How should Muslims treat their parents as they grow old?

The Quran gives special emphasis to the elderly years of parents specifically, warning that even a sigh of impatience is unacceptable. Surah al-Isra states that if either or both parents reach old age in one's care, a child must not say to them so much as "uff" (a word of irritation) nor scold them, but must speak to them nobly (17:23), and must lower themselves in humility and mercy the way a small, dependent child is lowered to by a loving parent (17:24). This obligation intensifies, not lessens, as parents become physically or mentally dependent - frail, forgetful, or in need of daily care. Scholars generally hold that placing a parent in a care facility is not itself forbidden if genuine circumstances, such as medical needs or a family's real inability to provide safe care, require it, provided the child still visits often, funds their care, and preserves their dignity. What contradicts the spirit of these verses is emotional abandonment - using a facility merely for convenience while affection and contact are withdrawn. The ideal remains keeping parents close within the family's warmth for as long as reasonably possible.

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