Waleed Basyouni – How Do I Get My Kids To Start Caring About Performing Prayers – Ask The Imam
AI: Summary ©
The speakers stress the importance of consistent prayer and activity for children, particularly in older individuals. It is important to pray with parents and be firm in their approach, as it can lead to weaker behaviors. It is also important to monitor behavior and lead around activities around "slow time" for children. The speakers stress the need for cooperation and monitoring of behavior, particularly in older individuals.
AI: Summary ©
I actually get this question quite a bit
by parents who struggle sometimes to, you know,
make their children consistent in their prayer, you
know, whether they have reached puberty or not.
What is the best way to, let's say,
encourage the child or make the child, you
know, love the prayer and pray regularly and
consistently?
And is there a way, like, you go
gradually or what do you do basically?
I'm wondering what you say, Sheikh, when they
ask you this question.
Oh.
I'm flubbed in here.
I start with du'a.
I start making du'a.
Make du'a.
Yes.
Yes, I start with du'a.
Very beautiful.
The Qur'an, you say in the du
'a, Ibrahim alayhi as-salam said, Allah make
me among those who establish the salah.
I'm from my children.
Yes.
Very good.
So, that's one.
And I remember the ayah of the Qur
'an, وَأَمُرْ أَهْلَكَ بِالصَّلَاةِ وَاصْطَبِرْ عَلَيْهَا Meaning?
Remind and order your family.
Yeah, but be patient with them.
So, I do that and I tell the
people to do that.
Don't give up.
Be consistent in asking them.
And also, don't be harsh.
Right.
You know, be nice and gentle.
Just a reminder.
Give us, let's say, a holistic answer.
Well, Shaykh, one other thing I will say,
make sure that you pray with, for example,
if you're a mother, pray with your daughters.
Ask them to come join you in prayer.
So, they see you as a role model.
If you're a father, pray with them or
take them with you to the masjid.
Can you tell them in the camera?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm telling them.
Be basically consistent.
Remember that.
Yeah.
Be consistent in taking them to the masjid.
Come to the masjid more often.
Also, one other thing that you can make,
a prize.
If you're consistent in praying for this amount
for a month, no missing salah at all,
Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha, there is a
prize for you.
You know, reward them for doing good.
You know, talk to them about the importance
of salah.
Start early.
You know, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Listen,
order them to pray at seven.
And even at ten, you become firm.
And there is discipline if they did not
pray.
So, be firm about this.
Let them make sure that salah is more
important than anything else.
One of the reasons people, kids not consistent
in salah, because when they go out to,
let's say, to the park or to play
or to, you know, these jumping places where
they go, to play on the boardwalk or,
you know, or go to a theater, and
they book this kind of trip or this
activity around the salah so they miss the
salah.
Make sure they said, No.
Before you book your activity, is this around
salah time?
Make them think that their life is around
the salah.
Their activity is around the salah.
I'm not going to miss the salah.
And if they are outside, let's stop and
pray.
How can we pray in public?
Let them see you doing that.
So, these things will help them.
Don't make it, you know, don't make the
salah too long for them so they will
get bored.
Teach them in the salah that they make
dua.
Teach them that this is an opportunity for
them to review their Quran, you know, to
read different verses.
Sometimes you encourage them to lead the salah.
Mahmoud ibn al-Rabi' he was a child,
and he was leading his people sometime.
You know, there is a whole, there is
a little bit of caveat for this.
Is a child allowed to lead salah or
not?
As long as the child, this is the
debate between the fuqaha of the validity, but
let's say at least in volunteer prayers, okay,
and also if they are mumayyiz, if they
know all the rules of the salah, the
sahoo, the wudu, the stuff.
They can keep their purity.
Yeah, so, in my opinion, they will be
allowed to lead the salah.
One other thing also to make them consistent
of the salah, make sure that they pray
salat al-nafila, the volunteer prayers, from the
early age.
Because, subhanAllah, volunteer prayers is like siyaj, is
like a protection for the obligatory prayers.
It's like a layer of defense.
So the shaytan, if you only pray obligatory
prayer, the shaytan straight go to the obligatory
prayer.
Right.
But if you have a defense mechanism, like
a wall around it, which is the volunteer
prayer, subhanAllah, it weakened him.
It weakened the shaytan before he reaching to
the wajibat.
That's why if somebody like became careless about
the volunteer, even we notice from ourselves as
adults, if we don't care about the volunteer
prayers, we found later on our salah, the
obligatory prayer is not on time, not as
focused.
It became weaker.
But if you're good with your volunteer prayers,
or sunan prayer, that protects the core prayer.
So, that's why also, if you look at
the older, I don't know if you know
this in the masjid, look at the older
generations.
They always pray the sunnah.
Yes.
Even though not very religious.
While you see the so-called religious young
people, they don't care about salatul sunnah.
Salatul sunnah al maghrib, sunnah al isha, sunnah
al fajr, sunnah al dhuhr, they don't care
about it.
They probably pray it at home.
Allah, shaykh, I don't know.
These young, I notice a lot of them
don't pray.
But that's something, why the older ones do
that.
Because from the beginning of their life, they
were told you pray the sunnah, you pray
the sunnah, you pray the 12 rak'ah
every day.
And that's why they're consistent in their salat
is strong.
My father, for example, said, I never missed
salat since I was 7 years old.
You know, many people today, even religious, they
can't make that claim.
And my father was just an average person.
Rahimahullah.
So, and that's something that for me, because
they always pray it and pray the sunnah
with it.
So these are some points that, you know,
I think it has to be a concern,
cooperation between father and mother about the importance
of salat, encouragement, putting rewards for it, admonitions,
be nice, be consistent, be a role model.
Be patient with them.
Be patient with them.
And wake them up for the salat.
Right.
So, du'a, you make du'a for
them.
The parent lead by example.
They call them to pray with them.
They put a prize.
They make a schedule.
Okay, I want you to fill this.
How many prayers you prayed.
And by the end of the month, there
is this prize for you.
Bring them to the masjid.
Make them love to make du'a to
Allah.
If they need something, your prayer is your
means to that.
Your way for that.
Pray the sunnah.
Pray the sunnah, which is the protection for
the fard, obligatory.
These are really great points.
Yeah.
Yes.
Ameen.
JazakAllah khair.
JazakAllah khair.