Q94 :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 netpletely 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.
A94 : 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.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )