Where do righteous children come from?

[ummtaalib]

 

How can righteous children be born when a mother’s attention is entirely on food, the house, the internet, and the marketplace?

 

How can a righteous, scholarly, or ḥāfiẓ (memorizer of Qur’an) child be raised when the mother can spend hours on Facebook and WhatsApp, but cannot sit for even one hour to help her child memorize half a page of Qur’an or one Hadīth?

 

How can a righteous child be raised when neither parent sits with the child to share stories of the Ṣaḥābah (Companions) and the pious predecessors?

 

How can a righteous and capable child be raised when money is spent on makeup, fashion, jewellery, restaurants, and entertainment—but not on beneficial knowledge?

 

How can a righteous child be raised when the neighbours hear the parents’ arguments and shouting?

 

How can a strong and confident child be raised when he is constantly scolded, humiliated, and embarrassed in front of others?

 

How can a righteous child be raised when the parents themselves have no interest in attending gatherings of knowledge and remembrance, nor in learning the Deen?

 

How can a righteous child be raised when the father neglects his responsibility of tarbiyah (Islamic upbringing) and does not share this duty with the mother?

 

How can a righteous child be raised when all focus is on outward appearance, worldly decoration, and comfort—while the soul, Salāh, Qur’an, and Deen are forgotten?

 

How can a righteous child be raised when we hand them a mobile phone at a young age and leave them unsupervised in the dangerous world of social media?

 

It is the righteousness and effort of parents that produces a righteous generation, and a righteous generation is the means for the reform of the Ummah.

 

 

Allah Ta‘ala says: “And their father was a righteous man.” (Surah al-Kahf, 18:82)

 

 

Imam Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal (rahimahullah) said about his mother: “My mother made me memorize the Qur’an by the age of ten. She would wake me before Fajr, heat water for my wuḍū’ on cold nights, dress me, and accompany me to the masjid with full modesty, even though the masjid was far and the road was dark.”

 

 

A scholar once said: “Do not think that every woman who sends her son to seek knowledge will have a son who becomes like Imam Mālik or Sufyān (al-Thawrī). The real secret was not only in Mālik or Sufyān, but in their mothers — the mother of Mālik and the mother of Sufyān.”

 

 

Indeed, Allah Ta‘ala blesses children through the sincerity and piety of their parents.

 

 

Jamiatul Ulama (KZN)
Council of Muslim Theologians