عَنْ عَبْدِ اللهِ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ رضي الله عنه قَالَ: سَأَلْتُ النَّبِيَّ ﷺ: أَيُّ الْعَمَلِ أَحَبُّ إِلى اللَّهِ؟ قَالَ: «الصَّلاةُ عَلى وقْتِهَا»، قَالَ: ثُمَّ أَيٌّ؟ قَالَ: «ثُمَّ بِرُّ الْوَالِدَيْنِ»، قَالَ: ثُمَّ أَيٌّ؟ قَالَ: «الجِهَادُ في سَبيل اللهِ» قَالَ: حَدَّثَنِي بِهِنَّ، ولَوِ اسْتَزَدْتُهُ لَزَادَنِي.
ꜤAbdullāh ibn MasꜤūd narrated:
1. I asked God’s Messenger (peace be upon him) which action God loves best? He said: “Prayer on time”. 2. I asked: Then which? He said: “Dutifulness to parents”. 3. I asked: what comes next? He said: “Jihad [i.e. striving] for God’s cause”. 4. [ꜤAbdullāh] said: He mentioned these to me. Had I asked him for more, he would have answered me.
Related by al-Bukhari, 527; Muslim, 85.
Those of the believers who remain passive, other than the disabled, are not equal to those who strive hard in God’s cause with their possessions and their lives. God has exalted those who strive hard with their possessions and their lives far above the ones who remain passive. To each God has promised the ultimate good, yet God has preferred those who strive hard over those who remain passive with a mighty reward:
(4: 95)
Indeed, prayer is a time-related duty, binding on all believers.
(4: 103)
God has bought of the believers their lives and their property, promising them heaven in return: they fight for the cause of God, kill and be killed. This is a true promise which He has made binding on Himself in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur'an. Who is more true to his promise than God? Rejoice, then, in the bargain you have made with Him. That is the supreme triumph.
(9: 111)
Your Lord has ordained that you shall worship none but Him, and that you must be kind to your parents. Should one of them, or both, attain to old age in your care, never say ‘Ugh’ to them or chide them, but always speak gently and kindly to them, (23) and spread over them humbly the wings of your tenderness, and say, ‘My Lord, bestow on them Your grace, even as they reared and nurtured me when I was a child’.
(17: 23-24)
