Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 152
! ! 152 Religious Training S hould Start f rom Childhood Another great problem in our society is that parents wish to teach their children worldly things from a very early age, but when it comes to religious training, they claim , ‘ T he child will learn once he is older. T here is no need for it now. ’ E ven if it is against the doctor’s orders, p arents will send them off to school at a time when children are not even conscious of their surroundings. They say that the child only wander s around [at home], so it would be better to have him sit at school. What they really desire is for the child to learn something during the very year in which he c ould have gained some awareness. Ye t on the other hand , even when the child approach es maturity , they believe him to be too young to learn Salāt and they say that he will learn it when he is older. If they are asked to wake their child up for Salāt , they will make the excuse by saying that his sleep will suffer. If , however the next morning , an inspector is expected to test him , they will keep him awake all night. Frankly, they worry greatly in appearing before the inspector, but no t at all in waking up to appear before God’s divine presence. Teac h your children about religion from an early age f or t hose who do not teach their children at an early age, such children will still not learn once they are grown. Just as t hose who learn something at a later age , cannot make great progress, religion cannot be learned well later in life. The t rouble is that what people regard as the age of maturity in worldly matters , is not the same in religious matters. Even eighteen - year - olds are consid ered too young to be disciplined in following religious practices; whereas a young child of a few years , who throws a pen or rips a book apart, is reprimanded and sc olded for these acts. It is said that if he is not disciplined, he will learn the bad habit of ruining things. However, nothing is said when the youth subvert the religion of God. P eople attempt to teach religion to the child at an age when they assume he knows everything and is old enough to teach others. As a result, he learn s nothing. Un less parents realize that the time to learn religion is in childhood, and un less they understand that they can only influence their children in their childhood, the children will not grow up to be religious.