Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Q&A Encouraging Children to Pray Salat

			Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim, I
have three children 11, nine and
		

			six. And I have difficulties to
ask them to do five times prayer,
		

			especially Salat al Fajr.
		

			Please give me your advice. It's
very difficult to give very
		

			specific advice because the
dynamics of every home is very
		

			different. Have
		

			other parents praying regularly?
Have they been praying regularly?
		

			How have they managed to encourage
or what kind of encouragement have
		

			they provided to the children, I
would probably just say,
		

			generically speaking, it's about
maybe sitting down and maybe
		

			reading some Hadith on the formula
of prayer on the virtues of
		

			prayer. So for example, there's a
famous book called virtues of the
		

			prayer for dial a solid, it's part
of the family law model. The whole
		

			collection is some really
beautiful, very intense, very
		

			powerful narrations in there. So
you just go through them with the
		

			children to sit them down and say,
Look, this is what the prophets
		

			Allah said, This is what Allah
says in the Quran, I realized that
		

			that helps a lot, because I
remember we had a student in, in
		

			the, in the group that I was
teaching and he, his, his father
		

			was not very encouraging him of
encouraging of him to miss school
		

			for Juma prayer.
		

			So I told him a few times, but he
just couldn't have the willpower
		

			to speak to his father and saying
this is important, or whatever the
		

			case is. So once we went through
the narrations, both generations
		

			that warned about what happens if
you miss prayer, and also the
		

			virtues of doing prayer, and
mashallah he started. So it's
		

			about positive encouragement.
That's what I would suggest to
		

			start with what helps a lot for
example.
		

			If my children have
		

			computer time, two hours on the
weekends, for every prayer they do
		

			in the week, they get five extra
minutes. If they get to do it in
		

			the masjid, then they get 10 extra
minutes. And believe me, they
		

			running to do it. Because that
computer time is very valuable. So
		

			we found that to work and how long
it's going to work for but it
		

			definitely does work. So every
time I'm going for prayer, he
		

			wants to come with me for prayer.
		

			When I'm praying at home, he wants
to come and pray with me at home.
		

			So there's there's these different
things that you can use May Allah
		

			subhanaw but make lots and lots of
dua. The parents obviously have to
		

			be praying for that to happen as
well.