Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 153
! ! 153 Women’s Role i n Children’s Moral Training Un less women adopt the same viewpoint as men , children will not grow up to be religious , for m en are not always with their children. Mothe rs spend more time with them , and it has been observed that even religious mothers are lax in teaching their children about religion. If their child is sleeping at prayer time, they let him sleep. Unless is it ingrained in the mothers t hat religious training can only occur during childhood, success cannot be achieved. T herefore , my first piece of advice is to the parents, but really to the fathers, since the women are not present here , which is to inculcate moral training and teach children religion from childhood , so that they grow up to be truly pious. Every Action R equires Perseverance Following this , I would like to speak to the children. As I said before, no nation can progress unless its future generation is inclined towards progress. By nature , I am very keen on children’s moral upbringing. No job can be done properly without attention to a proper course of action. In our country , the problem is that we do not focus on a proper course of action that may lead to success. In my opinion, the foremost issue which confronts us and is devastatingly widespread, i s the lack of perseverance. Someone asked the Holy Prophet sa , what is the most righteous deed ? He replied, “Serving one’s parents. ” The person asked the same question again, and the reply was the same. Similarly, another person asked the same question and the Holy Prophet sa replied according to that man’s nature , and for as long as he continued to ask , the Holy Prophet sa repeated his answer. T h is does not mean that this is the most righteous deed, but because their greatest weakness was in breach of this, attention was brought to this [quality]. Our nation also has its own weakness. If someone asks me the secret to success , I will say, ‘perseverance. ’ If he asks again, I will give the same answer; and if he asks again, still the answer will remain the same. If a second person, or third person, or however many others thereafter ask me the same question any number of times , I will say that t o be successful in any field , perseverance is the