How we are raising our children?

Raising Mujaahideen.

In the Masjid, the Imam is asking a group of young children about their ambitions. One wants to be a doctor, another a pilot, another an Alim. He notices a small, skinny boy in the corner and asks him "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The little boy shyly stands up. In a firm voice which belies his slight frame, he replies "I want to be a Mujaahid and die a Shaheed." The sniggering of the other children is barely concealed. He runs home, where his mother dries his tears and prays that his wish is fulfilled.

Many years later, he travels to the Kashmir valley with its bitter cold and merciless depth. It is a pitch black night, and he is on high alert to every sound in the dark. He struggles to slow the pounding of his heart at every screeching jackal, every mortar fired. Against his will his mind wanders to those he has left behind. Is his daughter missing him? Would he see her again? He worries about his wife's difficult pregnancy. He remembers her laughter at his corny jokes. His mother fussing about him being too thin; his father's admonition that his car is a death-trap. It all seems like another life.

The shelling has intensified. As he fires his kalashnikov, he is crying; begging his Lord to grant him the Shahadah he has desired since childhood. The back of his jacket has turned bright red. Bowing down into sujood, he whispers "Allahu Akbar". His soul gently leaves his body to reside in the heart of a green bird in Jannah.

Four thousand miles away, a son is born to his wife. The family blink back the tears at this tiny mirror image of their son and husband. When the news reaches them of his Shahadah, they are grief-stricken, yet patient at the news. Friends and relatives are amazed at their steadfastness; how they are determined that his children will honour his memory and live up to his example. How they encourage everyone who visits them to support the Jihad with their wealth and their lives.

A few years later, in the same Masjid, another Imam asks another little boy: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The little boy replies "I want to be a Mujaahid and die a Shaheed." The sniggering of the class is barely concealed, but he doesn't care. Instead, he thinks about the stories his mother has told him about the father whom he has never met. When these same class-mates will one-day be working in banks and comfortably enjoying the dhunia, he will travel the same journey, fight the same enemy and insha'Allah join his father as a Shaheed.

How are we raising our children?

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Surah Al-An'am Ayah 32 :

"And the life of this world is nothing but play and amusement. But far better is the house in the Hereafter for those who are Al­Muttaqun (the pious). Will you not then understand? "

Surah Al-Ankabut Ayah 64 :

"And this life of the world is only amusement and play! Verily, the home of the Hereafter, that is the life indeed (i.e. the eternal life that will never end), if they but knew "

Surah Muhammad Ayah 36 :

"The life of this world is but play and pastime, but if you believe (in the Oneness of Allah Islamic Monotheism), and fear Allah, and avoid evil, He will grant you your wages, and will not ask you your wealth."

Surah Al-Hadid Ayah 20 :

"Know that the life of this world is only play and amusement, pomp and mutual boasting among you, and rivalry in respect of wealth and children, as the likeness of vegetation after rain, thereof the growth is pleasing to the tiller; afterwards it dries up and you see it turning yellow; then it becomes straw. But in the Hereafter (there is) a severe torment (for the disbelievers, evil-doers), and (there is) Forgiveness from Allah and (His) Good Pleasure (for the believers, good-doers), whereas the life of this world is only a deceiving enjoyment."

The Prophet (saw) said, "There will be none among you but will be talked to by Allah on the Day of Resurrection, without there being an interpreter between him and Him (Allah) . He will look and see nothing ahead of him, and then he will look (again for the second time) in front of him, and the (Hell) Fire will confront him. So, whoever among you can save himself from the Fire, should do so even with one half of a date (to give in charity)." (Saheeh Bukhari)

Abdullah bin 'Umar said, "Allah's Apostle took hold of my shoulder and said, 'Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveler." The sub-narrator added: Ibn 'Umar used to say, "If you survive till the evening, do not expect to be alive in the morning, and if you survive till the morning, do not expect to be alive in the evening, and take from your health for your sickness, and (take) from your life for your death." (Saheeh Bukhari)

Imaam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, radhiallaahu `anhu, narrated that Abu-d-Dardaa’, radhiallaahu `anhu, once said: "If only you knew what you will certainly see upon your death, you would never again eat a single bite out of a craving appetite, and you would never again drink an extra sip of water for the pleasure of unquenchable and insatiable thirst. Hence, you will remain outdoor in perpetuity, bewildered and awaiting the unexpected, and you will never again seek comfort in a shelter or seek a shade. You will wander aimlessly and climb the hilltops of every mountain, you will look up towards the heavens and beseech your Lord for mercy, and you will beat on your chest and cry endlessly, and you will wish that you were a little vegetable - a plant which is protected to grow, and then plucked to be eaten by a hungry person passing along."

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