Advice to Children

Advice to Children

Lecture by Aboo Khadeejah Waahid as-Salafee

From the lecture series in Sri Lanka

All praises is due to Allaah (Azzawajall) and we ask Allaah for His aid, His assistance and His forgiveness. We ask Allaah and seek refuge with Allaah from the evil of our souls and the evil of our actions. Whomsoever Allaah guides because he is deserving of guidance there is none to misguide and whomsoever Allaah misguides because of a disease in his heart there is none who can guide this individual.

I bear witness that there is nothing that has the right to be worshipped except Allaah (subhanuhu wa ta’ala) and Muhammad (salallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) is His Messenger.

The best of speech is the Book of Allaah, and the best of guidance and example is the guidance and example of the Last Prophet, Muhammad (salallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam). And the worst of things in this religion is everything that is brought into it that is not from the religion, and this is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance and every misguidance is in the Hellfire.

Many of us know that the greatest blessing that Allaah has given us is the religion of Islaam. All of us breathe, all of us eat, all of us walk, all of us use our arms and our legs, and can see and hear, and Allaah is the one who gave us all of this. So if Allaah (tabaaraka wa ta’ala) gave us all of this, we thank Allaah.

If we are to thank other than Allaah this will not be correct. For example, if we go look for a job, or our parents are working for someone and we go to the boss and the boss tells us to make a table. So the worker says he will make the table and makes it very nicely and varnishes it until it is a beautiful table. But instead of giving it to the boss he gives it to another man on another street, and then he comes back to the boss and says, “Give me my wages.”

The boss will not give this individual his salary in this case because the boss was the one who told him to make the table and the boss wanted it made for himself, and then after this he would give him the money for making the table. So what he does instead of giving the table to the one he was supposed to make it for, is he makes it and gives it to someone else and then goes back to the boss and asks for his pay. No one with good sense would ever find this acceptable.

So now Allaah is the One, the Creator. He is the one who gave you your mother, your father, sight, hearing, the clothes you wear, your teachers, all of this comes from Allaah. So then what we do is we thank someone who has died and is in his grave, and then on the day of Judgement we ask Allaah to give us the reward. So He will not give it to you because He is the one who gave us our blessings so now if we thank other than Allaah this is incorrect.

Also when we are suffering and ill, Allaah (Azzawajall) is the one who cures us, but instead of asking Allaah to cure us we ask the sun or mountain or moon to cure us, and then when we die and Allaah raises us we ask Allaah to put us into Paradise. So He will not put us into Paradise because He cured us when we were sick, gave us good health, and so on, but instead of thanking Allaah and asking of Allaah, we thanked and asked of other than Allaah.

This is not something that Allaah loves, rather it is something that He hates more than anything else. He is the one who created us and made us and allowed us to breathe, makes the blood flow around our body, allows our teeth to work when we are eating, allows us to digest our food, allows us to go the bathroom, all of this is from Allaah and not anyone else.

We have not seen the inside of ourselves but we know it works, but Allaah knows how it works because he made it. So if Allaah did all of this just in the creation of one human, imagine what Allaah has done with the ants and the spider, the animals, the lions, the mountains, the trees, rivers, oceans and the fish. He controls all of that, He has made all of that and He has made it in the best way.

So there is no one other than Allaah that we should be turning to and thanking. It is Allaah we turn to because it is Him we worship. He is the one who when we are sick we turn to Him and ask Him for a cure, and He gave us a cure because he has allowed us to make medicine. Allaah is the one who gave us the ingredients so that we can make tablets and make medicine, and He gave the scientists the brain to put it together.

So He is the one that we all turn back to, because all of us are going to die. But this doesn’t mean this will be the end of our lives because there is the life in our graves and there is the life after the grave which is the life in the Hereafter. This is also a life, and you will have to explain to Allaah what you did with the hands that He gave you, and with the eyes He gave you, and with the tongue He gave you to speak with. Allaah (Azzawajall) says in the Qur’aan:

“I did not create the jinn or the humans except that they should worship me.”

So He made us to worship him, not to play with or to throw us into the Hellfire, and He did not make us out of mockery, but rather He made us for something that He wants from us. And what He wants from us is what He loves and that is that all of us go to Paradise. In Paradise we will get everything we want.

For example, when we are at home and we want a toy or a book or some clothing and our mother or father says we can’t have it, or when we want our father to have a nice car but he doesn’t have it, and we ourselves want something but we can’t have it. In Paradise, whatever wish we make Allaah will give it to us.

The Messenger of Allaah (salallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) said:

“When the people of Paradise go into Paradise, whatever they ask for Allaah will give it to them.”

So imagine every wish that you ask for comes true, and all you have to do is wish and Allaah gives it to you. So if you want food, you just wish for it, if you want clothing you just wish and Allaah will give it to you. In Paradise you will never die, and everything is beautiful. There are no headaches or aches in the leg or chest or coughing, or even going to the bathroom. Everything is so beautiful and nice that you don’t have to wish for anything except that Allaah will give it to you.

So none of us want to burn in the Hellfire. So if our mother is cooking and we were to put our finger into the flame of the fire for even one second we would still feel the pain of the fire. But the Messenger said that the Fire of Hell will be much hotter than this. And the fire will not only be on your finger, it will be on the front, back, sides, above and below.

None of us want the Fire, but rather what we want is Paradise where the floor is made out of brocade and silk and it is like walking on a path which is not difficult. The houses are made out of gold bricks, the cement is made out of perfume, trees made out of gold, and four rivers running next to our houses, a river of milk, honey, water, and wine. You drink once you never get thirsty.

There are tents on the sides of the rivers made of hollow pearls and you live there with your families and you will be with the ones that you love. This is the Paradise we want. Your clothes come from a tree which reaches out and puts silk clothes on your body. And you never become sick, there is no hating and no fighting, everyone just loves Allaah. This is Paradise and we only get this Paradise if we worship Allaah, and we don’t get this Paradise any other way.

We have to do that which Allaah has told us to do and keep away from what he told us to keep away from because this life is going to finish. It can finish for you today, tomorrow or in 90 years, because all of us are going to die. But the Muslim, the one who wants to worship Allaah and knows why Allaah made him, this Muslim knows that when he dies he wants to be with Allaah and the believers.

So if we are racing in the playground, this racing we do is a blessing from Allaah because some people don’t have any legs. There are children in parts of the world that are dying because they don’t get enough food or water, and the mother is holding the baby in her arms and is crying.

So look at what Allaah has given us that other people don’t have. We should be thanking him for what he has given us and not only once in our lifetime but all the time. We thank him at Fajr by getting up, making wudhoo and praying. Then at Thuhr we thank him again, and again at ‘Asr and Maghrib and ‘Ishaa.

This is the least we can do because when everyone must pass their test on the Day of Judgement, the Muslims who used to pray will be standing on one side, and those who failed will be standing on the other side. This is because the ones who failed will say they were too lazy to wake up for Fajr or pray Thuhr, but they wanted to play in the street or go to the store. The one who passed the test will say it was hard for them but they got up because they knew they wanted to live forever in Paradise.

When you look at everything around you, you find most people not worshipping Allaah, not calling on him, asking of him. When we were born as a child we were born believing in Allaah, and then we grew older and changed, and our mind changed as well because when Allaah made you he wanted you to worship Him. We know this because He (tabaaraka wa ta’ala) said:

          “I did not create the Jinn and mankind except to worship me.”

So when we grew older we thought we are too clever or busy to worship Allaah and we forget and didn’t realize that Allaah alone is to be worshipped.

So we must wake up in the morning and pray our Fajr, and wake up our parents as well, and come closer to Allaah through this because all of us want to go to Paradise. We should do what Allaah wants us to do so that when we grow up we will be good Muslims. And when we die Allaah will say to us on the Day of Judgement that when we were living we worshipped him and when we did something wrong we said sorry to Him, we asked forgiveness of Him and He forgave us, when we had a lot of money we gave it to someone for the sake of Allaah to help them, and when we were happy we thanked Him, and when we were sad we never said to Allaah why did you do this but rather this is a test from Allaah.

The whole of our life is a test. Just as we have examinations in school and our teachers tell us to study for our science, math, English, and we sit down and study at night while the rest of the children are playing outside and we want to be outside playing too. But when it comes to the exam we pass the exam and are happy we studied because we got our certificate. So we thank our teacher for teaching us and we thank our mother for allowing us to study.

But the whole of your life from Allaah is an examination, as Allaah (subhanuhu wa ta’ala) said in the Qur’aan:

“Allaah gave you life when you were nothing, and Allaah will give you death, and Allaah has given you life and death to see which one of you are best in your actions.”

And you should read the Qur’aan as much as you can because this will bring you closer to Allaah and if you are close to Allaah you will be able to attain Paradise.

So this is referring to our actions and our behaviour. So if we see another person doing something wrong we shouldn’t stay quiet but should say to him that he’s done something wrong and Allaah doesn’t like this. We don’t help him to do something wrong. When someone is doing something good tell them they are doing something good, and do more good. We are not like those people who when we see someone doing something wrong we stay quiet since Allaah doesn’t like this. Rather He likes that if we see someone doing something wrong we say to him: “My brother, Allaah doesn’t like this, you should be doing good.”

So we must be people that when we grow up we grow up as Muslims and when we have our children or our little brothers and sisters we help them on the religion because none of us will be happy in going to the Hellfire. And no one with intelligence wants to go and face the punishment of Allaah. Allaah is the one that we worship and we follow the Messenger of Allaah, Muhammad (salallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) who is the best man that Allaah has made. We follow him because Allaah says in the Qur’aan: “Obey Allaah and obey the Messenger.”

And He (tabaaraka wa ta’ala) says:

“If you love Allaah then follow me (Muhammad) and then Allaah will love you.”

So we earn the love of Allaah by following the Prophet Muhammad (salallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam). He taught us how to pray, so we pray the same as him and it is not allowed to pray in a different way than his. So we must pray like he prayed, behave like he behaved. And the Prophet of Allaah (salallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) never lied or stole. He treated the children good. And when he saw something bad he didn’t stay quiet and if he saw something good he would say to do more of it. He used to pray in the masjid, he was good to his children, to his wives and to his family. He used to pray constantly and if Allaah taught him something he would do it. He never said no to Allaah so we don’t say no to Allaah.

The Companions of the Messenger of Allaah (salallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) such as Aboo Bakr, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab, ‘Alee ibn Abee Taalib, ‘Uthmaan ibn Affaan, and so on (radiallaahu anhum) were good people and the Prophet loved them, so we also love them. Therefore we follow their example because Allaah loves them and Allaah will put them into Paradise.

So we want to be like the companions of the Messenger (salallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) such as Aboo Bakr and ‘Umar, and we want to learn like they learned and worship like they worshipped because if we follow them we will go to Paradise and if we don’t follow them we won’t go to Paradise. They followed the Prophet of Allaah so they will go to Paradise and whoever follows them will go to Paradise also because they worshipped Allaah and cared about the people and used to study the Religion.

And the most important thing in the Religion is to worship Allaah, and this is not just the prayer, but the most important thing is to worship Allaah alone and not to worship anything else. We must know this. For example, knowing the names of Allaah and by the names of Allaah we know who Allaah is. Examples are ar-Razzaaq (the provider), ar-Rahmaan, and al-Maalik. Through these names of Allaah we get to know Allaah and when we get to know something we begin to love it.

For example, we all love tasty food. So if someone describes tasty chicken which is spicy and the like, then the more that they describe it the hungrier you will get. And if one describes ice-cold pepsi, the more the person describes it the more you want it. So the more of the names of Allaah we know and the more he is described to us, the more we know Allaah and love Him and want to be with Him and the more we strive for Paradise.

So it is important that if we want to truly worship Allaah and perform the salaah and fast in Ramadaan, then the more we must know Allaah. We can’t be ignorant of Allaah while we know all the names of the car companies. This is not allowed. When we know him we will love him and when we love him we will worship him, when we love him he will love us and will put us into Paradise.

Even the Hindus, Buddhists and Christians are supposed to worship Allaah but they don’t and instead they worship idols. It is not allowed for us to be with them and go with them to their churches or temples because we want Allaah to love us.

So to love him we must know him and when we know him he loves us and when he loves us then Jannah will be ours.