Islam Blog

We live in a time when Muslims are battling on many fronts. We’re fighting terrorism, corruption within our own leadership, progressive attempts to reinterpret Islam, and religious illiteracy amongst Muslims themselves. All of these are big problems. Problems that cannot be solved overnight. But only through sustained, organized, and goal-oriented efforts. One of the ways I think we can make a huge impact is by starting from home. By working on the development of our children. And by development, I mean spiritual development. This is vital as this will be the compass that will guide our children to make the right choices, Insha’Allah . To reject evil and to embrace the high values and ideals that Islam seeks to instill in its adherents.

Here’s a list of things we should not be doing to our children.

• Giving them worldly ideals: In their formative years, children seek ideals, or mentors they want to emulate. Unfortunately, for most, this gap is being filled by hollow celebrities, wealthy hedonists, or fictional characters. We need to replace these with our true heroes, who are the prophets, the sahaba, and our righteous salaf. Loving these people, learning about their lives and achievements, and trying to emulate them is essential to our children’s spiritual development.
• Making them careless about money: If we’re rich, we meet their every need without making them realize the effort that goes in to earning a halal income. If we’re poor, we don’t make them learn from our own mistakes. Thus continuing in the cycle of poverty. Islam places great emphasis on how a believer should spend from his wealth. Wasteful expenditure and extravagance is disliked and charity encouraged. Muslims are also encouraged to spend on the legitimate needs of their families. In other words, responsible finance is essential to building a strong generation. Instead we have people involved in riba-based transactions without considering its implications, both spiritual and worldly.
• Not letting them choose a career: We have two problems when it comes to education. Muslims either don’t value it, and therefore, don’t encourage their children to learn. Or they simply force their children to take the beaten path. We see no hope in other careers save medicine, engineering, accounting, or general vocational education. What about encouraging our children to be scientists, journalists, scholars (think shaykh Yasir Qadhi), politicians (forcing only the sleaziest, most uneducated scum to fill the leadership vaccum), economists etc. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are Muslims in these fields, but somehow, in the greater Muslim world, these options simply don’t seem viable to us, yet they are crucial.
• Not following the ‘Practice what you preach’ principle: Take this common example. The phone rings. Your daughter takes the call. It’s for you. You quickly gesture, telling her you’re not here. Your kid now has to lie for you. What lesson are you teaching her? That its OK to lie. That its OK to ignore people. There’s always a better way to handle this situation. Or, for instance, how you tell your son he needs to go to the masjid, while you sit and play cards with your buddies. Kids see through this very quickly. Unless you live the values that you wish to see in your children, you can never expect them to learn.

I’m sure there’s lots more to mention. However, my intention is to force you to think about this. Please raise this subject with your family. Make your community think about this. And most important, take the first step. Work with your own children and set them up for success Insha’Allah . The strength of this Ummah lies in the strength and unity of its members.

Related posts:

1. Six effective tips to Islamically train small children
2. A letter to the Children of the Islamic Movement in the West
3. Iraqis resort to selling children
4. I blame

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