وَالَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ
And those who say;"Our Lord! Bestow on us from our wives and our offspring the comfort of our eyes..."
means those who ask Allah to bring forth from their loins offspring who will obey Him and worship Him and not associate anything in worship with Him.
Ibn Abbas said,
"This means (offspring) who will strive to obey Allah and bring them joy in this world and the Hereafter."
Imam Ahmad recorded that Jubayr bin Nufayr said;
"We sat with Al-Miqdad bin Al-Aswad one day, and a man passed by and said, "How blessed are these two eyes which saw the Messenger of Allah! Would that we had seen what you saw and witnessed what you witnessed."
Al-Miqdad got angry, and I was surprised, because the man had not said anything but good. Then he turned to him and said,
"What makes a man wish to be present when Allah had caused him to be absent, and he does not know how he would have behaved if he had been there By Allah, there are people who saw the Messenger of Allah, and Allah will throw them on their faces in Hell because they did not accept him or believe in him. Are you not grateful that Allah brought you forth from your mothers' wombs believing in your Lord and in what your Prophet brought, and that the test went to others and not to you Allah sent His Prophet during the most difficult time that any Prophet was ever sent, after a long period of ignorance, when the people could see no better religion than the worship of idols, and he brought the Criterion which distinguishes truth from falsehood and which would separate a father from his son. A man would realize that his father, son or brother was a disbeliever, and since Allah had opened his heart to Faith, he knew that if his relative died he would go to Hell, so he could not rest knowing that his loved one was in the Fire. This is what Allah referred to in the Ayah,
وَالَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍ
(And those who say;"Our Lord! Bestow on us from our wives and our offspring the comfort of our eyes...").
Its chain of narrators is Sahih, although they did not report it.
وَاجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا
and make us leaders of those who have Taqwa.
Ibn Abbas, Al-Hasan, As-Suddi, Qatadah and Rabi` bin Anas said;
"Leaders who would be taken as examples in good."
Others said;
"Guides who would call others to goodness."
They wanted their worship to be connected to the worship of their children and offspring, and their guidance to go beyond themselves and benefit others. This would be more rewarding and a better end, as it was recorded in Sahih Muslim from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah said;
إِذَا مَاتَ ابْنُ ادَمَ انْقَطَعَ عَمَلُهُ إِلاَّاِمنْ ثَلَثٍ
وَلَدٍ صَالِحٍ يَدْعُو لَهُ
أَوْ عِلْمٍ يُنْتَفَعُ بِهِ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ
أَوْ صَدَقَةٍ جَارِيَة
When a son of Adam dies, his deeds cease apart from three;
a righteous child who will pray for him,
knowledge from which others may benefit after him, or
on going charity.