Children's Devotion to Islam

The Children - Their Devotion To Islam:

Children's Devotion to Islam

The high spirit of Islam which we find in the youth of Sahabah's time was the fruit of the schooling which the children of that age received at the hands of their parents. The parents of our time spoil the children by caressing and over-fondling them. If, instead, they inculcated in their hearts the importance of Islamic practices these could easily become their habits when they grew up. When we see a child doing something undesirable we simply brush it off by saying, 'He is but a child.' We have seen some parents even feeling happy over their darling (child) having sufficient grown up to do such things. We deceive ourselves when we say on seeing a child doing something un-Islamic :

"Oh, He will be all right when he grows up."

how can a bad seed grow up into a good plant. If you really like your child to be a good Muslim when he is grown up you have to sow the seed of Iman and Islam in his heart right from his childhood. Sahabah were very particular about training their children in Islamic practices and they kept a very watchful eye on their doings.
In Omar's time a person was arrested by the police for drinking in Ramadan. When he was brought before Omar(R.A) he said to him:

"Woe to you ! Even our children are keeping fast in this month."

He was scoured with eighty stripes and was banished from Madinah for ever.

Children are made to fast:

Rubbayi-Bint-Mewaz Says :

"Once Prophet (PBUH) enjoined on us to fast on the 10th of Muharram. Since then we have always been fasting on that day. Even the children were made to fast with us. When they cried out of hunger we diverted them with toys made of cotton flakes till the time of Iftar." 

We learn from Hadith that the nursing mothers of those days would not feed their infants during fast. No doubt they could afford all this as their general health and endurance were decidedly of much higher standard than ours. But, are we really doing even what we can easily bear ? Surely we should not impose on our children what they cannot stand but we must task them with what they can easily endure to enable them to gain more and more strength for doing ALLAH'S Service as they grow up.