Upbringing of Children

The kalimah should be taught (and its meaning) so that from the very
beginning the child has a clear idea and belief in the oneness of
Almighty All\h I and the Prophethood of Mu#ammad r.
In short parents should try to draw their child's attention towards All\h
I from the earliest opportunity. Parents should inculcate true belief in
their children that All\h I is the giver and performer of everything and
so teach children to recite Bismillah before doing anything. Children
should be told that if they act upon this, they will be successful in what
they are doing. Also in this way, Insh\-All\h, the quality of taqw\
(consciousness of All\h I) would come into them. Parents must
explain that we are in this world only for a short while, for a test.
Therefore we should not get attached to the worldly things.
Moreover, children should be taught the Ad`iyah of Ras[lull\h r of all
different occasions e.g. going to bed, eating, drinking, wearing
clothes, going to the toilet etc.
Parents should ensure that the Qur'\n is taught to their children from a
young age. It is a fact that in childhood the memory is at its best.
Anything memorised at that time is seldom forgotten. If children are
made to memorise the Qur'\n, they will be able to do so very easily.
Many times this valuable ability of childhood is wasted in memorising
nursery rhymes (which have wrong underlying meanings) like Jack and
Jill, Baa Baa Black Sheep etc, instead of teaching them things of value
which will benefit them.
`Alqamah (R.A.) used to say that the knowledge acquired during youth
sits as clearly in the mind as writing on paper.
The lesson here is that during childhood, the power to memorise
things is generally extremely strong, (this is not true in all children, so it
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