What do you
give to your son on his wedding night as a gift? A Mitsubishi
lancer or a Honda accord or do you give him the ever useful toaster?
When
Ibn Al-Qayyim’s son was getting married, he found himself
in this gift dilemna. He thought and thought, and decided upon
a gift that would not only benefit his son, but all the Muslims.
He lighted his candle, dipped his blessed pen, and began writing.
The gift, you ask? A book dedicated to his son and daughter in
law about marriage and the rights of children. He named the book,
Tuhfatul Wadood, bi Ahkam al-Mowlud. The value of the gift?
Priceless.
Dear
brothers and sisters,
Many
times we hear about the respect due to the parents – because
it is often the parents who are speaking. Yet how often do we
hear about the rights of children? Indeed, they have many rights
that go further back than 9 months before their creation –
they have the God given right that their future mother or father
choose a spouse that will teach them about Allah and be an excellent
example for them.
Ibn
Al-Qayyim has a chapter in the book he wrote for his son: Chapter
25 – Regarding the obligation of teaching the children, disciplining
them, and being just between them.
One
of their rights which we would like to speak about today is the
right of our children to an Islamic education.
Allah
ta’ala commands us:
[O
you who believe, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire
whose fuel is people and stones …] Surah At-Tahreem 66/6
We
are commanded by Allah ta’ala to save ourselves from Hellfire.
But it does not end there. The commandment extends to our family,
we must save them also – using all our resources – we
must save them from Hellfire. And the biggest weapon we have to
protect them is knowledge of what Allah and His Messenger require
from them. For verily, a human is enemy to that which he does
not understand.
In
another verse, we see the example of Luqmaan with his son.
[But if they endeavor to make you worship others with Me –
that of which you have no knowledge, then do not obey yet accompany
them in (this) world with appropriate kindness.] Surah Luqman
31/15
Notice
how Allah ta’ala mentions the Shirk that the child is being
called to as something which ‘he has no knowledge of’.
Meaning, no knowledge of it’s divinity, for there can be
no knowledge about something which is non-existent and untrue.
And
yet in another situation, Allah ta’ala describes the exchange
between Nuh and his son.
[And
Nuh called to his son who was apart (from them), “O my son,
come aboard with us and be not with the disbelievers.” (But)
he said, “I shall take refuge on a mountain to protect me
from the water.” (Nuh) said, “There is no protector
today from the decree of Allah except for whom He gives mercy.”
And the waves came between them, and he was among the drowned.]
Surah Hud 11/42,43
It
has been said that about 90% of everything a child learnn, he
learns it within the 1st 5 years of his or her life. It that is
not enough cause for concern, the children at that fragile age
are ever so keen to please the adults in their lives, especially
the ones that see day after day. Subhan'Allah, it is a survival
skill that Allah ta’ala created in humans. For had they not
had this desire to please the ‘teacher’, they most likely
would not develop intellectually.
If
you went to public school, imagine back to your public school
kindergarten class or grade 1 and how you used to act with the
teacher. Did you try to please him or her at every chance you
got? Would you do things just to win her pleasure? I know for
me, when our school play for the Christmas concert was coming
up, the teacher chose me to play one of the lead roles because
of how good an actor I was (smile). Mind you, I disliked the part
and when a boy offered me a handful of corn puffs to switch parts
with me, I readily accepted. I took him to Mrs. Mitchell and proudly
announced that Jason would be taking my part. She was disappointed
and said how much she wanted me to do the part. I could not bear
to see her disappointment, so I continued with the part. At that
time, I was in kindergarten.
The
horror story now happens when the child is put in the lap of a
non-Muslim, in the lap of someone who does not knows nothing about
the our obligation to Allah and His Messenger, someone who are
Muslim children are so eager to please.
There
once was a little girl in a public school in a Muslim country
who’s teacher was not practicing Islam. The little girl,
following the blessed example of her mother, would go to school
with her Hijab on. The Hijab, however, was something displeasing
to her teacher, subhan Allah, so she told the girl to take it
off and not dare come back to school with it on tomorrow or she
would suffer the consequences.
Home
this girl went and told her mother of how the teacher did not
want her to wear Hijab in school and how she did not want to
displease her teacher. Her mother calmly said, “Who do you
want to please then, your teacher or Allah?” The little girl
looked in the eye and said, “Allah!”
The
next day, the little girl returned with her Hijab on, defiant.
When the teacher saw her, she exploded in chastisement. “How
dare you disobey me!”
The
painful words kept coming and coming until the little girl lowered
her head, sobbing. Then she shouted back, “I don’t understand,
who am I supposed to please – you or Him?”
“Who’s
him?” asked the teacher.
“Allah!”
Her
eyes widened and a chill ran through her. The teacher stopped
talking. From behind her tears, the little girl said, “No,
I shall please Allah and Allah alone, and let happen happen.”
That
day the teacher sent a letter home to the little girls mother
with the words, “Today your child taught me who I was and
truly who is Allah. Thank you for raising such a blessed daughter.”
These
television sets and the public schools are spreading a subtle
devastating poison through the bloodstream of our youth. If you
don’t believe me, take a random class of Muslim high school
students from public school and reflect on their habits and their
knowledge of Islam. If a parent has chosen the public school for
his son, in the final year when you look over the school yearbook
and see a picture of your son standing hand in hand dancing with
a Kafir woman, at that time it will be too late to question your
upbringing. Now is the time to question it, now, before it’s
too late.
Al-Hasan
ibn Alee – Radi Allahu ‘anhu – used to say, “Educate
yourselves today, for today you are the youth of the community
but tomorrow you shall be the seniors.”
Alhamdulillah,
I have met many exceptionally smart adults in my travels for Hajj.
When I sit with these brothers and marvel at their intellect,
I wonder to myself ‘What could this person had done for Islam
and the Muslim community had his parents educated about the Deen?’
Dear brothers and sisters, we have a student here in grade 3 who
knows almost 7 Juz’ of Qur’an. He is 8 years old! I
don’t think I would be wrong if I claimed that he knew more
Qur’an than 95% of the adults in this Khutbah. He is 8 years
old. I have seen students just as smart as him thrown to public
school – their intelligence squandered on Inca and the pyramids,
while they cannot recite the very letters of their mother tongue.
Yahya
ibn Humayd said: We went to Imam Hammad ibn Salamah once and found
him sitting with children narrating hadith to them. When he completed
and the children left, we approached him and said, “O Abu
Salamah, we are the seniors of your tribe we have come to you
to learn. Why do you leave us and turn instead to these children?”
He replied, “I once saw in a dream that I was sitting on
the banks of a river, bending over with a bucket to get water
to drink. After drinking, I turned around and saw these children
standing there, and so I gave them the bucket of water after me.”
Kitab
al-Ayal by Ibn Abi Ad-Dunya
As
a poet once said:
Young trees, if you raise them firm, they will grow straight,
They will not slouch if kept firm with a stick
Perhaps
discipline for young ones brings benefit
But that same discipline will no longer bring results in a senior.
Part
II
Sa’eed
ibn Rahmah Al-Asbahi used to tell his students: I used to camp
out in the Masjid in the hopes of getting the best seat in the
halaqah of Abdullah ibn Al-Mubarak. I had friends of my age,
but none of them would do as I did. When the time for the Halaqah
would arrive, Ibn Al-Mubarak would come and with him would be
the seniors. They would complain to him, “These children
have overcome us at the Halaqah, there is no place near you for
us.” Ibn al-Mubarak would reply, “These children are
more dearer to me than you. You – how long shall you live?
These children, however, perhaps Allah shall carry them far.”
Sa’eed
would then say to his students, “Today there is no one alive
from that halaqah of Ibn al-Mubarak except me.”
When
children do a science experiment, an instrument that they might
use is a thermostat. This is a device that reflects that heat
coming from an object or area.
But
have you ever thought about how spoiled we are at home? There
is this thing called a thermostat. When we are too hot, it cools
us down. And if we get cold it warms us up. Not only does it reflect
the heat, it does something about it.
When
we look at the Muslim Ummah, we will see that many of our communities
are nothing more then thermostats. When there is heat coming from
Bosnia it registers a reaction in our Salah, our duas, and our
checkbooks. And when there is heat in Chechnya it registers a
reaction in our Salah, our duas, and our checkbooks. But this
is the action of a thermostat. What we must become is thermometers,
cooling things down when they get too hot and warming things up
when they get too cool.
Today
everyone is looking to our brothers and sisters in Philisteen
and pulling their hair because they cannot seemingly do anything.
Dear brothers and sisters, don’t let the things you cannot
do stop you from doing what you can do.
By
Allah, the long term goal is in these children. If we do not stand
up to the challenge of educating them in Islam and raising them
as best we can, we – with our own hands – are paralyzing
the future of Islam in this country.
[All of you are shepherds and all of you shall be questioned regarding
your flock.]
But
never think that the work you do for the betterment of our children’s
Islamic education goes in vain. The Christians have an English
word called sacrifice. Some Muslims when translating the idea
of Sadaqah may incorrectly use this concept of sacrifice. A more
correct word is ‘to deposit’. We are not spending these
dimes hoping for nothing in return. Nay, we are investing it for
an enormous return, we are depositing it in the hereafter.
What’s
in it for me, we always ask. Of the many blessings…
Firstly:
Allah ta’ala will protect your children because of your piety.
The
example given to us in the Qur’an is that of Khidr when he
built the wall without any compensation, he told Musa why:
[And
as for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city, and
there was beneath it a treasure for them, and their father had
been righteous. So your Lord intended that they reach maturity
and extract their treasure, as a mercy from your Lord.] Surah
al-Kahf 18/82
Secondly:
By educating and protecting the Muslim children, you would be
fulfilling the Amaanah (trust) that Allah has placed upon you.
And in the fulfillment of one’s trust lies success and a
401k plan in paradise.
Allah
ta’ala says:
[Certainly
successful are the believers … they who to their trusts and
their promises attentive / And they who carefully maintain their
payers – Those are the inheritors / Who will inherit al-Firdaus
wherein they will abide eternally.]
In
conclusion, I would like to pose the question: who is responsible
for these Islamic schools? Look to the brother on your left. Now
look to the brother on your right. Now look at me … then
look at yourself. We are all responsible – every one of us.
This school everything in it is our ‘ra’eyyah’
and we shall be questioned for it.
As
I was speaking to a good brother recently, he asked me about the
situation of Al-Huda school. We spoke about the upcoming fundraiser
on April 27 and then he said to me, “A’aanak Allah –
may Allah help you.” I said, “No. You said it wrong.
It’s A’aanan Allah – may Allah help US, cause brother
your just as responsible for these Islamic schools as I am.”