By
Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi, New Age Islam
14 November
2019
The 14th
November marks universal Children’s Day. However we can celebrate every day as
Children’s Day by practicing beautiful teachings of Islam associated with the
rights of Children.
He who does
not show mercy upon children is not a practical Muslim. If we have not done so
far anything good for children, at least we should start now on this special
day and continue it till our last breath. For that matter, we should first
recall their rights.
The Quran
says, “And do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We shall provide
sustenance for them as well as for you. Verily the killing of them is a great
sin” (17:31).
It was
reportedly a common practice in parts of pre-Islamic Arabia to kill new-born
girls for fear of the shame or liability or out of poverty. The context of the
verses (17:31 and 6:151) specially denotes prohibition against slaying one’s
children out of fear of poverty and assures God’s provision. However this
command is general in its nature and applies to all children and for all reasons.
That means it is prohibited to kill children for any reason. This general
deduction of the divine ruling is supported by another verse 17:33 which reads,
“And Do not kill the soul that Allah has made inviolable...”.
The Prophet
(peace be upon him) is reported to have said, “He is not one of us who does not
have mercy on your young and does not respect our elders” (SunanTirmidhi, Abu
Dawud, Al-Adab al-Mufrad)
It is
mentioned in another hadith, “Be just among your children, and be just among
your children.” (Sunan Abu Dawud, SunanNasai)
The Prophet
is reported to have said, “When I stand for prayer, I intend to prolong it but
on hearing the cries of a child, I cut it short, as I dislike troubling the
child's mother”. (Sahih Bukhari, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawud, SunanNasai)
It is
narrated by Hazrat Aisha that “A Bedouin came to the Prophet (peace be upon
him) and said, "You (people) kiss the boys (children)! We don't kiss
them." The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "I cannot put mercy in
your heart after Allah has taken it away from it.” (Sahih Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn
Majah, al-Adab al-Mufrad)
From the
studies of the Quran and Sunnah we learn what the rights of parents are over
their children, both biological and foster children. Some of these rights are
mentioned below.
Parents are
duty-bound to feed, clothe and protect their children until they reach
maturity. They need to respect, love and educate their children. All children
deserve equal treatment but special treatment can be done to a child who is in
dire need or handicapped or blind. Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal says that
“preferential treatment of a child is permitted if he or she is handicapped
while others are not” (al-Mughni vol.5, p.605)
Parents
must work hard so as to provide adequately for children in inheritance. It is
reported in a Hadith, “it is better for parents to leave their children
adequately-provided (financially) than to leave them in poverty”.
Parents are
duty-bound to provide their children with both Islamic and modern education. In
particular they should teach them basic beliefs about faith and worship, high
moral qualities, rights of human beings, relations with Muslims and
non-Muslims, and all other teachings of Islam required for their survival and
attainment of divine blessings in both the worlds (Duniya and Aakhira).
They also need to be provided special training for upholding human values such
as peace, harmony, mercy, tolerance, patience and benevolence, for the time
being.
This is
briefly how we should celebrate children-day every day. However we should not
forget on this Children’s Day to recall the basic rights of those children who
are caught up in warfare. They have nothing but to experience the same horrors
as their parents. During the last decade we have seen the heightened dangers for
children due to developments in warfare. According to UNICEF report, “child
victims have included 2 million killed, 4-5 million disabled, 12 million left
homeless, more than 1 million orphaned or separated from their parents, some 10
million psychologically traumatized”. The children are killed not just in the
crossfire but they are also likely to be specific targets. In particular,
Syria, Yemen, Palestine and Africa have seen the deadliest attacks over
children in crossfire as well as in target killings. The 15th November is a
special day for children but it is extremely difficult for us to celebrate it,
if we as human beings fail to prevent such forms of deadliest violence.
A regular Columnist with NewAgeIslam.com, Ghulam
Ghaus Siddiqi Dehlvi is an Alim and Fazil (Classical Islamic scholar), with a
Sufi-Sunni background and English-Arabic-Urdu Translator. He has also done B.A
(Hons.) in Arabic, M.A. in Arabic and M.A in English from JMI, New Delhi. He is
Interested in Islamic Sciences; Theology, Jurisprudence, Tafsir, Hadith and
Islamic mysticism (Tasawwuf).
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