Why is making Du'a for children an obligation on the parents?

Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) taught us through the Qur’an that Allah revealed for the parent a variety of supplications. This is the second obligation for a parent for the children. If we are righteous then when our children are born, prior to the birth of our children when we unite with our wife, we make du'a.

"...بِسْمِ اللهِ اَللَّهُمَّ جَنِّبْنَا الشَّيْطَانَ وَجَنِّبِ الشَّيْطَانَ مَا رَزَقْتَنَا..."

“We ask Allah to protect us from shaytan and keep shaytan away from whatever You have provide us with (children)”[1]

Remembering that du'a is the weapon of a Muslim, and the only thing that can change Qadr. So as Allah describes the Ibaadur Rahman that always make supplication:

رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ

“O Lord, grant from our spouses and our children pleasure to eyes”[2]

We hope that we will see our children as believers, not as disbeliever. When we see our children as disbeliever, they are only sorrow and curse in our life.

Zakariya (عَلَيْهِ السَّلاَمُ), he prayed:

"...رَبِّ هَبْ لِي مِنْ لَدُنْكَ ذُرِّيَّةً طَيِّبَةً إِنَّكَ سَمِيعُ الدُّعَاءِ..."

“O Lord, grant me a good offspring, you are indeed, a good hearer of supplication”[3]

And there are many du'a from Al-Qur’an and Sunnah about these kinds of supplications. We should pray with conviction and make it really sincerely from our heart that Allah will really give us righteous children. But in the same time, we have to make sure that we don’t cancel the validity of our prayer by doing somethings that are displeasing to Allah.

Because Rasoolullah (ﷺ) told us about a person who is in the journey, and he is tired and dusty, he raises his hand to the sky and ask “yaa Rabbi, yaa Rabbi” but his place of eating of haram, his place of drinking is haram, his clothes is haram, and he eats haram things, how will Allah answer his prayer? So, if we wish to have righteous children, we have to do what is required to produce righteous children. We have to be righteous and then we have du'a of righteous.

And regarding to our lifestyle, we shouldn’t live in a house, which is in mortgage. And we shouldn’t drive a car, which come from installment (Riba). We shouldn’t keep our money in a bank who give us interest, a satanic practice. This is the way of shaytan tricking the son of Adam, by giving good name to evil things like what he did to Adam and Hawwa in the heaven, when they are deceived to eat the fruits from the forbidden tree. This is a satanic way. Interest, in the past, in English was known as usury. Usury doesn’t sound very nice. In order to win over the hearts, shaytan called it interest, a very nice word. This nice word is then put to this evil thing. We, today, collect our interest, which has been cursed by Allah. And shaytan will play with ourselves. Such as when we rent our house because we can’t afford to buy a new one, shaytan will say, why do you pay the rent? You are just paying for the owner’s mortgage, and in next twenty years you will have nothing. It seems logical, but in fact, it attracts us to be involved in the Riba. When our du'a is still unanswered, we should realize that we are living in haram things. Until we correct all of this, it is foolish to think that our du'a will be answered. This is our problem.

References:

[1] [Sahih al-Bukhari 6388]

[2] [Qur'an 25:74]

[3] [Qur'an 3:38]