SOMETIMES I CAN’T help but feel that parents, especially those of South Asian backgrounds, see their role primarily as providers of their children’s rizq (sustenance).
We spend our lives in pursuit of provision. We toil day and night, often sacrificing our own growth, our own spiritual nourishment, and even our own joy. We save relentlessly, invest in property, accumulate wealth and possessions, all in the hope that our children will one day inherit something of worth.
Yet we must pause and ask ourselves: in striving so hard to secure what we leave for them, have we forgotten what we must leave within them? Have we forgotten that we are not, and never have been, the ultimate providers?
Allah Most High reminds us:
نَّحْنُ نَرْزُقُهُمْ وَإِيَّاكُمْ
We provide for them and for you. (al-Isrāʾ 31)
It is He who provides, never our salaries, never our savings, never our properties. Our duty, then, is something far greater and far more sacred: to raise our children with iman and taqwa, and with the skills and strength needed to stand upright in a challenging world. To cultivate hearts anchored in iman, minds capable of discernment, and hands ready for responsibility.
But, too often, the opposite occurs. Parents exhaust themselves building a legacy of wealth while neglecting a legacy of values. They secure homes but overlook the home of the heart. They prepare inheritances but fail to prepare heirs, heirs of character, resilience, and righteousness.
And the consequences are real. Parents miss opportunities to invest in themselves by deepening their connection with Allah, to learn their dīn, and to serve their communities through dawah and activism. Children grow shielded from struggle, untested, unprepared, lacking the resilience that hardship teaches and iman demands.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught us a profound truth: “When a person dies, his deeds come to an end except for three: ongoing charity, beneficial knowledge, or a righteous child who prays for him.” (Muslim)
Not wealth. Not property. Not inheritance. But righteousness. Beneficial knowledge. Lasting charity.
These are the true provisions that outlive us and that we need to invest in.
May Allah make us among those who fulfil the trust of parenthood not only with our hands, but with our hearts; not only by providing for our children, but by preparing them. And may He grant us children who are a source of continual dua and ongoing benefit long after we have returned to Him.
Living For Islam 