Almighty God has ordered the believers in the Qur’an in chapter 66 verse number 6
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُمْ نَارًا
“O you who believe! Protect yourselves and your families from the Fire.”
We try to fulfil all the needs of our children and provide them the best of food, clothing and shelter. To give them the best education, so that they may become ‘successful’ individuals, we admit them to the ‘best’ of the schools. Will our children be successful in both, the Duniya (present world) and the Aakhirah (Life after Death) by attending these ‘best’ schools?
In most of these schools our children are forced to say prayers which have words full of ‘Shirk’.
We have to admit that many things taught in these schools will neither benefit us in this life nor in the Hereafter but infact may harm the ‘eeman’ and ‘aqeedah’ of our innocent children. For example – Darwin’s theory of Evolution – this goes against the verses of the Qur’an which are crystal clear that the whole of humankind is a progeny of Adam عليه السلام and has not evolved from apes.
Why Muslims should enroll their children in Islamic Schools?
Kausar Surya Grade 2 student of Al-Muminah School, Mumbai, India informing us the reason as to why Muslims should enroll their children in Islamic Schools.
Description of Paradise
Sumayya Shaikh, Grade 4 student of Al-Muminah School, Mumbai, India giving us a description of Paradise using Quran ayah and ahadeeth.
The children come home very tired from school. After completing the home work, then there is very little time left for parents to impart Islamic education. We are accountable for every moment spent on this planet. Is it not important for us to ensure that our children’s time is utilized in the most optimum way? Instead of memorizing ridiculous poetry, a surah can be learnt and understood during the same time.
Environment plays an important role in the upbringing of children. Children spend about 6-8 hours a day in school, which is more than 75% of the time they stay awake – the time in which we can educate and do tarbiyah of our children. Today the winds of very obscene and vulgar culture have swept over the entire globe. Social conditions are becoming bad to worse …teenage promiscuity, dating, vulgar movies, senseless serials and songs and shameless fashions. Obscenity is increasing day by day. And the worst part is, ‘obscene is no longer considered obscene! Because we want to ‘educate’ our children we send our children to such environments where children compete with each other in being as ‘modern’ as possible, even if it means wearing minimum clothes, drinking, going out for movies, rave parties, etc.
Children spend most of their productive time in school. If we send them to an unislamic environment where their friends discuss boyfriends and movies, it is possible that in spite of our best efforts at home, our children may get affected by these wrong trends and influences right in front of our very eyes! It is like pushing our children into a muddy puddle and still wishing that they don’t get dirty!
We send our children to such unislamic environment and then tell them not to get influenced! Is this possible? We push our children into a swimming pool and tell them not to get wet! Are we parents not responsible if our children are wrongly influenced by the environment because we ourselves have put them in such environments ?
In some schools they are exposed to the pressures of Western culture, bullying and communal hatred. Some teachers in these schools have no respect for Islamic faith and culture. They mis-educate and de-educate Muslim children making them misfit not only for the Muslim community but also for the society at large. The result is that they suffer from identity crisis, which is crucial for mental, emotional and personality development. Imagine a scenario where we have been invited for a gathering in which we don’t fit! Would we like to go to such gatherings? For example, a hijab-wearing lady is invited to a function where most of the other women are scantily clad. Will the hijab-wearing lady like to go? We adults would not like to be in an environment which is unislamic, even though we are able to defend our faith and our choices. But we put our children in such an environment, not just for hours or days, but for months and years… in fact decades.
For the sake of education our daughter is forced to go to school in skirts and then adorn the hijab elsewhere. She is constantly nagged by her classmates for wearing a ‘ghagra’ because that is the most Muslim parents can do – make the skirt as long as possible. At school functions, she only wears the salwar kameez (and not Western dresses) and she is jeered at for doing so. All her classmates go for a movie, but she does not go; all her classmates go for an overnight trip, but she does not go. During lunch break she stands in a corner all by herself, because she cannot discuss the latest movies and serials because Alhamdulillah she does not watch movies or serials on TV and understands that such ‘entertainment’ is ‘haraam’ in Islam. Are we not making her life miserable by sending her to such a school? Would we like to be in such an environment even for a few hours?
There could be another scenario… A rebellious child. She wants to do what her friends are doing… go for movies, parties, wear halter tops, dance and dream of becoming Miss Universe (the latest fad among most girls). And you tell her, “no” for everything. In school anyway she is constantly brainwashed into believing that Islam is a barbaric faith as it does not allow her to do what she wants and forces her to ‘run away.’ Again it is we parents who are responsible for this situation.
Do we really have no alternative?
We need to enrol our children in Islamic Schools. It’s time the Muslim community seriously thought about this very crucial problem that is plaguing our children. We need Islamic Schools for proper growth and development of our children. It is our duty to provide our children an environment where they are surrounded with positive influences – Islamic influences. If we profess to be Muslims, we have to obey Allah ’s command and we have to do all we can to save our children from the Fire.
AL-MU’MINAH!
Reaching words! Touching hearts!
On its journey on the road to Allah
ALHAMDULILLAH