The Promised Messiahas & Imam Mahdi (Guided One)
Founder of
THE REVIEW OF RELIGIONS
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas
How to properly raise children is a perennial question and concern for mothers and fathers everywhere. Here, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, the Promised Messiah, provides valuable insight and advice for parents.
I believe that beating children in a manner by which the ill-behaved child-beater pretends to be Allah’s partner in guiding and training children is a type of polytheism. [1]
When a hot-tempered person is provoked and punishes a child, he takes on the role of an enemy in the stress of his anger and imposes punishment far in excess of the wrong which has been done. An individual with self-respect and control over himself, who is also forbearing and dignified, has the right to correct a child to a certain extent as the occasion demands or seek to guide the child. But a wrathful and hot-headed person who is easily provoked is not fit to be a guardian of children. I wish that, instead of punishing children, parents would have recourse to prayer, and should make it a habit to supplicate earnestly for their children; for the supplications of parents on behalf of their children meet with special acceptance.
True guidance and training belongs to God Almighty. To pursue a matter persistently and to insist upon it unduly and to rebuke children upon every matter indicates that such a person imagines himself to be the source of guidance and believes that he will bring the children to order by pursuing his own method. This kind of attitude savours of a hidden assumption of association with the Divine and should be avoided by the members of our community. I pray for my children and require them to follow a broad set of rules of behaviour and no more. Beyond this, I put my full trust in Allah Almighty in the confidence that the seed of good fortune inherent in each of them will flower at its proper time.
endnotes
- Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmadas, Malfuzat, Vol. 2, pp. 4-5 (English Translation: The Essence of Islam, Vol. 3, pp. 335-336).
Add Comment