Posted by Umm Sahl in Parenting | 12 Comments
Instill love of Ibadah to The Creator in your child
By Umm Hibathain
All of us as parents constantly think about the various ways in how to bring up our children to love Allah SWT and our ways of life. The Key is in being a good Muslim ourselves. Children watch and observe, and grasp every action that we do. They love to, and try to imitate that we do, at least most of the time. The way to upbringing our children in the Islamic way is, being steadfast ourselves, and adhering to Islamic teachings as much as we can. We should start preparing for this, even before our child is born, and not wait till they come of understandable age. But then again, it’s never too late. As soon as we realize the need to change, we should start implementing it in our lives and work hard towards it.
We do not have to worry about teaching our child the concept of One God, as every child is already born with that (the natural instinct of believing in One god, and the inclination to the truth and the ability to distinguish right and wrong), and as they grow older, they understand it better, and recognize the miracles of this world, and thus, will attribute it all to Allah Subhanahu Wa Tha'ala.
The Prophet Sallallahu alihiwassalam said, "No baby is born but upon Fitra (as a Muslim)." (Sahih Bukhari)
What we need to worry about is, training them to love to do good deeds and establish acts of worship. And for this, try to involve them in what we do. Tell them, "its good to do so-and-so". Believe me, they will accept it, just as simple as that. And we do not have to wait for them to turn 3 or 4 years old for this. We can start as early as 1 year old or even younger.
Some of the things we can do are:
1. Play Qur'an recitation as often as you can, at home, or in the car. Just tell them: Isn't it so beautiful to listen to this recitation? Use simple words like Qur'an is good or nice.
2. While we do salah, just tell them casually: If you want, you can stand with me, to pray. Never enforce them when they are too young, and never command or ask them, as kids always have the tendency to do the opposite just so that they will be told again and again. They just love to repeat things and things repeated to them.
3. If they get hurt, ask them after a while, if the "boo-boo" (hurt, pain) is gone, and when they say yes, say "Alhamdulillah" loudly or even "Thank you, Allah".
4. Saying "Bismillah" before eating.
5. Say duahs loudly and make them repeat it if they seem interested. Again, do not command, just offer (do you want to say the duah?)
6. When they sneeze, let them say, "Alhamdulillah" (or Abdullah, or Ahmedulillah, J– let's not correct them too much when they don't say it right, ultimately, they will get frustrated and will quit saying at all)
7. When someone in the family is sick, teach them to pray to Allah. Teach them to pray for all family members and themselves before going to bed, (it can be anytime, but night time is best, as that's the only time they will be little calm, and less playful and excited about other things.) Make it a routine along with the duah that we say, before going to bed.
8. Teach them to appreciate nature, not just the names. (Instead of saying, "look, that is the moon!” say, “wow, look at how nice/beautiful the moon is!")
9. Take them to the masjid as often as we can. Take them for community programs etc. Sometimes, it can be a little testing for them, as they need to behave well in such places. So promise them a reward for it. When you reward them, do not over-do it. Reward them appropriately, with something small.
May Allah always guide us and our kids through the Sirathul Musthaqueem. May Allah increase us in Sabr (patience) to bring our children up in the way that will please Him. We should always be consistent in our actions, only then our children will acquire it from us; may Allah help us in being consistent always in our dheen. May Allah make us and our children among the righteous. Aameen….
Source: http://letstriveforjannah.blogspot.com/
Umm Sahl, your sister in Islam, a wife and mother of 3 beautiful blessed babies
Alhamdulillah, very nice article:)
I know many kids Alhamdulillah, by the age of 2 or 2 1/2 or when they start talking, they learn many duah’s not because parents teach them, but because the parents used to recite it to them everyday. So just by listening they learn it automatically without taking the trouble of teaching it.
Duah’s like Bismillah, Alhamdulillah, dua before sleeping, on waking up,etc.
Surah Ikhlas(112) is one Surah which kids learn very fast by the time they start talking.
One of My teachers son knew the Ayathul Kursi by the age of 4, Alhamdulillah. He learnt it, because his parents used to recite it to him everyday before going to bed.
Before kids go to bed, parents can even read the stories of the Prophets,etc to them. This is one point my friend just told me few days back, thats what she does with her kids, Alhamdulillah, Masha Allah.
We really do not have to wait till our kids are sent to the Madrassa/Sunday school. The first madrassa is "Home Sweet Home"
Parents, please add your own points too as what you do for your child, so that other parents can benefit too Insha Allah.
Its very true that we should not force the kids upon anything because naturally they will have a tendency to decline,as i have experienced from my son.In Ramadan when we are used to doing lot of dua,he learnt from me the rabbana aatina dua full,but later he forgot and i was blaming him,but then i realized it was my fault i was only caught up by household chores that my ibadah has decreased.whatever our kids say or do are from us,and we are solely responsible for all their actions.
JazakAllah Khairan!!for providin this article!!Shayistha Its an amazin article!!!I will InshaAllah try to inculcate this onto my siblings..for the time being!and InshaAllah later on for my kids too:D!
My daughter was 4 years old and son one year.I used to watch cartoons with them.So my children’s favorite cartoon came.We liked it very much but i noticed there is shirk in it.I was very uneasy and upset.I said,’Snabel lets not watch this cartoon.’She was surprised she said,’Why u like it very much?’I said,"It has shirk in it.’She said,"what is shirk?"
I said,"Allah is one.Allah is the only source of power,harm and blessing.So we must only worship Him alone and ask Him for help.Don’t u listen when a main character in that cartoon
says’i give u under the protection of so and so gods of so and so stars’.?She said ,’Yes mama u r right i remember.’I said,’There r many other cartoons u can watch."I had a discussion with her as she had many questions about shirk and if it is wrong why people do it.In this whole episode i did not yell at her and she also did not insist on watching that cartoon.We stopped watching that channel as a precaution.I also do not let them watch cartoons endlessly.Half an hour only.
Sister Umm Hibathain i like ur article very much.Please do write again.
Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door!
Very nice article about the simple ways we can all teach our own children the fundamentals of our faith. Too many of us wait til our kids are school aged to teach them the essentials. But really, all of this can be done from the time they are in the cradle by the simple steps laid out by the author.
Lovely article Umm Hibathain ,
i started receiting the sleeping du’a to my son Rahil right from birth. Now he is 2 1/2 and alhamdullilah has learnt it now and at bed i just start and he ends it, Alhamdullilah.
And very surprisingly i must have recited the the morning du’a very rarely and recently when i was reciting it for him, he completed it by saying "Nushoor", Mashallah, i was sooo happy.
Also i have taught him 5 pillars of Islam, i take his palm and in the center i place my fingers and say 5 pillars of Islam are, then on each finger i say, Shahadah, Salah, Zakat, Saum and for Hajj i make some actions and hold his hands. He just loves it. Now at night he wants to do the Hajj game and he even does it for us by saying "Shada" "Sala" "Akat" "Foum" "Hajj",
ALhmadullilah…. Also while eating, he wants all of us to say Bismillah loudly, like Umma(mother)bismillah, Rahil "Bichema", Mashallah…
SO true, we can teach them just by reciting to them everyday, He has picked up Ameen after Fatiha by his own….. Inshallah, May ALlah help us be the best parent and guide to our Children…
SubhanaAllah!All these sweeet moms inspire us girls us so much!hehe..You all are people we would love to learn from more:PInshaAllah after marriage i will consult you all!:P
really good article,jazakillah khair.n good points frm mommies too.may Allah bless.
Very nice article Umm hibthain!
My son is 1 year and 7 months now.For the first 3 months,my son always had his grandma beside him, reciting the quran and saying the dhikr to him.Later when she went back to india i made it a habit to play the quran to him so that he wont cry when no one is around him.Also i had made it a habit telling bismillah and alhamdulillah always and he too is trying to tell it now,especially while breast feeding,he sits on my lap and then smile and tell something like bismillah to make me happy,alhamdulillah!
Whenever i pray i used make him sit in a seater next to me so that he would see me praying and wont cry as well.By the time he was 6 months,he understood that we start prayer with takbeer and finish it with salam because when i finish my prayer he would start smiling.Whenever my husband is at home we try to pray together in front of him.Now he started moving around a lot,so cant pray when he is around.But i try to give him some toy and make him engaged when i go to pray.Recently i started reciting ayat ul qursi and the sleeping dua to him while going to sleep(i should have done this earlier).
We have been teaching him la ilaha illah since birth itself.Now he started saying something like that.Alhamdulillah.
Its takes a lot of effort to bring up children with emaan now.Avoiding tv is a good choice.Before, me and my husband used to watch tv a lot but now we almost avoided it.Children seems to get attracted to tv very fast,so its us parents who have to control it first.
Before having a child,me and my husband already had an intention of making our child a hafidh if its a son,alhamdulillah we have a son now.I pray to allah to accept our dua and make our wish come true.Ameen.
Masha Allah sister Jaseela. Your comment has soo much for parents to learn, ALhamdulillah..
May Allah fulfill all you dreams:) Ameen.