From amongst the goodly works one can perform to thank and benefit one’s parents is: “The Prayer of Filial Piety” [salat birru-l walidain]. Many traditional scholars and Sufi Sheikhs highly recommend that this prayer be part of one’s Friday night acts of worship.

Sheikh Talal Azem mentions this prayer in his “Prayers of Occasions” as follows:

“My father (may Allah Most High have mercy upon him) said, ‘… It is mentioned in Sharh al-Shir’ah: “The prayer for one’s parents [salat al-walidain] is a Sunnah, due to the saying of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace): ‘Whoever prays two rak’ahs on the eve of Friday, between the sunset [maghrib] and nightfall ['isha'] prayers, in which he recites in each rak’ah

the Fatiha once, Ayat al-Kursi (Koran 2:255) fifteen times

[i.e. in the first rak'ah], Qul huwa Allahu ahad (Koran 112) fifteen times

[i.e. in the second rak'ah]; sends benedictions upon the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) twenty-five times

[i.e. after completion of the prayer]; and then intends that the reward be for his parents—

whoever does this will have fulfilled the rights of his parents and perfected his filial piety, even if he had been undutiful towards them. Allah Most High will bestow him with that which He bestows upon those of great faith and the martyrs.’ ” This has been mentioned in the abridgement of [Imam al-Ghazzali's] Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din.’ ”

— AL-NABULSI, ‘Abd al-Ghani (d. 1142/1731). Nihayat al-Murad fi sharh Hadiyyat Ibn al-’Imad.Dubai: Markaz Jumu’ah al-Majid li-al-Thaqafah wa al-Turath, 1414/1994.

For those of higher resolve and spiritual aspiration, it is recommended to recite the “Supplication of Courtesy to Parents” [du'a birru-l walidain] after the prayer of filial piety: