Teaching Islam to our Children
By Nouman Ali Khan | 2026-01-09T13:49:50.562849+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Teaching Islam to Our Children
Nouman Ali Khan - 2012
Opening Greetings
Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu. How are you? That's it. That's the end of it. I don't know anymore. I don't expect anymore.
InshaAllah Ta'ala in today's brief conversation, first of all I'd like to thank the community for inviting me here and it's a pleasure to be here. May Allah bless this community and bless this masjid and keep it full for all the prayers, especially Fajr and Isha. And may Allah fill it with young blood in the morning and evenings. Ameen Ya Rabb.
The Foundation: Concern for Children is Built into Our Deen
What I wanted to do in this talk with you today is make reference to some ayat that I've talked about before. And I've given duroos on them before but I'll try to come at them from a different point of view this time.
Also what I wanted to do is start from kind of an outside the Qur'an kind of disclaimer. And that is that the concern we have for our children is something built into our deen. It's not something that we just came up with now. The concern, the worry about the future generation is something that was given to us by our father Ibrahim Alayhis Salaam. And actually even before him, the first time we learn about a concerned father is Nuh Alayhis Salaam.
Nuh Alayhis Salaam is worried about his son and he even begs Allah in case of his son. So the concern a father has for his child in regards to deen is something that's built into this deen. It's a very fundamental part of this religion.
Even Prophets Had Challenges with Their Children
And Allah teaches us something by telling us many many times about prophets who had problems with their children. Many times, I mean Ibrahim Alayhis Salaam is blessed with wonderful children. He's got Ismail, he's got Ishaq, he's got wonderful children. Nuh Alayhis Salaam, not so much. Ya'qub Alayhis Salaam, couple of great kids, couple of problem kids, majority problem kids. So you've got even prophets that had trouble with their children.
And that's important to note because if even prophets had trouble with their children, there's no guarantee that you and I, no matter how much we try, we can't avoid trouble with children. That's from the qadr of Allah. Allah will bless some of us with easy children or some of our children will be easy and some of our children will be a test. And we have to work with all of them. And that's just part of this deen. And that's just part of life.
No two kids are going to be the same. There's not one formula to deal with all of your children. Like for instance in the case of Ya'qub Alayhis Salaam, we don't believe that he treated Yusuf Alayhis Salaam better and he treated the other kids worse. And that's why they got that way. He's a prophet. Obviously one of the first things prophets do is live by justice. And that's not justice that you're good to one child and you're not good to another child. We don't expect that from Ya'qub Alayhis Salaam. So he did his best as a father but he still had trouble with his children.
No Guarantees Even for Prophets' Families
Alhamdulillah in the end even they made tawbah. And that's a gift Allah gave him. But Allah also like I said talked about Nuh Alayhis Salaam whose son until the end did not make tawbah.
Also just because they are prophets. You would think you know how when you have a good job it comes with benefits. Like some of you have a good job and you get health insurance for your whole family. So a prophet pretty good job. The employer is Allah. Maybe it should come with some benefits. My family should be guaranteed. Not even the prophets get a guarantee of their family. Not even the wife. Not even the child.
And even in the case of Muhammad Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. One of the most incredible ahadith you find is when he's talking to his child. He's talking to the mother of the believers. He's talking to Fatima Radhiallahu Anha. Fatima Zahra. He's talking to her. And he says:
"Fatima daughter of Muhammad. Watch out for Allah. Be careful about Allah. I will not be able to help you. I will have no authority even in your case in front of Allah." (Bukhari hadith 2753)
The Honor of Raising Daughters
He's telling this to his own daughter Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. In other words, he's teaching us something very important. Just because we are Muslim and just because we are doing our best, we cannot doubt that the messenger of Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam does anything short of the best. He's the role model for all fathers in the future. Especially fathers of daughters.
Those of us that are sitting in this audience and we have daughters, we are obliged, we are honored to be the continuation of the Prophet Sunnah. Because he was also the father of daughters that were raised. He had sons also but they died at an early age. But Allah gave him the gift of daughters, multiple daughters, that he had the pleasure of raising all this time.
So this is something that we should take honor in. That's why our view of having a daughter is changed. Before Islam, in India for example, the culture of having daughters before Islam, the culture even in Arabia of having daughters, when you had a daughter, it was like you made a face. Oh man, how am I going to face the community now?
The Problem of Dishonoring Daughters
Even to this day in the Muslim world, even in some of your families. You are at the hospital with your wife. She almost died giving birth. And then the child came out and immediately your mother sends you a text message. Husband, is it good news? Is it good news means? Is it a boy? And then you don't respond and she goes, okay next time inshaAllah. As though a girl is a bad news, subhanAllah.
How far we've come. And Allah actually complains in the Qur'an about people who don't honor their daughters. That when the daughter is born:
"His face turns dark." Like a cloud is hanging over his face. He's depressed, I just had a daughter. SubhanAllah.
So before we talk about worrying about our kids, we have to worry about what are we like as parents. We have to deal with that first. And that's a pretty big problem to deal with.
The Changed World We Live In
But that's not even the disclaimer I want to start with. The disclaimer I want to start with is, that I was saying before is, concern for our children is built into our religion. It's a very fundamental aspect of our deen. And it's something that generation after generation after generation of Muslims were very good at. Alhamdulillah. Were very very good at raising children for generation after generation after generation.
Obviously the world has changed since the time of the Prophet ﷺ. But some things, the success the Muslims have had in raising their children relatively has been great. Until now. Something has changed in the world so drastically that it's affected not just how governments are run, it hasn't just affected how the economy works, it hasn't just affected how nations deal with each other, it hasn't just affected industry, it's also affected what happens inside the house.
Not just the Muslim house, every house. The world has changed dramatically. What the family looks like now, it never looked like in human history. It never looked like that in human history. How children are raised now, it never looked like this in human history in any culture. Not just Muslim culture, in any culture.
The Invasion of Consumerism
Globalization and the advancement of mass communication and then on top of that the invasion of the extreme form of consumerism. I don't even say capitalism, I say consumerism. That we've become just addicted customers of products. That mentality has invaded, it's made itself even inside our home.
I'll give you a small example of what I'm talking about. Your children, many of you are parents here. Your children, what do they ask you for the most? What do they ask you for all the time? Candy? Mashallah, you have some really righteous kids, they only ask you for candy? Okay, Nintendo, you gotta keep up a little. iPod, Playstation, car really, they got older? Car, toys.
Most of the time, where did they get news about the iPad? Did they see it in a dream? Like Yusuf a.s. saw a dream, 11 stars, sun and the moon. So they saw a dream, there's an Apple product. You know:
"Dad, I saw an apple on a phone." You know, what does that dream mean? No, no, no.
Where did they see the iPhone? Either their friends have it? Or they saw it on TV? They saw other friends have it? Then they say, I wanna get those sneakers. I wanna get a shirt. I wanna get that shirt. I wanna get that toy. Where did they get that toy's idea from? Where did the ilham come from? It came from media. We expose our children to media. And in that media, they're told to basically beg us to get them those toys. And we get them those toys.
We Are Also Victims of Consumerism
And by the way, they're not just the only victims of that. We are victims of that too. The brands we wear. Actually you feel really like high class when you wear an expensive watch all of a sudden. You feel like all of a sudden you're more worth of a human being. Before that you were, you know. The moment you walk out of the Apple store with an iPhone in your hand, all of a sudden you just start looking more handsome. Something happened. I don't know how I got cooler like this. But it just happened.
But we actually assume that we are worth as human beings is related to these products. And if you're not wearing brand name clothes, and you don't have that kind of a phone, or you don't have this toy or that toy that you're worth less. Somehow you're not equal to others. Others are better than you. Just because the things they have in their hand are better than the things you have in your hand. Right?
So we've, even Muslims, we've become pretty much zombie consumers. That's what we've become also. When we talk about raising our children in this society, we have to first understand what's happening with the world. What's happening with all of us and with the world. Before we can think about raising our children effectively. So that's one big problem.
The Redefined Meaning of Success
The second big problem is what does success mean? Well this one is, what is your worth? What are you worth? Nowadays our children are being raised to think, all they are worth is these products. The brand of clothes, the kind of house, the kind of car your parents drive, drop you off to school at, the brand of the book bag you're wearing, you know, that sort of thing. That's all you're worth.
And then on top of that, the additional problem is, what does it mean to be successful? Our idea of success even 20, 30, 40 years ago was, for the vast majority of the Muslim world, maybe some of you did not have a good opportunity for education, or your parents did not have a good opportunity for education, and they put all of their effort in getting you a good education.
And you've learned that lesson in your life. So you say, my children better have top notch education. If that means they have to go to private school, if that means that we have to rent a house, rent an apartment and live uncomfortably, so they can get a good education, we will do it. If that means we have to take an insane amount of money for loans, to put them in an Ivy League school, and to put them into an expensive med school, or to put them into an elite program, we will do it. Why? Because the most important part of your success is what? Your education.
The Obsession with Medical Careers
And the children here, they're told by their parents this over, and over, and over, and over again. You have to have an education. You will be a failure in life if you don't get a good education. You have to finish college, then you have to finish this, and you have to finish that.
And if you're from the Indo-Pak subcontinent, obviously if you're not a physician, then you have failed. And you should not expect anything from this dunya. Now the only thing left for you is akhirah. And your parents will never be happy with you now, because you are not a surgeon, or you're not... Even don't be a dentist. Dentists are humiliating. Don't even bother with that.
So that's what we've done. And by the way, why is it that being a physician is so important in a certain segment of our community? Do you know why? Because it pays the most. It's not because you get to save lives, or because you're serving humanity. That has nothing to do with it. If doctors were paid the same salary as bus drivers, the desi community would not be crazy about making their children doctors. There's no hirs, there's no zeal to get our children to become saviors for the world.
When Success Becomes Only About Money
Parents are so happy when their son becomes a doctor. Then he says, I'm going to Doctors Without Borders for three years. I'm gonna go serve Doctors Without Borders in flood ridden areas for three years. I'm gonna go to Somalia, then I'm gonna go to Pakistan, I'm gonna go to Bangladesh, then I'm gonna go to Malaysia. And I'm gonna serve no salary, non-for-profit work.
These parents are gonna say, Ya Allah, we put all this money in to make you a doctor, and this is what you do? You should have been part of the same blood sucking machine that the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies are a part of. That's what we wanted you to do. Why are you saving lives? What's wrong with you?
That's what we've become. And then we say something's wrong with our children. Honestly, we have to look in the mirror. What are we creating? Something has fundamentally changed. Our idea of success has become money. Our idea of education has become a career that makes a lot of money. Everything comes back to money. If you're successful, it means you have a lot of money. If you're successful, it means you have an education. Education in what field? A field that will give you a good career, which means you will have good money. That's what success is now. Everything comes back to this. That's it.
True Education vs. Skilled Labor
Now, this is different from old times. This is different from old times. In old times, to have an education means to understand yourself, to understand the world around you, and to contribute to making the world a better place. And to make the world a better place, sometimes you have to study history. Sometimes you have to study sociology. Sometimes you have to study political science. Sometimes you have to study media. Sometimes you have to study journalism. You have to study a variety of fields to contribute to society. Not one field.
And by the way, the most successful, by any measure, the most successful communities in the United States are the ones that did not limit their children to one field. My friends often tell me, one of my friends tells me, if Steven Spielberg was in a Pakistani household, he would have been a doctor. Right? He would have been a doctor. Why? Because we don't... What do you mean you are going to film school? What's wrong with you? Are you failing medicine? You are going to give your parents high blood pressure.
The Need for Parental Mindset Change
Now, let's talk a little bit about raising our children. First of all, our mentality has to change. If they don't see in us the right definition of success, if they don't see that in our personality, our conversations, we cannot expect them to have the right definition of success for their life. They have to see that coming from us. In what we talk about all the time. In what is important to us most of the time.
When husband and wife are talking to each other, are children listening or no? Always. Always. Their ears are always on. Now, if you two are talking about the bills, and you are talking about paying off the house, or you are only talking about movies, or you are only talking bad about this other family and what they did, or whatever you are talking about. They will come to know, these are the things that adults, this is what my parents do. This is what's important in life. Right? That's it.
If you and your wife are talking about Qur'an, you are talking about akhira, you are talking about doing good to others, you are talking about helping somebody, and they see that from you. You don't have to give them a talk about it, they just see it. The most effective parenting is not even telling your parent or child to do anything, they just see it. They just see it all the time. Inside the home.
Parents Are the Real Counselors
A lot of you think, if I just bring my child to a Brother Noman lecture, and sit him down, inshaAllah ta'ala, after that:
"They will be righteous after that." Just a couple of YouTube videos and their problems will be solved. And gonna help. And you probably already discovered that.
You, you are the real counselors to your children. I'm the real counselor to my child. We have to become their best friends. And that's the next thing that's changed in the world.
The Breakdown of Parent-Child Relationships
You know parents and children had a very organic natural relationship in the old world. In the new world, dad is at work most of the day. And he comes home tired. By the time he comes home, most of the time children are already asleep. And by the time he goes to work, he probably, a lot of times dad leaves to work before kids even wake up. And if he doesn't leave home before kids wake up, he sees them for maybe 5 minutes while they're having breakfast, and he goes and they go.
So basically for 5 out of 7 days in a week, parents and, father and children have no conversation with each other. If any conversation, did you do your homework? Okay, now get me some water. That's it. That's the conversation.
Now comes the weekend. But at the weekend you have a Dawah over here, a party over there, and you gotta sleep until 12 o'clock, and you got things to do around the house, etc. You don't spend that time with your kids either. You don't really talk to them. You don't really communicate with them. This is the real problem.
Making Time for Our Children
We have to make time for our children during the week and weekends. That's the practical advice I'm giving you. And myself. We have to make time for our children, just to talk to them. Just to listen to them and to talk to them. Even if they're talking nonsense. We should be a part of their life. A big part of their life.
You know, for a lot of you, the only role you have to your children, you're like the wall in the house. It's always there but you don't talk to it. You need it. It's there. We know it's important. It's paying the bills. Other than that, I have no relationship with it.
You know what happens to parents like that? You will find the consequences of that the moment they become teenagers. Once they hit 14, 15, and they become a little dependent, and then they ask you for a car, and you say, No, why do you want a car? Fine, I'll just go with my friends. I'll get a job. I'll save some money and buy myself a car. And then all of a sudden you hear the news, Dad, I'm moving out. Moving out? Where are you going? Doesn't matter. I'm an adult now.
And now you come running to the masjid. Imam sahib, give me a surah. Give me a dua, I can fix this boy. It doesn't work like that. It doesn't work like that. You can't have state of emergency when they're 17, 18, 19, 20. It's gotta be built way, way before. Way before.
Practical Advice for Parents
Now, I'll come to some practical bits of advice. For the parents who have children under 10 years old, show of hands please, children under 10 years of age. Okay, quite a few of you, alhamdulillah. Myself included, my eldest is 10. So for us, our biggest job is to us to teach our children Islam. Us teaching our children Islam.
Did the prophets, alaihimu s-salatu wa s-salam, when the prophets were teaching deen, they were teaching everybody deen. They were. But when Allah talks about children learning Islam, in the Quran, there's very few times Allah talks about children learning. Children receiving advice. But whenever He talks about it, it's from the parents.
Listen to that again. Whenever Allah talks about children getting guidance in the Quran, it's always from parents. And within the parents, it's always from the father.
The Role of Fathers vs. Mothers
Because the mother is always there. The mother doesn't have to do extra work to be there for the child all the time, and to care for him all the time, and to give him advice all the time. You don't have to give moms training on how to be a mom. It comes naturally. Allah put that inside them.
Fathers, however, are horrible. We have to go through training to become real fathers. It doesn't come naturally to us. Just because you had a baby. When a mother has a baby, her feelings, her emotions, everything changes immediately. Changes. A father is like, three, four days go by, friends say, I heard you had a baby. Yeah man, it hasn't hit me yet. Somebody needs to hit you. So it hits you. You know what I'm saying? It hasn't hit me yet. Because the feelings of fatherhood, they're not natural to us. We have to build them. We have to work on them.
Prophetic Examples of Fatherhood
So Allah mentions Luqman, making the time, finding the right opportunity, and then talking to his son. We find Yaqub a.s. talking to his sons:
(Quran 2:132)
We find Ibrahim a.s. saying this to his sons. Same exact advice Yaqub a.s. gave to his sons. That's pretty amazing. Because that told you that, father did a job to his child, not just on how to be raised himself, but how to be a father. We're gonna teach our children, how to be good fathers one day. Because Ibrahim taught Ishaq, and Ishaq taught Yaqub.
And what does Quran say? Ibrahim and Yaqub, meaning grandfather and grandson, said the same exact thing. Did they say it at the same time? No. They said it two generations apart from each other. Ibrahim a.s. was talking to Ismail and Ishaq. Yaqub a.s. was talking to his 11 sons. But they said exactly the same thing:
(Quran 2:132)
Teaching Future Generations
That's incredible. That Allah says the grandfather and the grandson gave the exact same advice. Which means he wasn't just being taught how to be a good son. He was being taught how to be a good father down. Not just on how to be a good son, but one day how to be a good father. How to be a good father. That's the kind of tarbiyah.
In other words, we're gonna be giving tarbiyah to our children, even when they become fathers. Even when they get older. We're gonna give them advice about raising children. And they're going to see that from us. And if we do our job right, we're gonna look back.
You know a lot of parents, they were abusive. A lot of parents were abusive. And they yelled at their children, and they insulted them, and they put them down, and all these kinds of things. And so when they have children, they say, I'm gonna be different from my father. I'm not gonna be like my dad. I'm gonna love my child. I'm gonna be this way, that way, or the other way. We end up being exactly like our fathers, whether we like it or not. By the way, in one way or another way.
But here what we're learning is the power of generation after generation, if you do your job right with your children. If you do your job right.
Same Advice for Different Children
And by the way, another important question. Are Ibrahim's children the same quality as Yaqub's children? Are Ibrahim's children... Who are Ibrahim's children, alaihi salam? Ismail Ishaq. Who are Yaqub's children?
Yusufalaihi salam, bin Yamina, and the rest of the brothers. Same quality or no? No. But the advice is the same, right? The advice is exactly the same. How come?
What Allah is telling us, teaching us here is, it doesn't matter if you have easy kids or difficult kids, you have to do your job. There are some parts of parenting that don't change at all. Other things have to change. But this part of parenting will not change at all. You have to give your children the teaching of deen. It will come from you. It will not come from the qari sahab, it will not come from the imam, or the khateeb, it will come from you.
The Need for Islamic Education Revolution
And so I come now, as my talk winds down, I want to share with you some very practical, immediate things that all of us can do, myself also. I personally believe that Islamic education needs to experience a revolution. That's my personal belief, that Islamic education needs to experience a revolution.
What do I mean by that? There is Islamic studies for the aalim. The aalim will study fiqh, hadith, tafsir, aqeedah, he'll study all of these things and he'll become a aalim. And he will study them at a very high level. But there is a level underneath that, we need to create actually, it doesn't really exist too much yet, and we need to create it, a level of learning Islam just for daily practice, daily life.
Now I'm not talking about fiqh, I'm talking about advice for fathers. I'm talking about advice for wives. Just a curriculum. How to be a good Muslim wife? How to be a good Muslim husband? How to be a good Muslim father? How to be a good son? How to be a good daughter? What advice does Allah have? Entire curriculum just based on making us good human beings. This is education.
Real Education vs. Career Training
Real education is not that you know how to do C++, and you're Microsoft something something certified, and you're Cisco certified, and on top of that you have an accounting degree, and you got an MBA. All of that means you can make money. That does not mean you're educated. That just means you can make money. That's it, that's all that means.
That does not make you a better human being. I know plenty of physicians that are terrible human beings. I know plenty of programmers that are horrible human beings. They're very jahid, they're uneducated in how to be a husband. They're uneducated in how to be a father. What good is their education? All that is a skilled labor. You're just a better worker at the factory. That's all it is now. It's a virtual factory but that's all you are.
Creating Better Human Beings
We have to revolutionize Islamic education in that we have to create these, Islamic education revolving around becoming better human beings. Specific areas that need help now that never needed help before.
I told you what's happening inside the home is being targeted. Most Muslim fathers don't even know what it means to be a Muslim father anymore. These things came naturally to us. They were not difficult for us in the past. But now because of the change of the world and the change of our lifestyles, we have to re-educate ourselves in these things. We have to come back and do them all over again. How to raise kids specifically.
Recommended Resources
There's one set of CDs. I think you might be able to find MP3s online also. I want everybody here to listen to them. They're not by me. They're by a person I really really admire. Brother Hisham Al-Awadi. Children Around the Messenger. That's one series. It's called what again? Children Around the Messenger. And Mother of the Believers. Mothers of the Believers. These two series.
I want every person, especially every father here. Especially every father, but the entire family to listen to both of these series. It's really really important that you do. They benefited me tremendously. And they can benefit parents in general. These are few resources we have, but they're gold. They're really really valuable. We should take advantage of them. And we should inshaAllah try to have our entire family listen to them. Put them in your iPod. Put them in the car. Listen to it everyday. You will benefit tremendously.
Reciting Quran with Children
Recite Qur'an with your children. Don't hire a Qari to recite Qur'an. Recite Qur'an with your children. Mawlana Sahib comes, reads Qur'an and goes home. What about you? What about you? You don't have time? If you don't have time for Qur'an, why does your child have to have time for Qur'an?
Sit down with your child. Make those 20 minutes happen. Shaytan will come. He will make you yawn. He will make you thirsty. He will make you sleepy. He will make you remember you had a meeting. All of that will happen in those 20 minutes. Why? Because you gave those 20 minutes to Qur'an. He hates that. He can't stand it. But make those 20 minutes happen. Commit to it. Commit to it with your children.
Daily Family Quran Time
Get the entire family. This is one part of the day. We're gonna sit and we're gonna recite Qur'an. Listen to the explanation. At least the translation of the Qur'an together as a family. If you can't do it for an hour, do 10 minutes. It's okay. Just listen to it. Just a little bit of 10 minutes of Qur'an. Beyond the recitation. Recitation, I told you how many minutes? 20 minutes. Listening to a translation, some explanation, how long? 10 minutes. So how long every day? 30 minutes, you as a family just did something for Allah.
My recommendation between Maghrib and Isha. And my recommendation, right now you're gonna say, kids have exams, it's May. Let the semester end. Fine. You know what? I'll give you that. This whole summer, this is what you do. 30 minutes every day. Don't say, which program should I put my child in?
You're the program. You're the program. Everything else is secondary. We have to come to terms with that.
Islam is Not on Autopilot
Islam is not on autopilot. And I end with this, guys. Islam is not on autopilot. What do I mean by that? We were raised in a Muslim, many of us including myself were raised in a Muslim country. Our parents didn't have to worry about our beliefs. They didn't worry, is my child gonna become a Christian? Is he gonna become atheist? Is he gonna become Jewish? They didn't have to worry about that.
They didn't have to worry, is my child gonna go somewhere else and not pray Jumu'ah? They didn't have to worry about that. That thought never came in their mind. They didn't have to worry about you, that you're gonna end up in a gang or drugs or run away from home. They didn't have these issues. So Islam, they didn't have to worry about teaching you too much because the entire society in some way or another was teaching you.
The school was teaching you. The adhan was being heard all over the neighborhood. Society was giving you Islam. Are we in that situation now? No. So you cannot raise your kids the way your parents raised you. Because you're not in the same world. Everything you assumed will just be okay. It'll be okay. We came out okay. You came out okay because you lived in a different world, buddy. This is a different world.
No Guarantee Our Children Will Hold onto Islam
We have no guarantee our children will be holding on to Islam. We don't have that guarantee. We don't. The pollution outside is not just of car smog. The pollution outside is of kufr. Is of doubt. People are becoming doubtful.
I cannot begin to tell you how many teenagers I've met were not sure about Islam. They're just not sure. And they hear so many bad things about the deen all the time. We're in Texas after all. They hear so many terrible things.
Learning from Other Communities
This morning two Mormon teenage boys came to my house before Jummah. Knocked on the door. Teenage boys. It's amazing, right? Teenage boys doing da'wah. I was like, man, if we had that, that'd be awesome. Which teenage boys you see get dressed up, they get dressed really nicely, like a uniform. They grab their bikes, it's 92 degrees outside, and they go house to house. We wanna tell you about the word of God.
You know how much courage that takes? And before I start ripping their religion apart, I'm gonna say, man, I appreciate what you guys are doing. That's amazing. They don't even have the truth. And they're so dedicated. And they were able to put that into their kids. Why? Because the Mormon community
decided, our children are our top priority, forget everything else. We're not gonna preach our religion, we're not gonna teach it to anybody else, we don't have to build huge centers, all we have to worry about is our kids. That's it.
We make sure they understand our religion. So they're teenage boys carrying this religion. And I'm sitting and I'm talking to them, and they believe this is the word of God, and it's a miracle. I was like, wow guys, it's not a miracle, but I really appreciate your dedication. I really, really appreciate your dedication. That's the kindest.
I'm not saying we become Mormon, or be like the Mormons, but I am saying, man, when you see something good, you should appreciate it. If they've got a good quality, it is to be appreciated. We have something to learn from other communities. We do.
The Coming Polarization
And I tell you very quickly, the world is shifting. It's gonna be people who believe in God on the one side, and people who don't believe in any God on the other side. Right now we have disagreements among each other, different schools of thought, even Muslim versus Christian, versus Jewish, versus Hindu, etc., etc., etc. Pretty soon the world is polarizing along two lines. I don't believe in any God. In any religion I believe in a God. That's the shift that's happening. That's the polarization that's happening in every corner of the United States.
And it's happening like wildfire. Don't you for a second think it's not gonna affect the Muslim community. It is. It absolutely is.
Parents Must Learn Quran First
You and I have to learn Qur'an as parents. Not for our children. For ourselves. We have to learn Qur'an. We have to love it so much, that our children as they're raised, they know, my dad, somebody asked, what does your dad like to do? They said that he loves to learn the Qur'an. He's always talking about the Qur'an. I learned everything I know about the Qur'an. Most of it I came from my dad. He's always listening to an explanation of it. He's always telling me to recite more. He's always memorizing it. He loves the recitation of all the stuff.
We have to become a nation of Qur'an. Why? Because the Prophet ﷺ was surrounded by people who doubted. Just like we are surrounded by people who doubt. And the only thing that gave him belief was what? Qur'an. The word of Allah. It kept him strong. We have to become that nation again. Us and our children. We have to become the generation of the Qur'an. It has to become central in our life. 30 minutes a day is starting point. 30 minutes a day.
Start Memorizing Quran Regardless of Age
But for yourselves, the parents, I don't care if you're 45 or 55 or 65 or 75. Start memorizing Qur'an. Start doing it. Allah didn't put an age limit on it. Allah did not. That's you. Allah didn't do it. Show Allah you love His book. And Allah will put blessings in your life you didn't even see. You won't have to ask somebody else for advice on how to raise your children. Allah will give you that advice in His book. He will have those answers for you and me in His book. We have to have that direct relationship with this book.
The Root of Our Problems
I tell you, most of our problems in the Muslim community are because we are disconnected from the Qur'an. We don't feel for it. We don't feel love for it. We don't have a relationship with it. We don't go to it for advice. We don't recite it everyday. We don't care to memorize it. We don't care to learn more and more of it. We haven't shown it enough love. This word Allah gave, honored this ummah with and we haven't given it enough love.
If we did, I tell you, our problems would start disappearing. I guarantee you. Allah talks about the people of the book. He says:
"If they only established the Torah and the Injil, they would have eaten from above and below." Their dunya would have become better. If they only established Torah and Injil, what is Allah saying to us then? If we only establish what? Quran. You will eat from above and below. Allah will make dunya into Jannah. Just come back to His book.
Creating Love for Quran in Our Children
This is the real advice to parents. We leave the memory, we leave our children with, my dad loved video games, my dad loved movies, but he, man, more than anything else, he loved Quran. He really liked basketball, but he loved Quran. Quran he really, really loved. And he made sure, he wanted us to love it too. He used to tell us stories from it. He used to give us advice from it.
Tell your children the amazing stories from the Quran. And you won't be able to tell them if you yourself are not amazed by them. If you're not in awe of the story itself, you won't be able to impress your children. But man, from early childhood, you, you, not anybody else, you tell the stories from the Quran. You will have to do it.
I was teaching one of my daughters the story of Yusuf a.s. the other day. And I didn't finish the story. She's been asking me for four days, about what happened. He got thrown into jail. Then what happened, I can't tell you. I'll tell you later. She's been asking me, I'll tell her on the way back, I'll tell her today inshaAllah. What happened after he got thrown into jail. But we have to make and create an interest into
our children. And the stories are so beautiful. They're so remarkable. Especially when you tell them from the Quran's point of view. They're so beautifully put together.
Teaching Children to Seek Answers from Allah
May Allah make us the people of Quran, and instill that, give us the ability to instill that into our children. Have an honest, open, direct conversation with your children. Ask them about what they heard in school, what problems they have. And then you yourself, seek the answers from Allah's book. You say, you know the thing your friend just told you? Or this terrible thing you saw? You know what Allah says about that? Let me show you.
We're literally teaching our children how to go to Allah for answers. That's what we have to do. We have to create that generation. May Allah help all of us do that. May Allah put barakah in the lives of every Muslim. And may Allah add barakah on top of barakah on top of barakah, by means of our love, and affection, and time, and dedication to this Quran.
Announcements
I wanted to take this opportunity, quite a few of you are here, to make two quick announcements inshaAllah. The first of them is immediate, and that's tomorrow. For our campus in Irving, we're having an open house. And we're inviting the community to come check out the Bayyina campus, and meet some of the students for this year. Many of you know, many of you don't know, we get about 60 students every year from all across America, that study Arabic and Quran with us at the program. And we have a small, like mini college type campus set up there.
So we'd love for you to come and check it out, and meet with the students. That's tomorrow from 2 o'clock to 5 o'clock. It's all the way in Irving, I know that's a hijrah for you, but look, I made hijrah here, so you can make hijrah there. It's fine. That's right across the Irving Masjid, on 2300 Valley View Lane. I know you won't remember the address, just remember this email address. openhouseatbayyina.com Just remember that email address, and we'll send you the information. openhouseatbayyina.com That's a small announcement.
The big announcement however, that I'm very excited to share with you, is that Bayyina is actually putting together its first conference. And I decided, we had a lot of offers, we had offers in LA and New York, and other places to put the conference together there. But since this is home, I decided to do the conference here. So inshaAllah ta'ala, on June the 30th, is going to be the first Bayyina conference, nationwide conference, but it's going to be held here in Dallas.
It's at the Irving Convention Center, inshaAllah ta'ala. And that's once again June the 30th. Myself, Shaykh Abdul Nasir Jangda, and Imam Suhaib Webb from Boston, is going to be there. So we're the three
presenters. It's a one-day program. And I'd like you to sign up as soon as you can, yourself and your family.
The website address, if you can try to remember it please, is amazedbythequran.com amazedbythequran.com That's the name of the conference, Amazed by the Quran. All three of us are going to be presenting our favorite passages from the Quran from this year's studies. That's what all three of us are going to be doing, (إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ تَعَالَىٰ - inshaAllah ta'ala). And there are other kids activities and other programs there too. So I hope all of you will join and help me spread the word in the area about the conference and help people sign up for that. Once again, let me see if you remember, what's the website address? amazedbythequran.com
Closing
JazakAllah khairan. So very much for listening attentively. If you folks have any questions, I don't know if we have time before Salat. But if we do, I'll take them now, (إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ تَعَالَىٰ - inshaAllah ta'ala).