Addendum of Narrations (2)
Pertaining to the parent and the child:
- The Messenger of God said: "Be kind to your children, and excel in this kindness."
- He also said: "Train your children in three things: "The love of your prophet, the love of the Ahlul Bayt, and the recitation of the Quran."
- He also said: "The child does not inherit anything better from his father than good manners."
- Imam Ali b. Abi Talib said: "Train your children to seek knowledge."
- Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq said: "The child plays for seven years, learns the Book for seven years, and learns the halal and the haram for seven years."
- He also said: "Make speed to train them in hadith before the murji'ites beat you to it."
- The noble Messenger said: "Command your children to prayer when they are seven years old; beat them over it when they are ten, and separate them in the beds."
- He also said: "The father must observe his obligations to his son; the son is not forced to observe the rights of his father."
- He also said: "The parents must not be stubborn with their child, just as the child must not disobey the parents."
- He also said: "Among the rights of the child over the parent are three: To give him a good to teach him writing, and to marry him when he comes of age."
- Al-Imam al-Sadiq said: "The child has three claims on the parent: the choice of a good mother, giving him a good name, and disciplining him properly when educating him." The Prophet Muhammad said: "When anyone's son matures, and he has the financial ability to marry him but does not do so, then that boy will commit sin, and the sin will be on the father."
- He also said: "May God be merciful to he who helps his son in piety. This is to forgive his faults, and to ask God for His guidance."
- Al-Imam al-Sadiq said: "Disobedience towards the parents is a heinous sins, for God has made the disobedient one rebellious and hard."
- He also said: The mildest form of ill conduct towards parents is "Uff!", and if God knew something lesser than that, He would have forbidden it."
- And he said in explanation to God's words: "And lower unto them the wing of submission through mercy" (17:24)-Do not fill your eyes when you look at them with anything else but mercy and sympathy, and do not raise your voice above their voice, and do not put your hand above theirs, and do not go in front of them?
- And he also said, in explanation of the verse, "And say kind words to them," "If they strike you, say to them: May Allah forgive you both."
- He also said, in explanation of God's words: "When they reach old age with you", "If they get annoyed with you, do not say to them "uff'" and do not rebuke them if they beat you."
- He also said: "God is merciful towards his slave to the extent of his love for his child."
- The noble Prophet said: "A righteous son is one of the delights of a man."
- Al-Imam al-Sadiq: "The legacy of God from his believing servant is a righteous servant who asks forgiveness for him."
- He also said: "Whoever has a daughter and teaches her good manners, excelling in that, and teaches her and excels in that, and is generous to her from that which God has endowed him with, this is a benefit and a barrier to hellfire."
- He also said: "Daughters are compassionate, always willing and are blessings."
- He also said: "He to whom is born a daughter and does not harm her, does not deny her, and does not favor his son to her, God will, for her sake, grant him paradise."
- AI Imam al-Sadiq said: "Girls are gifts, and boys are bounties; one is blessed for the gifts, and questioned about the bounties."
- The noble Prophet said: "God [Exalted and Holy] is more compassionate to females than to males; there is not a man who brings joy to his spouse but that God will make him joyful on the Day of Resurrection."
- He also said: "Fear God and be just among your children in treatment."
- He also said: "Among their rights over you is that you treat them equally, and among your rights over them is that they honor you."
- The Prophet said: "Be just in your treatment of presents for your children [i.e., gifts], for you love that they should honor you."
- The Prophet said: "Treat your children with justice in regard to presents; if I were to give preference to any, it would be the women."
- He also said: "Whoever is happy to have a long life and bounty should honor his parents and keep his bond with kin."
- Imam Ali said: "Honoring parents is one of the noblest characteristics."
- He also said: "Honoring parents is one of the greatest obligations."
- Imam al-Sadiq said: "Honour your parents and your children will honor you."
- It is reported on the authority of Ibn Masud that he said: "I asked the Messenger of God, 'Which deed is most loved by God?' He answered, 'Prayer on time.' I asked, 'And then which?' He answered, 'Honoring your parents.'"
- The Messenger of God said: "Whoever honors his parents, and they bless him, God will add to his longevity."
- A man came to the Messenger of God and said: "I came to pledge fealty to you on the pilgrimage, and I left my two parents crying." The Prophet said to him: "Return to them, and make them laugh as you have made them cry."
- From the Imam Rida: "God Almighty orders that thanks be given to Him and to parents. Whosoever does not thank his parents does not thank God."
- From the Messenger: "The pleasure of God is the pleasure of the parent, and the anger of God is the anger of a parent."
- Among the supplications of Imam Zayn al-Abidin was: "O God, cause me to be in awe of them as of a tyrannical sultan, and to honor them the honor of a loving mother, make me obedient to my parents and my honor to them more delightful to my eye than the deepest slumber, a balm to my chest colder than the drink which slakes the harshest thirst, until I put their feelings over mine."
- The Holy Prophet said: "Paradise is under the feet of mothers."
Spiritual devotion:
- From the Imam Ali, Amir al-Muminin: "Whoever continually observes spiritual discipline, will benefit therefrom."
- He also said: "To the wise person, there is spiritual devotion in every deed."
- He also said: "I swear by God, and will only go against its terms by God's will. My devotions will welcome bread, if I am able to eat it, and I shall be satisfied with salt to go with it. [In my devotions] my tears will flow so much that my eyes will be like a fountain, the waters of which have run dry."
- He also said: "My soul I subdue with the fear of God, so that it may come on the day of judgment free of the greatest fear and free of transgression."
- He also said: "Keep your eyes awake, press your stomachs, take from your bodies, and struggle therewith against your base desires."
- He also said: "Spiritual devotion benefits only an alert soul."
- In his counsel to Ushwan al-Basri, Al-Sadiq said: "As for spiritual devotion, you should not eat that which is undesirable, for it engenders stupidity and foolishness. Do not eat except when you are hungry, and if you eat, eat that which is halal in the name of God, and remember the hadith of the Messenger of God: "The human being does not fill a container that is worse than his stomach."
- Part of al-Khidr's counsel to Musa was "Train yourself to patience and you will free yourself from sin."
Themes III - Youth: The Pedagogical Responsibility
