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(RNS) — The Islamic hadith that ties together the threads of Bassam Tariq’s new film, “Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother,” not only literally shows up in the title but is also woven throughout this extraordinary story of a father’s grief and reckoning with his faith and choices in a manner that’s clocked by his middle child, who makes the most astute observation about his Baba.

In a crucial scene, eldest sister Fatiha reads aloud a hadith about the importance of mothers, one that is taught to so many of us as young Muslims in emphasizing where the reverence of mothers and fathers stand in the breadth of our lives.

Abu Huraira, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad who recorded numerous stories, sayings and actions of the prophet, reported in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: “A man asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, ‘Who is most deserving of my good company?’ The prophet said, ‘Your…