UPBRINGING OF CHILDREN

Most parents, no matter how religious-minded they imagine they are, tend to make this mistake. While they talk to their children of spiritual and moral matters, they divert practically all of their attention to worldly affairs. They will speak of the next life, but they will set up their homes in such a way that the great goal of their lives degenerates into the mere piling up of things of worldly importance. They will extol the virtues of a righteous life, but instead of donating their wealth to good causes, they spend it in the mere fulfilment of the worldly ambitions they have for their children. This is not religious training; it is but a mockery of it. Religious training is not achieved by the uttering of religious words; it calls for the sedulous building up of a religious atmosphere. In a home where there is no all-pervasive atmosphere of religion, it is not possible to instil moral values simply by letting fall a few religious-sounding phrases. It would not suffice to spend part of the family income on religious matters: conversations, family interests and daily activities must all be rooted in religion. Only then will it be possible to inculcate a truly religious way of thinking in one’s children. The deeds must conform to the words. But all too often they do not. Why should this be so? Why should there be such shortcomings when it comes to putting words into action? The reason is that making any kind of statement only means mouthing a few words, whereas action is complicated by a number of problematic factors. If a man pledges himself to a particular course of action, but then shows himself unwilling to make concessions to some, or all of these factors, he cannot be said to have spoken in true earnest. Putting principles into practice is not a simple matter. Only half the battle is won by getting up on a platform and addressing an audience. It is not really too difficult to make high-sounding speeches on the moral values of Islam. All one needs to do is to gather enough information from books on the subject and, of course, it helps to have an extensive vocabulary. But practising what one preaches is a different affair. It is seldom that action can be taken without encountering different kinds of obstacles on the way to one’s objective. Putting words into action means, inevitably, putting up a struggle. Another inhibiting factor is the egoism of certain individuals. Even when they have demonstrably erred, they cannot bring themselves to utter the words, “I have erred,” or “I was wrong”, far less make amends. This would be too damaging to their prestige. This is why we find innumerable