She bears all the pains smilingly in the process of raising them. She doesn’t expect anything in return from her children other than their happiness. No other love in the world is so pure, selfless and unconditional as that comes from a mother. A mother’s contribution to her children is incomparable and cannot be reciprocated with anything else.
There is a saying that ‘love flows downwards’. That is probably the reason why many of us don’t feel for our mothers as they do for us. But there are of course exceptions too. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, one of the leading social reformers in this subcontinent, had a deep regard for her mother. Hence he did not care for his job upon the denial of his leave application for seeing his ailing mother, and crossed the turbulent Damodar River just to meet her. Bayazid Bostami, a famous Persian Sufi, kept standing beside her mother’s bed with a glass of water throughout night.
All the scriptures in the world consolidated the position of a mother and held her in high esteem. Muslims are ordered to show respect to their parents. The Holy Quran says: “Your Lord has decreed: 25 (i) Do not worship any but Him; 26 (ii) Be good to your parents; and should both or any one of them attain old age with you, do not say to them even “fie” neither chide them, but speak to them with respect.” [Surah Al-Isra (17:23)]
Islam reserves a much honored position for a mother. There is a hadith narrating that a man came to the Prophet and said, ‘O Messenger of God! Who among the people is the most worthy of my good companionship? The Prophet said: Your mother. The man said, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man further asked, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man asked again, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your father. (Bukhari, Muslim).
There is another hadith where the Prophet Muhammad said, Your Heaven lies under the feet of your mother (Ahmad, Nasai).
The Hindu scripture says that “Janani Janmabhumishcha Swargadapi Gariyasi” meaning that “Mother and motherland are superior even to Heaven.”
As for biblical reference: “Honor your father and mother” is mentioned twice in the Old Testament (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16) and six times in the New Testament (Matthew 15:4; 19:19; Mark 7:10; 10:19; Luke 18:20; Ephesians 6:2).
Likewise, all other religions in the world deliver a common commandment of showing utmost respect to mothers.
However, people very often tend to deviate from this sermon and become indifferent to their duties and responsibilities towards their parents. Thousands of parents in their old age do not get due attention from their children who they raised throughout their lives. Many ungrateful children send their parents to old homes to pass their final days in solitude and breathe their last. In recent times various newspapers reported on some inhuman and selfish people who left their hapless and helpless mother, a precious gift for them on earth, in the jungle on the suspicion of Corona virus. That is a shame, and a sheer ingratitude on the part of a son/daughter to a mother.
We often fail to realize how fortunate we are when we have our mothers beside us. A smiling word or little time for them is enough to make them happy. When someone smiles at his/her mother, the heaven comes down on earth. The love for our mothers cannot be confined to a fixed day. It is something that should be celebrated every day. However, Anna Jarvis, an American citizen, tried to fix a day for the observance of the Mother’s Day in the fond memory of her late mother. At her initiatives Mother’s day is now being observed worldwide though the date of observance varies from country to country. In Bangladesh we observe it on the second Sunday of May each year. It’s a day that reminds us of the bond and connection we have with our mother. It is not a day to be celebrated commercially. Rather it is a day for searching our souls that should always harbor a profound love for our mothers.
(Mr. Mustanzir is Deputy Secretary, Planning Commission, Dhaka. Email: [email protected])
