his parents. Allah is his Creator, his Maker, his Fashioner, his Provider, his Helper, and his Guide. The right of his parents bears only a partial resemblance to this. For this reason, Allah coupled their right with His own in His words:

“Be grateful to Me and to your parents.”

And in His words:

“Worship Allah and associate nothing with Him, and be good to your parents.”

And in His words:

“Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you be good to your parents.”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, described disowning one’s parents as disbelief because of its resemblance to disowning one’s Lord. An authentic hadith states:

“Whoever knowingly claims descent from someone other than his father has disbelieved.”

Both al-Bukhārī and Muslim recorded it in their Sahīh collections. He also said:

“Whoever disowns a tie of descent, however remote, has disbelieved in Allah.”

And he said:

“Do not disown your fathers, for it is disbelief on your part to disown your fathers.”

Thus, the rights of lineage, kinship, and blood ties are preceded by the right belonging to Allah as Lord and His right as the Near, the Responsive, the Most Merciful. For the ultimate end of those ties is to be joined to this bond, as Allah said:

“I am the Most Merciful. I created the ties of kinship and derived their name from My name. Whoever maintains them, I shall maintain My bond with him; and whoever severs them, I shall cut him off.”

He also said:

“Kinship is a branch linked to the Most Merciful.”

And he said:

“When Allah created kinship, it clung to the waist of the Most Merciful and said: ‘This is the place of one seeking refuge in You from being severed.’”

It has also been said that, in His words,

“They observe no ties of kinship toward a believer,”

the word ill means “the Lord,” as in al-Siddīq’s remark upon hearing Musaylima’s “Quran”: “These words have not come from the Lord.”

As for the inclusion of the Lord’s right within covenants and contracts, an example is the servant’s entering into peace and testifying that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. This is the covenant of Islam: the noblest, most binding, most comprehensive, and most complete of all covenants.