Devotion to Parents (Birr al-Walidayn)

Yā Rabb, You paired the worship of You with the worship of nothing else, except this: birr al-walidayn. You said 'wa lā tushrikū bihi shayʾan wa bi-l-walidayni iḥsānan.' And You did not pair it with Quran memorization, or jihād, or hajj, or sadaqah. You paired it with Yourself. Because You know, ya Khabīr, that the human being who cannot soften their voice for the woman who wept through their birth, or hold the hand of the man whose back was bent carrying them, has not yet learned how to bow. We bow to You every day; You used the same word, sajdah, that we use for our spines, for the obedience of stars. And You placed parents under our spines like a foundation. Ya Allah, I confess. There have been days I picked up the phone to a friend immediately and let my mother's call ring. Days I rushed past my father's question because I was opening my laptop. Days I sighed when they said the same thing twice. Forgive me, ya Allah. Their patience with me when I was small was Your mercy speaking through them; let my patience with them now be my answer. Soften my voice when I speak to them. Slow my pace when I walk beside them. Open my eyes to what they actually need (not what I assume they need: presence, attention, my full face, my undistracted listening). And if my parents are in their graves, ya Rabb, make every duʿā I say for them tonight a river of light in their resting place. Forgive their wrongs. Multiply their good. And let me be a child who continues to do birr for them after they cannot see it, the truest birr, the one that proves the love was never about being seen. Ya Allāh, irzuqnā birra wālidaynā ḥatta yardiyani ʿannā fīka. Āmīn ya Rabb al-ʿAlamīn.