Al-Adab al-Mufrad

Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Three supplications are surely accepted: the supplication of the oppressed, the supplication of the traveler, and the supplication of parents against their children."

Narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: “No one spoke in the cradle except ‘Isa ibn Maryam (peace be upon him) and the child of Jurayj.” It was asked: O Messenger of Allah! What is meant by the child of Jurayj? He (peace be upon him) said: “Jurayj was a monk who used to worship in his hermitage, and a cowherd used to stay below his place of worship, and a woman from a nearby village used to come and go to him. One day his mother came and called out: O Jurayj! He was praying. While praying, he thought to himself: (On one side) is my mother and (on the other) is my prayer. In the end, he decided to give preference to his prayer. Then she called out a second time, and he thought to himself: My prayer and my mother? In the end, he decided to give preference to his prayer. Then his mother called out a third time, and he thought to himself: My mother and my prayer! He deemed it appropriate to give preference to his prayer. And when he did not respond, his mother said: O Jurayj! May Allah not let you die until you see the faces of immoral women. Then she left. (The woman who used to come to the cowherd) gave birth to a child, and she was brought before the king. The king asked: Whose child is this? She said: Jurayj’s. The king said: Jurayj, the one with the hermitage? She said: Yes. The king ordered: Demolish his place of worship and bring him to me. The people demolished his hermitage with axes and brought him, bound, to the king. He was made to pass by the immoral women, and when he saw them, he smiled, and those women were also looking at him, while there were many people there. The king said to him: What does this woman say? Jurayj said: What does she say? The king said: She claims that this child is from you. He said: Is this really your claim? The woman said: Yes. Jurayj said: Where is the newborn? The people said: Look, he is in her lap. He turned to the child and addressed him: Who is your father? The child said: The cowherd. (Upon hearing this, the king was ashamed and) said: We will build your place of worship from gold. He said: No. The king said: Shall we build it from silver? He said: No. The king said: How should we build it? He said: Build it as it was before. The king said: Why did you smile (on the way)? He said: There was a matter which I understood (and that was) that my mother’s curse had affected me, and then he told them the whole story.”