Parents marriage in case they get widowed

From the recent experience of my father’s illness, I felt the urge to share my realization with my brothers and sisters. My mother died back in 2002 (may Allah have mercy on her). My father was all alone for around 5-6 years as I was pursuing my higher education in BUET at Dhaka. Meanwhile, my other two siblings were also leading their own family lives leaving little time for my father. However, My father was struggling to spend his time in loneliness. As soon as I got married, my wife and I arranged a second marriage for my father. My stepmother didn’t fit the high family background of my own mother, but she tried her best to be the companion of my father. We (even at times practicing Muslims) feel a little tentative to get our father’s a wife in case he is widowed- fearing a decrease in our shares in inheritance or some weird social “Taboo”. If we really love our parents and they are widowed, I request our brothers and sisters to help out them so that they do not feel shy about telling their needs in getting married again. If someone is widowed at 55-60 years and we think that he can spend his remaining time playing with grandchildren, going to the masjid, and watching the news in TV, then we are living in a world seen through the lens of Kuffar. Nobody gives time to these aged people when they want to talk at midday or late at night When they can’t sleep remembering old times. when we are busy with our families, we think very little about how our widowed parents are managing to pass the night. One day during this phase of my father’s illness when he is already in Life support and we (my stepmother and I) were stationed in a cabin, I overheard her in her prayer (as I woke up from sleep). She was telling Allaah that- All these 14 years of her marriage with my father, they just talked and talked as they were both beyond their ages (one in the late 50s and another one in the early 70s) and she did that for the sake of Allaah. She was crying and asking Allaah to make it easy for her husband. I understood her contribution more than I did before that moment. We must understand the need for companionship even in old age and we must not render our parents in loneliness in fear of social taboo and share in our inheritance. May Allaah guide us to take care of our parents in their old age.

Abu Aaisha