Ethical Responsibility of Children towards Their Parents in the Quran and the Bible

Comparative studies of religions, in addition to its function in enhancing the adherent's knowledge about each other eliminate many false perceptions. On the other hand, it can be applied to prove the ultimate truth of Islam in a scholarly manner and beyond prejudice. Meanwhile, family as a basic social institution with great influence on the promotion of society has always been paid attention to by religions, prophets and divine scriptures. It's because applying any social changes requires special attention towards this seemingly small but practically great and influential social unit. Given the importance of this issue, the present paper, using scientific-comparative approach, seeks to identify the ethical duties of children towards their parents based on the teachings of Quran and Bible (Old and New Testaments). Children's ethical responsibilities towards their parents as reported in the Bible can be summarized in six different concepts: reverence, obedience, care, tribute, and support in senility, while in Quran these duties have been expressed under seven subjects: reverence, benefaction, obedience, courtesy, care in senility and support and prayer. The research has been done based on library method by referring to scriptures, although some of their exegeses for more elaborations have been applied as well. Based on the findings of the research, there are many similarities between the Quran and the Bible in this regard, for instance: children have commitmenttowards their parents, they are required to obey them in all cases except for their invitations to committing sins, parents are entitled to some rights even after death which should be fulfilled by children and …. There are some differences though, such as: in all Quranic verses Allah plays a dominant and pivotal role, special attention has been paid to mother in Quran while in the Bible, father has greater significance, in the Bible, harsh punishments have been mentioned for the children disobeying parents while in the Quran there is no mention of them and ….