Guidelines for Raising Children

Description

This booklet is based on a book titled “Qawl-ur-Rashad” by Dr. Sulaiman Al-Faifi, which contains Islamic rules regarding marriage, childbirth and a child’s rights upon his parents; and when grown up, their duties towards their parents.Publisher’s NoteThere is no doubt that the family is the nucleus of society, it requires great care in order to ensure its welfare. This can be achieved by taking the right preparatory steps in terms of seeking the right spouse, or the parent to be in accordance with Prophetic instructions. The warning of the Prophet (pbuh): If a suitor whose faith and conduct you are satisfied with comes to you, marry him your daughter. If you do not, there will be affliction on earth and gross corruption.One may wonder how could affliction and corruption ensue on a universal scale from an affair which involves only two people. This would be a valid question to be asked by those who look at marriage from a narrow perspective. This matrimonial union which involves a couple, constitutes the core of society. Its state of affairs is reflected on the society positively or negatively. A pious couple provides pious offspring with the Will of Allah. Were every guardian to insist on choosing a committed spouse, non-committed people would have no choice but to be good Muslims, otherwise, they would not find any family to associate with them. But unfortunately, wealth, lineage, social status and similar factors top the priority list for marriage.As for the affliction and corruption that are mentioned in the above Hadith; they are the direct result of marriages of non-committed Muslims who are not keen on raising children according to Islamic standards. We know that children learn more by example than by words. No one among us says I am a non-committed Muslim, yet telling our children what to do and not showing them by good example is the action of a non-committed Muslims.Abdul Malik Mujahid