Child

The Child With Culture of Reading Is More

Visionary

An anxious husband away from home reads quickly important pieces of news from the letter he has just received from his family and then reads them all over again. If the anxious husband had been illiterate. he would have got the letter read out to him by someone who would have then folded and returned it to him only to see him unfolding the letter and looking intently into it as if he was now able to read it. The action in both cases reveals a particular pattern of the human mind.

It wants to register and familiarise the pieces of news at its own independent pace. If the husband is reading about his baby being sick, his mind is also registering a likely perception, familiar to his mind, of the background against which the baby is in the state of sickness. The pace for reading is influenced by the pace at which each piece of the news undergoes such a mental registration in a wider perspective.

The mind works the same natural way for an illiterate person too. Unfolding the letter only to be looking into it is to prompt a mental registration of the picture depict- ed from the news which is in the letter.

The only disadvantage is that when a letter is read out, the pace at which he hears may not be the leisurely he would like if he were reading the letter himself for an efficient registration. His mind is always alert about what is next to be heard and this disturbs the efficiency-pace of registration. He therefore takes the letter to someone else for a favour of being read out to him again, though he now knows mostly what is next in the line of hearing.

The Difference

This is precisely the difference also when a person listens to a programme of a series of national and international news in a quick succession from radio or TV channels r. and when he reads them in the newspapers. The latter facilitates a mental treatment of each piece in a wider perspective at an acceptable pace; and this helps in avoiding the absorption of any hidden message planted behind the presentation of the s by the electronic media.

The electronic media therefore has an effective capability as compared to the print media of manipulating the public opinion in this way. No wonder that the electronic media has captured a wider market and is capable of influencing large segments of public on the issues of faith (religion), socio-culture, politics, economy and such others, because it "conveniently saves" those gullible among the public-viewers from exercise of smart thinking and scrutiny.

Fertile Mind

As a result, more and more among the succeeding generations lose the culture of serious minding reading. Gone are the days when a child was seen in his room engrossed in ling a book and weighing or questioning mentally the merits of the thoughts and s of the author. It is this process which helped the child to widen the horizon of his critic mind, and it is such a child who grew up able to also develop a creative mind formulate his own ideas and then be able to write or express them.

He possessed a fertile mind of originality and creativeness because he had conditioned the mind into a critical thinking while feeding it regularly with a serious reading. He grew better equipped to formulate his independent thoughts and visions -and to advise lead.

The mind in a child wants to explode into an expansive horizon such is the thirst for absorption of knowledge and information and he can draw on a number of sources to satisfy this: the sources being family; school, electronic media, friends etc. The source is, however, reading which means a flow of one's own critic thoughts as E continues to read.

While there is always plenty of reading around - in the school, places of business and work, etc, none of these can serve as a substitute for the taste and culture of the leisurely at home or in a library for the reasons explained above.

Message is Simple

"The message is simple and yet crucial: do not let your child grow up without having cultivated the habit of reading as a family culture or hobby. A certain time is set during a week-end and school holidays when the child is alone in his room with arrangement of no access t TV, radio, Computer, game or telephone chat, and he picks up a suitable children-book to kill the initial boredom, preferably one of those with a good moral story or fiction and an attraction to complete it.

Some parents may perceive this arrangement as an unnecessary toll on their dear child for such an apparently minor habit. It is probable that they themselves lack or under-rate the culture of reading and any idea of its richness in the mental nourishment. Reading is a culture with no compensatory substitute; and no culture is minor.

The Child and his Concept of Allah swt

Talking about a small child's "initial concept" of Allah, one person was reminiscing his childhood's mis-concept. A member in the family died. His father had an explanation: Someone called Allah took him away.

This information created a fear in him of who- ever takes people away. Incidentally whenever he misbehaved in the street while walking along with his mother, she would point out at a police constable if one hap- pened to be in sight and scare him that she would ask the constable to take him away. So during his early childhood he, in his misplaced concept, likened Allah. when mentioned at home, to a man in a khaki uniform.

As Allah is not visible and yet He is often mentioned at home, children form their own independent picture of Him in their mind. It varies from child to child. Such pictures are influenced mostly by what the parents mention about Allah's pleasure and displeasure in the context of a child's misbehaviour and his "sinning" against Him because of the misbehaviour.

Such incidental and cursory introduction of Allah with the depiction of human emotions in Him gives a mis-leading representation of His attributes. For example, the mention of Allah as punishing for a wrong-doing makes a child liken Him to a teacher he knows in the neighbourhood who punishes students in the school. And yet, the mention of Allah being Wise and all the time Alive gives to another child the picture of an old and knowledgeable grandfather who is getting older and older and yet keeps on living.

Polishing or Polluting!

Everyone is born with a natural in-born belief that there exists power and control over himself by his Creator (al imaan bil ghaib - belief in himself by his Creator (al imaan bil ghaib -belief in the Unseen)) and this nagging belief is general for the mankind. The human mind cannot remain blank or shed this belief. He has either to run the path to polishing the belief or run the risk of polluting it. There is no third option. In the case of a child, therefore, under the inspiration of this inborn belief, he senses a thirst for information in order to polish the belief. In the absence of adequate and balanced information, his imaginative mind tries to fill in the gaps and comes up with an incorrect interim concept of his Creator Who he finds often mentioned as Allah in the family. This mis-concept is common with small children.

Therefore, it is an Islamic obligation of the parents to ensure that as the child grows up, his thirst, which often goes unknown to them, is quenched amply with a flow of pure and proper information. The risk of the child drawing information from other doubtful Sources, as an alternative, becomes diminished. He is spared from his belief being tampered with doubts later in his adult life.

Religious Duty.

The parents therefore have a religious duty to ensure that the child is purposefully engaged in the proper learning of correct and balanced concept of Allah as early ''as possible" essentially based on His attributes. The perfect concept of His being and existence is however, beyond human comprehension. The initial childhood picture of Allah as a being with a human physique, image, emotions, needs or limitations must not stay on longer.

And this is only possible when the entire package of His attributes, including those of His benevolence, compassion, forgiveness, generosity and such others are addressed. There therefore develops a balanced concept of Him as the loving and lovable Being, and yet also a reasonably feared One if disobeyed or angered -all in the context of tauhid (absolute onennes).

Common God is not Allah.

What is even more important is to impress upon the child that there exists only Allah and there is no god besides Him and that the mention by others, of god or God, who lacks all the combined attributes of Allah is not Allah. And no god other than Allah exists. Therefore, the universally common God worshiped by all others does not exist if he is not Allah.

While it is true that great "thawab" is earned by those parents who are the first to teach their children to recite or read the verse: Bi'simi Laahi Rahman Raheem", its importance is not confined to teaching the recitation of the verse or its translation only. The importance essentially lies also in helping the children to form a correct and balanced Islamic concept of "Allah" mentioned in the verse.

It has to be reiterated that Allah has created Man in the nature of wanting to know Him. Human reasoning, which is attuned to his nature, leads to knowing Him rightly. Therefore, children's ability to reason, when prodded by the parents, to gain the right concept of Allah should not be under-rated.

When the growing child is taught to address his dua (supplication) to Allah, the impact of his faith in the dua is tremendous only if he has also been made to gain the right Islamic concept of Him.

The Culture of Talking to Allah swt

If rooted deeply and practiced earnestly during one's lifetime. this culture can make a difference in one's fate in this and the next world. but then it needs to be commenced and cultivated in one's childhood.

It is not common to see a child moved on his own accord to talking to Allah in the form of dua (supplication). .It never dawns upon the children the need to talk to Allah, Their parents make available for them almost all that they need, desire or hope for, They provide a dependable sense of security. When children fall sick they see the parents bring medicine to make them feel well again.

There was however this child who did talk to Allah. No one in the family had asked him to. though. His mother. half crying. was telling his grandmother on the phone that his baby sister with signs of a serious dehydration was to be rushed to the hospital that very moment. The baby was in danger of her life and the family doctor who had just left after examining her would join them after a short while. She ended the conservation hurriedly with a frantic plea to the grandmother for a dua to Allah.

After the parents had left with the baby for the hospital. the child. realising for the first time how helpless and weak his parents can be after all, talked to Allah in a few stuttering words of his language. He felt less anxious after that. He would however not let his parents know about this secret monologue because children do not talk to Allah!.'

What normally the child sees at home as a familiar scene perhaps almost daily is of the parents individually "reciting" what they call "dua" and that too in the language which the child knows as not theirs. He does not know the reason for this recitation in a language not understood except that it is no different from what he sees as Salaat (daily prayers) in regularity. He however, notices the parents also talk to Allah. The parents' apparent secrecy of such talking in low whispers is beyond his comprehension ( Q.7:55)* He thinks that the whole participation in this secretive monologue is for adults only.

Family is the Loser.

Parents may falsely presume that children do understand why parents "recite" dua or address it in low whispers, and that children also understand that their needs are provided because of the blessing of Allah to the parents through duas. They also presume, again falsely, that children's duas to Allah. if they are made to address, produce no results because of their age.

By such a presumption the family is the loser. We mortals are poor in the sight of Allah (Q. 35: 15)**. The only thing we own is the means of dua. Allah has asked us to call upon Him and promised grant of duas. (2: 186; 40:60)*** He is the Best of Promise-keepers. We can expect the pleas of the children to be more readily granted not only because of their innocence (ismat) but also because teaching them to turn to Allah is pleasing to Him.

Street beggars apply the "salesmanship" of taking out their children together to elicit sympathy. We should get our children to join us in expressing our humbleness to our Lord in the form of dua. Let us remember that if the sight of a child sitting in a quiet corner and engaged in imploring Allah in low and shy whispers with small hands raised up together moves the heart of the mother, then it is reported that the love of Allah for His creatures (servants -ibaad) is seventy times of that of the mother for her child.

It Is Simple.

Parents should make the best of the opportunities presented in the form of dua when they have small children in the family to facilitate the dua to be answered sooner. It is simple. When the child eagerly requests for a special thing, not common in his wants, direct him to address a dua to Allah for it, without revealing whether the inten- tion is to buy it for him or not, and then leave him in suspense while he keeps repeating the daily dua before the request is met. The parents should also teach the child to resign to the dua not being granted by making the child to address dua even where the intention is not to comply with his request.

"Dua is a gist of ibaadat (worship)"; "The best prayer (ibaadaV is dua" -Ahaadith of the Holy Prophet. Why not get children to participate in this form of ibaadat, which is simple in performance and convenient in the discretion of time and yet tremendously rewarding.

Parents should experience the thrill on seeing their small child praying to Allah for lots of things, big and small, for them while they strain their ears to catch his words with- out letting him know. for he will have been taught to pray for them also, as for himself, in his own language. So let the child "play" adult in this euphoric role of talking to Allah and the "score" will be real!

"Call on your Lord humbly and secretly..." (7:55)

"0' men! you are (fuqaraa) they who stand in need of Allah..." (35: 15).

"I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he calls on Me " (2:186). "Call upon Me and I will answer you..." (40:60).