The Prophet Muhammad was the best teacher
Prophet Muhammad (saw) was sent by Allah (swt) to the human race to declare that there is not other Ilah (God) worthy of worship except Allah. This was the first thing taught to the companions of the Prophet and this should be the first thing we teach our children.
Muadh ibn Jabal reports:
‘I was once riding with the Prophet (saw) when he said to me, “O Muadh! Do you know Allah’s rights upon mankind and their right upon Him?” I replied, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He continued, “Allah’s right upon His creatures is that they worship Him alone and never to associate any partner with Him, and their right upon Allah is that He shall not punish any person who does not associate a partner with Allah.” I said, “O Prophet of Allah, shall I tell the people?” he replied, “No! do not reassure them lest they rely upon this promise and become neglectful of their service to Allah.” (Saheeh Bukhari. Saheeh Muslim)
Many Muslims find this issue of no relevance or teach others and neglect their children, however on the day when all will be before Allah; its relevance will be very great indeed.
Ibn Majah narrated that the Prophet (saw) said “Teach your children and teach them properly.”
Think about how Prophet Muhammad would send those with knowledge of Eeman and Islam to call the people to worshiping one ilah. If we understand there is a Jannah and Hell-fire, we will realise this knowledge is of the highest value, above all secular education.
Some of the areas of knowledge which are of utmost importance for our children are:
1.What are the pillars of Imaan?
2.Belief in Allah (Tawheed).
3.How we know Allah exists.
4.Various categories of Tawheed (explained in detail depending upon the age and understanding of the children)
5.The conditions of the Shahadah.
6.Belief in the Anbiyah (Prophets).
7.Starting with the belief in Muhammad (saw) his Messenger-ship
8.Belief in Allah’s revealed scriptures
9.Belief in Allah’s angels.
10.Belief in Divine decree and preordainment.
11.Belief in the Day of Judgment.
12.The pillars of Islam
13.Stories of the Prophets, and reflection upon their struggles.
14.Stories of the Sahabah and a reflection upon their struggles.
15.Characters of a good Muslim.
16.Blameworthy characteristics which every Muslim should be wary of.
17.Islam as a Deen and not just a religion.
18.The rights of parents, family, Muslims and mankind
19.A basic understanding of uloom ul Quran (science of the Quran (how the Quran was revealed and preserved).
20.What are hadeeth, their relevance and preservation?
21.The hararm and the halal.
22.The scale for the Muslim- building a dependency of the child upon Quran and Sunnah as their source for judgement.
23.The dangers of an un-islamic society.
24.The important dates in the life of the Muslim, (the two Eids, Ramadan, Dhu Hijjah)
25.A description of Paradise and a warning of the hellfire.
These titles serve only as a guide, but these are matters of necessity which we feel must not be neglected and form the fragile foundation upon which parents according to their capabilities and resources can further build upon.
Ibn Jurayr narrated that the Prophet (saw) said: “Order your children to abide by all the commands of Allah, and to avoid all the prohibitions, and by that you protect them from the Hellfire.”
It is crucial that we as Muslim parents instil a meezan (scale) within the hearts of our children; this is the meezan of the criteria of The Quran and Sunnah. Unfortunately, contemporaries from within our ummah have become of those who perform taqleed and one can only attempt to warn of the dangers which this path of blind following leads to. Therefore it is crucial we as parents do not build an attitude amongst our young that “…because I said so…!” – we should always make an effort to give them the source from the correct scale, this will inshaAllah have a great impact upon the young generation and deeply instil in them the roots of Daleel, which lack in our generation.
We must not ignore the commands which the Sharia has placed upon our children, for neglect on our part can cause repercussions; we should teach our children the Salah at the correct age, being patient and committed.
The prophet (saw) is reported to have said:
‘Command your children form the age of 7 to perform the prayer and after they reach the age of 10, if they abstain then deal with them by force…’ (Abu Dawud. Tirmidhi)
Another matter which on the surface may appear insignificant is the clothing of our children, from an early age we should teach our children to dress modestly and consider their clothing carefully. Sadly many parents ignore the importance of building such characteristics.
In particular with our daughters, we should teach them to love the hijab from an early age as when the time arises for the command for the hijab, the transition and submission is smooth and without any confusion. And Allah forbid that our daughters become accustomed to the non-Muslim Western way of dress!
In Islamic education we strive to teach our children should have an aim of building their Islamic personality. We must instil within their little souls a fear and a love for Allah (swt), a strong understanding of Islam and their role in Islam. We must not ignore that our children today sadly are in the wilderness of the West and the wild beasts of the West will leave no stone unturned to corrupt and misguide these children from the Fitrah.
When we reflect upon the Sahaba and their generation, why do we find that they had a burning passion for Islam?
Why was it that they were ready to sacrifice all that they possessed for the sake of Islam?
Was it because they enjoyed the company and fortunes of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)?
No, it was because they understood Islam; it was because belief flowed through their veins and manifested itself within their actions. This is the same zeal and passion we must strive to sow within our children inshaAllah.
The Sabr of the Prophet Muhammad in teaching the message.
Our Prophet underwent a great many tests in delivering the message of Islam. The enemies of Allah physically and verbally attacked the Prophet and throughout his call he always had sabr (patience). The trials and tribulations the Prophet and the first group of Sahaba, the Muhajiroon (the immigrants) faced were great and throughout all that time they displayed Sabr. Let us reflect upon the trip that the Prophet undertook to Ta’if to call the people to Al Islam. The Prophet (saws) went to the town of Ta’if on foot with Zaid ibn Harith (ra). When they arrived and declared as to why they had come, the local leaders reacted very negatively. The Prophet mentioned it was a day worse than the Day of Uhud. The Prophet (saw) was pursued by a merciless crowd. Blood flowed down both his legs and Zaid tried to shield him (saw). The crowd did not cease until they were chased two or three miles across the sandy plains…’ Alhumdulillah, Allah (swt) sent an angel to assist the Prophet by asking permission to destroy the people who had hurt him and still the Prophet had sabr and said:
‘No. I hope that Allah will let them beget children who will worship none beside Allah Alone and will worship none beside Him’ (Sahih Al Bukhari)
From this we observe how commendable our Prophet was and how essential the quality of Sabr is. We need to ask ourselves the question, do we have sabr with our children whilst teaching them Islam? I am sure the answer from most of us is the majority of the time we do not have sabr. This characteristic is of utmost importance.
Our children do not inflict us with the intensity of the trials that the Prophets faced. It shows our weakness if we become angry and berate our children. Most humans have the quality that if something requires effort that is outside our home we will have no issue in doing it but we are more subjective to our children and become irritated more readily. We must not forget that around the Hell-fire is the ease and pleasure of this life and around the Paradise is the test. Sabr in how we treat our children is an action towards the Jannah, insha’Allah.
‘And certainly We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits but give glad tidings to as Sabiroon (the patient ones)’. (Surah al Baqarah 2:155)
At times all children will try to push the boundaries of a parent’s tolerance and this happens in particular around the ages of 2-5 years and 8-13 years. At 2 years of age, children become a little more independent and start to develop the knowledge that mum and dad can be disobeyed. The obvious result is that the child will push to see how much their parents will allow them and where the boundaries are. This is when we must start to instruct them to conform to Islamic manners. The next age which usually becomes a bit testing is 9. At this age children experience hormonal changes which can affect their behaviour and parents tend to become perplexed about how to get their growing child to listen to their requests. The Shaytaan is very active at this age as it realises this is the age of character and physical development. We should always remember when we were at this age and although our child may not be telling us, they would be definitely facing all the challenges we did, including the problem of ‘boy and girl’ flirtation. The shaytaan fully exploits the child’s hormonal and emotional changes to encourage them to fall into great sins indeed!
Throughout all this, we must have sabr and never forget that our reward and punishment is with Allah. What we instil into our children may well end up in a result which is opposed to Islamic teachings and this will be detrimental for us and our children on the Day of Judgment. We must therefore place great importance upon teaching and showing our children authentic Islam.
Teach Unity and Walaa with the believers
The disease of division has entered the Muslim Ummah on a large scale. Sadly many Muslims are still falling into the trap of the division and this has created hate amongst the Muslims; including our children. These characteristics are opposite to those of the righteous Sahaba who would fight against their kin so that Allahs hukm would reign supreme. A wonderful example of the unity and love of the Sahaba was that of the Ansaar (the residents of Madina) when the Muhajireen came to Madina, they opened their homes and wealth to them. The unity and love was evident from the beginning of their companionship. Today, we contradict these virtues and we will even hear Muslims saying they prefer the company of disbelievers to believers – aoothobillah – and the topic of love between Muslims and Muslim unity has become a topic that ‘causes fitna.’! . Allah has revealed countless verses of the Quran on this topic and made it clear that these two issue are of a compulsory nature for the Muslimeen and we must teach our children.
“And be not like those who divided and differed among themselves after the clear proofs had come to them. It is they for whom there is an awful torment.” (aali I’mraan 3:105)
“….establish the deen and do not make divisions in it…” (ash Shoora 42:13)
Our children must be taught that the believer should have loyalty and love towards another believer.
“Verily only the believers are a brotherhood” (al Hujuraat 49:10)
The problem today is that people base loyalty and love on anything but ‘la ilaha ilallah Muhammad ur Rasoolullah’ and our children see this and take on its evil. People will base it on tribalism, race, football team, and what group we belong to, but very few base it on acceptable Islamic criteria. Do we want to pass this virulent disease onto our children? The obvious answer is NO and therefore we must teach and show our children what true wilayah between the believers is. We must teach them that sincere Islamic love is something that cannot be surpassed and Allah rewards this greatly.
Mu’adh bin Jabal reported: Messenger of Allah (saws) said: ‘For those who love one another for the sake of My Glory, there will be seats of light (on the Day of resurrection) and they will be envied by the Prophets and martyrs’. ( at-Tirmidhi)
Sisters, we must explain to our children that it is a command from Allah that the believers have Walaa with each other and not divide over an issue that is of a permissible nature. Never display in front of our children hatred towards another Muslim as this is what the Shaytaan wants us to do. This will instill in our offspring the disease of hatred for their Muslim brother or sister – aoothobillah – and children will begin to unify with people based on any other reason other than Eaman.
Teach Submission to shariah
People today will learn the theory behind the Shariah and even memorise the entire Fiqh of the four madhahib and yet not even understand that they must implement the ilm that they have been given! Inevitably, we will pass the trait of memorising Shariah, hadith, dua and yet we do not pass the more important aspect which is the implementation. Our children attend the madrassa every week and when they arrive at home they go straight for the Nintendo or latest video. We are actually teaching our children that Allah’s deen is only for the Masjid and we must hide or forget it when we go home and into the wider community. Our children will then become confused and quickly sway towards the way of the society and this is usually the un-Islamic way! Teaching our children to submit to Allah is among the highest things we can give them.
‘O you who believe! Enter perfectly into Islam and submit fully and follow not the footsteps of shaytaan, verily he is to you a plain enemy’. (SURAH AL BAQARAH 2:208)
Our children must understand we were created for worship and submission to Allah alone. And the Path to Jannah must be walked with submission to Allah. They must be taught the conditions of correct submission and what makes their actions acceptable by the Shariah.
Naturally a stage will develop where our children may begin to question as to “if a Muslim must pray how come uncle so and so doesn’t pray?” or questioning why auntie may not wear a hijab? Rather then shy away from such inquisitive questions and ask our children to be quiet, we should appreciate their intellect and that they have grasped the roots of imaan Alhumdulillah. We should deal with such questions delicately and with hikmah (wisdom) inshaAllah and reminding our children Islam is belief in one’s heart, declaration of the tongue and actions of the limbs.
In this humble reminder, great emphasis has been dedicated upon Islamic Education however we must not misunderstand and believe that knowledge of worldly matters is of no value. In fact an Islamic society could not function with out farmers, doctors, seamstress and tailors, teachers etc… but we must appreciate the weight of the words la ilaha ilallah as the most important knowledge we can give our children. And the knowledge of la ilaha illah is the knowledge that lies between the Jannah and the Jahenam.
May the Muslim Ummah awaken and realise our children are the future and inshaAllah it will be they who hold the flag of Islam and cement a new and honourable generation.
article written by Umm Rasheed
Source : Revolution Muslim
