السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
It’s Sunday 21st June 2020. Let’s talk about the ‘Reopening of Schools’ today.
A number of parents will be looking forward to their children restarting school tomorrow. For many it will have been a very hard 3 months, especially those parents who may have had to juggle between work and family life. As schools start to reopen, let’s be absolutely clear about the role of parents in the lives of their children.
The bringing up and nurturing of our children is first and foremost our responsibility as parents. From the moment the mother conceives the child, she is extra cautious. She will ensure that she does everything within her means to protect her unborn child fully. When she is close to giving birth, she will leave everything. Never mind work, even the basic housework. The father will do whatever he can so that the baby to be born is not harmed in any way at all.
Once the baby is born and is a few months old, we seem to start getting relaxed and getting back into our daily routine again. Mum can’t wait to get back to work. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the admission age for nursery was 5, so at least the child was well looked after by mum, and maybe also dad, for the first 5 years of their life. However, the childcare and nursery facilities today are such that babies, as young as a few months old, are left with others to look after.
We were in Bosnia in June 2018 with Shaykh ul-Islām Mufti Muḥammad Taqī Us̱mānī Ṣāḥib مدظله العالی. Zahīr, one of the management team of Tudor House Nurseries (based in Blackburn), which run a number of nurseries, accompanied us on the trip. Mufti Taqī Us̱mānī and his wife Khāla Jān were astonished to hear that even 6 month old babies were left in Zahīr’s nurseries. In 2019, I took Mufti Ṣāḥib and Khāla Jān to see one of the nurseries based in Altom Street. They were just shocked to see babies either playing or sleeping away in the nursery.
Coming to the point, our children are ultimately our responsibility. All the facilities that we are blessed with like Islamic nurseries, Islamic schools, Dārul Ulooms, etc., are there to assist us with fulfilling our responsibility of upbringing our children to the best of our ability. It is not their duty, it is ours. Do not be complacent, create a nice warm Islamic atmosphere in the home.
The 24 hour routine should be fully Islamic. Of course enjoy life and have fun, remaining within limits. Our SharīꜤah is very flexible; our Creator knows our desires. We can easily manage the world, keeping our Hereafter in mind as well. Therefore, please don’t look forward to tomorrow, thinking ‘good riddance’ (to the kids).
If you ask a childless couple the value of a child, you will not stop crying. Finally, your children are your life; they need your care and attention all throughout their lives. Your responsibility ends when either your eyes close, or theirs.
Almighty Allāh grant us all the ability to fulfil the rights of our children and keep our upcoming generations steadfast on Islām and Imān, Āmeen.
جَزَاكَ اللَّهُ خَيْرًا
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وَالسَّلَامُ Hanif Dudhwala