Management of Children

Yesterday I was reading on ‘NDTV24x7’ world a news item, as reported by PTI from London, entitled “PAK KIDS TAUGHT ‘A’ for Allah, ‘B’ for ‘bandook’.” Further it reads: ‘Citing stark examples from school curriculum, a prominent Islamabad based scholar has said that extreme religious and anti-India views fed into children in schools reinforced the cycle of extremism that showed no signs of receding in Pakistan.’

Derogatory words like ‘bandook’ wherever used should alert rogue nations like Israel.

The word ‘A’ for Allah, however, should not cause any anxiety to any creation as it uniquely denotes the Creator, Sustainer, the All-Merciful, etc. to point out a few of the 99 names or attributes of Allah the Exalted.  

Obviously it is not anti-Indian or against anyone, and denotes the Lord of the Universe referred to variously as said by Late Ahmed Deedat in his book Who is He: as ‘Om’ in the Vedic religion, ‘Waheguru’ by Sikhs, ‘Ya Huwa’ (Oh He) in the Bible, ‘Yahur Mazda’ by Parsies.

One has to agree with what is written downstream of the above news item i.e. ’Stressing on the need for pluralism and secularism in education former Indian Diplomat G Parthosarathy said: “The most important part of education is that diversity should be cherished, that unity does not mean uniformity.”

Everybody wants educated religious minds and not communal goons who hate whatever other religious groups believe or practise. This can lead to Mr. G. Parthasarathy’s dream of ‘Pluralism’ and ‘Secularism’.

Now the question arises as to who will bell the cat.

A few rules have to be implemented as the first steps in this regard:

• ·      Let children abandon the idea that ‘Pluralism’ and ‘Secularism’ mean that one condones every action without strings;
• ·      Nor can it mean atheism where again there are no lines drawn between right and wrong things based on any morals;
• ·      It should be compulsory for all children to study at least the basic teachings of all religions at the primary level itself; and
• ·      Study material should be obviously the one approved by the believers in the various religions.

In this way the day we develop our children to be religious and not communal, every citizen whether he belongs to a minority community or a majority community, a forward community or a backward community, an SC/ST community or an upper caste community, will see in broad daylight criminals and the corrupt filtered out.

Character building as enshrined in scriptures including Islamic Sharia, right from the grassroots level is thus the only way to counter the raising crime and corruption all over the world which has already assumed alarming proportions.

Change of ruling parties or rulers in a country is not going to make any change at all as long as the mentality of the citizens does not change.

For example, Shahadah instils in children the spirit of liberty, unity and fraternity of men, attending to Salat prevents one from shameful deeds, Zakat and Sadaqua through children’s hands instils in them kindness for fellow beings. Saum (fasting) makes them aware of the pangs of hunger which the less fortunate go through, Hajj pilgrimage as instructed by the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) once again presents a demo of what Shahadah implies.