‘Positive morals are necessary ingredient for a total child’
Toyin Subair
Muslim parents have been advised to inculcate positive morals in their offspring and be steadfast on the path of Islam as through it brand Islam could be achieved.
This advice was expressed by the Founder, Al-Mubins Islamic Organisation, Sheikh AbdulRazaq Mubasir Woleola during his lecture at the third edition of Faith Unites Muslims Charity Initiatives (FUMCI) Children’s award for Islamic excellence and practice held recently in Lagos.
According to Sheikh Mubasir, in the early days, Islam was characterised with positive morals. It has the name of Allah as its foundation and as such it was a biggest brand.
He stated further that “but today, in spite of Muslims population in the world which is put at 1.5billion, Islam cannot be said to be a biggest brand. Why is this? Because Islam has been hijacked and replaced with radicalism and terrorism while positive morals and good conduct which was the foundation of the religion have been eroded by modernisation reason our young ones speak nonchalantly to their parents while the parents too careless about the kind of knowledge their children engaged in.
A sage was reported to have said and I quote “If you give your child to your enemy to train, that child will turn back to be your enemy”. Our enemy in this sense are the educators with anti-Islam tendencies; those educators that are opposed to Islam and its teachings”.
In the midst of this, how can Muslim parents cope and bequeath qualitative education to their children in line with Islamic principles?
The solution according to Sheikh Mubasir lies with the parents who are number One educator for a child.
He added that “To train a child properly, educators must be well grounded in Quranic knowledge and morals which are necessary ingredients needed for the making of a complete child. There is a huge responsibility on both the parents and teachers to teach a child interactively as being interactive with learners build confidence in them and broaden their knowledge.
Speaking about moral etiquettes, there is nothing wrong in a female Muslim going on her kneels when greeting her parents. Muslims should desist from importing morals and attitudes that are alien to Islam into it. The Prophet was reported to have had the most perfect of characters but this is what is lacking among Muslims of today. Islam with morals and excellent character is baseless therefore the best of morals that could be given to a child is good morals and this I called brand Islam which every parent must imbibe to reshape the future of their children”.
Sheikh Mubasir identified two kinds of people that can never possess knowledge: an arrogant and a shy person.
He reasoned that “A shy person will not want to be seen engaging in the process of learning while an arrogant person would consider himself to be too big to learn and be taught. Islam has been in Yoruba land over hundreds of year ago but there are tribes also in Nigeria that accepted Islam long afterward but are better off in the practice of the religion than the Yorubas.
At a time, I attended a Juma’ah prayer at the MKO Abiola Mosque in Ikeja, where the visiting Imam that delivered the Hutbah in both Arabic and English was an Igbo man. The entire congregation were shocked to hear that the visiting Imam was an Igbo man. Afterward, the resident Imam introduced the two children of the Igbo Imam who were Hufaaz and speak Arabic as the language of communication fluently. What does this suggest of Yoruba Muslims who have been practicing Islam for years before its introduction to Igboland? How many Yoruba Muslim parents are Hufaaz not to talk of taking their children to Qur’an class? These amongst other things are what we should work on for us to perfect our Islam”.
Speaking about the uniqueness of the competition, Amir of FUMCI, Ustaz Muiz Zubayr said “FUMCI is so unique in that it is a charity organisation which spread the mercies of Allah and carters for the well-being of Muslims in its domain through its various activities”.
Meanwhile, the highpoint of the event was the emergence of winners in the five categories of the competition. In Salat and Hadith categories, Mujeeb Subair emerged top while Ajala Muhymin came first in Qur’an category and Afeez Ayepola won prize for the best child in Fiqh as Mudashir Mohammad emerged winner in tahaddub category and also prize for the over-all best.
