• Children: Growing up where Islam does not exist
You have said that a child born into an unbelieving family must believe in Islam when he grows up into an adult and starts thinking. Otherwise, he is answerable for being a polytheist. Suppose that this child is born and grows up in a village where Islam simply does not exist. He lives all his life without being aware of Islam. Is he responsible for not becoming a Muslim?
It is the collective duty of the Muslim community throughout the world to convey the message of Islam to mankind and to make it clear to everyone that Allah had chosen Islam as a faith and a code of living for the human race. Therefore, everyone is required by Allah to believe in Oneness of Allah, the Supreme Being, and in the message of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. If there are impediments put in the way of the Muslim community to prevent it from discharging this duty, the community is expected to do everything in its power to remove these impediments.It is the right of every human being to learn about Islam and to receive its message. If some people go through life without knowing about Islam or that they are required by Allah to believe in it, Allah will not hold them to account for not being Muslims. We have to remember that Allah is the most just of judges. Hence, He would not make any person accountable for not believing in something about which he knows nothing.
When we say that everyone is required to think and consider and choose his faith, we have in mind someone who has the means to know about different creeds and faiths and who has the ability to distinguish what is true from what is false. A person whom Allah has endowed with sound mind and given him education and opened to him the ways to learn about His message which is addressed to all mankind, is certainly responsible if he fails to make an intelligent choice or decides not to bother about the whole issue of faith and believing in Allah. It is such a person with whom we are concerned and whom we call upon to believe in the Oneness of Allah and in the message of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.
• Children: Parents’ approach toward teaching Islamic faith
I was brought up as a Christian, but then I did not really believe in Christianity. When my husband explained to me the full meaning of the basic Islamic concept of the Oneness of Allah, I gladly accepted Islam. However, because of the wide discrepancy between people's practices and what they profess to believe in, my husband and I feel that we should give our son a completely free choice. We will teach him about Islam but the choice to be Muslim or not should remain his. Some people object to our attitude and say that we should bring him up as a Muslim. Are we wrong to adopt this approach.
I appreciate what you are aiming at. You will be surprised to know that Islam has established the principle of free choice for everyone. It requires every single one of its followers to accept it as a matter of choice, not because he or she has Muslim parents. Those who go through life, practicing Islam as a religion simply because they have been brought up into it, not questioning its principles and not looking into other choices available to them before making an enlightened decision to be Muslims, are considered negligent of an important duty. A Muslim is expected to choose his religion by himself. So, what you want for your son is in line with what Islam wants for him.
Having said that, I must say that I do not think that your approach is right. Perhaps you have not explained it fully to me, but I can only be guided by the information supplied to me by my kind readers.
The main point is that everyone of us has an inherent desire to know Allah and to believe in Him. This is part of our nature which Allah has implanted within us when He created us. If you look at the world generally, and people in different countries and cultures, as well as different generations of people, you find that to believe in Allah is an important need of every human being. If a child grows up not having received enough knowledge about his Creator, he is likely to be influenced by different creeds. He may not be able to formulate a consistent concept of the Creator. This leads him to confusion and, may be, to error. Therefore, every Muslim has a duty to fulfill toward his children, to make them fully aware of the Islamic concepts and what it means to every individual to believe in Allah, His messenger and in the Day of Judgment. There should be no coercion or pressure on the child to accept Islam in a dogmatic way. What is important is to have an enlightened approach toward learning about the Islamic faith and its requirement. The choice is eventually the child's.
You speak of Muslims whose practices, when they go abroad, leave much to be desired. This is certainly unfortunate, but then Islam does not believe in coercion. If people deviate from the moral standards of Islam, they know what their deviation entails. But you must also be aware of the fact that numerous young men and women from Muslim countries go abroad to study and continue to observe Islamic teachings and principles without hesitation. The difference between these two sets of young Muslims is largely due to the fact that one group has made an enlightened choice of Islam as a faith and a way of life while the other look at Islam as their inherited religion. What Islam requires of you is to bring up your child so as he or she could easily belong to the first group. He should be able to question things and make an enlightened choice. To do so, he must be fully aware of the facts of Islam. That is your role: To help him have that knowledge so that he can appreciate the benefits of Islam as a faith and the infinite good that results from adopting an Islamic way of life.
• Children: Parents’ misdeeds and the children’s suffering
In our part of the world people say that the children of people who were guilty of practices forbidden by God's law, such as corruption, theft, rape and murder, seem to suffer much. They experience misfortune, poverty, neglect, etc. According to the popular view, the suffering is only a natural consequence of the evil deeds of their parents. How far is this view acceptable?
I am sure that some examples could be quoted to prove this common belief. There are other examples to prove the reverse. Who commits more crimes against God's law than a dictator who does not care for human rights? He treats his people like sheep which he may kill for his food. Yet the children of dictators often live to enjoy vast wealth they get only because they were the children of a ruler who treated the whole country as his private farm.
There are other examples which may be quoted as well. There are many cases of a father who might not hesitate to commit any forbidden thing when they would serve his interest. His children may grow up as God-fearing people who do their best to stick to what is permissible and refrain from anything forbidden. Where does this lead us? Only to the basic Islamic principle that each individual has his own status. No one's destiny is determined by his parents' beliefs or behavior. God provides chances to every individual to recognize His guidance and to follow it. People either take these chances or ignore them.
Those who ignore them suffer, while those who take them and follow God's guidance enjoy His blessing and reward. Having said that, I would like to add that those who resort to theft, corruption and murder normally do not bring up their children well. They are busy planning for their offenses or trying to escape punishment. Hence their children may have the wrong sort of upbringing.
They are either spoilt or neglected. In either situation they are likely to suffer. Their suffering is due to their parents' not looking after them properly. It is not a punishment for their fathers' deeds. That punishment is incurred upon the ones who committed those offenses, not their children. God says in the Qur'an: "No one shall bear the burden of another." This applies to children and parents as much as it applies to others.
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