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... the science of peace |
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The child is the first
brick in the society. If it is well placed, the whole building is
straight no matter how high it raises and how great it becomes. He is
the core of the coming generation; from it branches its organs and
parts. As the building needs engineering and balancing; the core needs
the soil and the suitable conditions .The child’s tendencies and
capabilities need to be balanced: he needs the good soil when he grows
up and has his talents crystallized; the sources of culture he receives,
the civilization he adapts to, and his upbringing all need to be
purified. The child is a world
in itself; he holds all the traits of life in its different phases:
turmoil and tranquility, happiness and misery; intelligence and
idleness, purity and malice, superiority and backwardness, faith and
atheism, war and peace as well. The maintenance of reason and passion in
upbringing and growth-the basis of man’s happiness- must begin in
childhood, since it is the best stage for learning the good way of life.
The child’s ability of acquisition and imitation, and his sense of
adoption are intense, he can receive all his movements speech and
actions with a accuracy incredible enough to be compared to the lens of
a camera. While the child’s body grows, his soul should move towards
superiority and completion too. As his body is being cared for, so must
his feelings and spirits be. He must be reared on cleanliness,
politeness, honesty, sympathy, responsibility and benevolence and many
other virtuous qualities as well. In fact, it is extremely difficult to
change the conduct of those who were not accustomed to the right
educational conduct during their childhood. The happiest people
are those who were brought up on the basis of good education and manners
since their childhood. For this reason, parents play an important role
in making their children’s happiness- their responsibility towards them. Imam Ali (p.) once
said to his son al Hassan (p.)”A child’s heart is like an empty land;
whatever you give it, it takes, that’s why I brought you up on
politeness before your heart hardened and your mind got busy.” A child’s
heart is white paper with neither a right nor a wrong idea; responsible
fathers and mothers make good use of this fact to adorn their children’s
hearts with virtuous traits and good manners. A child’s feelings and
emotions appear before his mind, so, one can take advantage of his
feelings before his mental capabilities. All around the world, children
are sent to schools after the age of four or five, during which their
mental talents bloom, while his feelings and senses become active a long
time before. A child who does not comprehend the scientific matters and
perceive them can, on the other hand, perceive emotional matters which
influence him, such as sharpness, tenderness, leniency, sympathy,
compassion, respect, and negligence. The development of feelings and
senses is of: significant importance in the educational matters. In the
first place, parents are the most responsible for performing this duty,
Kindergartens can never replace the family and the mother in reviving
all the hidden feelings of the child properly and guiding him to the
right way. In this respect, it is worth saying that parents must take
care of their children’s physical and spiritual proper nutrition, Due to
this fact, the parents burden as responsibility is so heavy during the
child’s early stage. In fact, disregarding safe and healthy nutrition of
the body and the soul leads to uncontrollable consequences. The child’s
development is completed in his early years; thus, his material and
spiritual sides must be taken care of. The shortage of
spiritual or physical nutrition of the child’s lie leads to dangerous
consequences; besides, a small fault may cause a big problem which
continues to influence a child up till the end of his life. So, Moslem parents
have to consider the religious responsibility they have towards their
children, knowing that their children are God’s charge in their hands.
Parents who fulfill their religious duties in upbringing their children
properly deserve God’s rewarding. On the other hands, those who don’t
abide by their religious duty are betraying themselves, their children
and the society they live in as well, and thus they deserve God’s severe
punishment. As a result, parent’s
only role is not making an enormous wealth and inherit it to their
children; wealth would load them to concoction and misery if they were
nit brought up well.
The instinct of superiority
and love of perfection are innate in man. The desire for progress and
excellence are considered branches of self-love which reside in any
man’s nature. The conscious guardians should make use of this
psychological wealth, building the sound educational ways on this
basis. Consequently, they will guide the child towards superiority and
excellence. In this respect, a discourse for Al Imam Hassan (a.s..) was
reported, «He called his children and his nephews and said to them,
today you are children and tomorrow you’ll be the leaders of your
people, so learn today and he who can’t memorize, let him write it down
and keep it at his home». In this discourse we can see that Imam Hassan
(a.s.)) had employed the children’s self love and their innate desire
for development to urge and encourage them to learn without resorting to
intimidation or threatening. He made them understand that acquiring
knowledge now is the way that leads them to dignity and magnificence in
the future. The method used in the
above discourse in regarded as one of the greatest methods in the field
of raising children and education nowadays. By following this method,
every family can encourage its children to acquire knowledge, pushing
them from the beginning towards superiority and excellence. Later,
children will become self-motivated for seeking knowledge ;they don’t
need to be threatened. In this sense, there is
similarity between the atmosphere of the family and that of the Islamic
government, where the social discipline is built on the principles of
freedom and justice. Due to this fact, education in Islam is based on
justice, freedom, and the development of the children’s desires for
superiority and perfection. Imam Ali (a.s.) said to
his son Imam Hassan (a.s.) «Don’t be a slave for others, while Allah had
created you and made you a free man». By this brief saying, the great
father plants in his son the greatest wealth of personality, and makes
him used to mental freedom. With respect to children’s education he (a.s.)
said, «He who didn’t learn during childhood, would not advance when
becoming an adult». The qualified teacher is the one who makes use of
the child’s instinct for perfection and superiority, building most of
his educational methods on this basis.
Imam Ali (a.s.) was a
perfect man, with an ideal personality . All the human qualities and
virtuous manners appeared in this great man, who frankly boasted of the
education he received in his childhood. He told us about the great
spiritual wealth he had gotten during that stage of his honorable life. He also boasted of his
great teacher , the prophet of Islam (p.) when saying, «You knew about
the close kinship from the Messenger (p..) and the special rank he had
given me . He put me in, his lap, took me to his breast, and made me
sleep in his bed, touching his body and smelling his hair. He (a.s.)
proceeds saying, «Every day he used to teach me one of his manners, and
he order me to abide by it». All of Imam Ali’s (a.s.)
mental and emotional tendencies were satisfied during his childhood in
the Prophet’s tender lap. On one hand, the Prophet (p.) watered his
emotions from the spring of his affection and sympathy; on the other
hand, he gave him lessons in manners and ordered him to follow them. The profound, wise
educational methods, that the greatest prophet (p.) had followed in
upbringing Imam Ali (a.s.) revived the latter’s all hidden talents and
led him within a short time to the highest posts of perfection, so he
adapted Islam at the age of ten with awareness and perception.
Moreover, he spread its creed, following the Prophet’s way of life.
Never in his life did he deviate from the right way. The characteristic that
makes the value of the family of big importance is reviving the child’s
individual traits. Individuals do not only differ from each other in
their physical appearance, but also in their spirits and psychologies.
This difference is one of the features of the divine might. Why
don’t you beg God with reverence; He created you different from each
other]
(The Hypocrites: 8). The Messenger (p.) said,
«people are metals like gold and silver». Due to this reason, some
children are born with certain qualities that do not exist in other
ordinary children. Some individuals, perhaps, have reason, perception,
intelligence, wit, memory, acuteness, generosity, and self-control in an
extraordinary way. The child’s upbringing
should be based on man’s natural perception and innate tendencies,
methods built on this basis are sound, and they are the realistic way
for man’s happiness. Therefore, what is the most
important basis of education: In the course of sound
education, the first thing a child must be taught is making him feel
God’s existence, and make him believe in Him using an easily
understandable approach. The need for believing in
God is inborn, and it exists inside every man’s nature-when the child’s
perception system is ready & good observation arises in him, he starts
inquiring about reasons of things. In this case, his pure self is
completely ready to receive belief in God, and indeed it is a very
natural matter. The teacher should make use of this innate wealth, and
thus make the child understand that God created man, plants, animals,
objects and all the universe. He is the maker of day and night. He
watches our deeds at any moment; He rewards us for our good doings and
punishes us for ill ones. Talking to the child in this way is so easy
that it results in the child’s submission. He becomes a believer in God
in a short time. Following this approach, we can create in the child’s
a love for discipline, commitment, straight forwardness, and
virtuousness. Besides, believing in God is not only the greatest refuge
for man but also the most significant element that brings about his
self-tranquility; it is the most important basis for his happiness and a
major issue prophets dealt with in their call.
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