Islam_in_Focus_text

ties for its kindness to children. It is charity of a higher order
to attend to their spiritual welfare, educational needs, and
general well-being. Interest in and responsibility for the
child's welfare are questions of first priority. According to
the Prophet's instructions, by the seventh day the child
should be given a good, pieasant name and its head should
be shaved, along with all the other hygienic measures re-
quired for healthy growing, This should be made a festive
occasion marked with joy and charity.
Responsibility for and compassion toward the child is a
matter of religious importance as well as social concern.
Whether the parents are alive or deceased, present or absent,
known or unknown, the child is to be provided with optimum
care. Whenever there are executors or relatives close
enough to be held responsible for the child's welfare, they
shall be directed to discharge this duty. But if there is no
next of kin, care for the child becomes a joint responsibility
of the entire Muslim Community, designated officials and
commonersalike.
B. The ChilcTs Duties: The Parent's Rights. The par-
ent-child relationship is complementary. Parent and child in
Islam are bound together by mutual obligations and recipro-
cal commitments. But the age differential is sometimes so
wide as to cause parents to grow physically weak and men-
tally feeble. This is often accompanied by impatience, de-
generation of energy, heightened sensitivity, and perhaps