Way of The Seekers — Page 49
49 THE Eat with your right hand and from that which is in front of you. 2 Hazrat Imam Hasan was only about 2 / years at the time. 1 In our country if a child begins to manipulate the whole dish and starts taking big mouthfuls, not minding the clean clothes of his neighbor on either side, the parents only enjoy the scene and say nothing to the child. At the most they administer a mild rebuke or two. Their aim is not really to teach the child or to prevent him or her from wrongdoing. The casual rebuke is not seriously meant. There is another episode from the life of the Holy Prophet (on him be peace and blessings). A basket of dates had arrived to be distributed among the poor. Imam Hasan was very young at the time. He picked up a date and put it in his mouth. As soon as the Holy Prophet (on him be peace) noticed this, he put his finger in the child’s mouth and pulled out the date. what he meant was that a Prophet’s grandchild was not to eat what belonged to others, that he was supposed to make his own living when he grew up and not be a burden on others. In short, childhood training is very important. what he becomes as a child, he will become as an adult. No wonder the Holy Prophet, on whom be peace and blessings, has said: Every child is born true to nature. It is his parents who make of him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian. It is true also that it is his parents who turn him into a Muslim or a Hindu. The Hadith does not mean that when the child has grown up, his parents take him to a church to have him baptized as a Christian. The meaning of the Hadith is that a child as a child is at the mercy of his parents. He absorbs what he hears them say and does what he sees them do. The child is a great imitator. If the parents do not set before him a proper model to copy, he will go elsewhere to find a model which he can copy. Some liberals think that it is best to leave the children