When we talk about ‘children’, we mean both boys and girls. Their rights are numerous and we may cite amongst them the upbringing, which is to develop in them the religion and good behaviour until they attach great importance to it. Allah says,
{O you who believe! Ward off from yourselves and your families a Fire whereof the fuel is men and stones.} (Soorah at-Tahrîm, 66 :6)
And the Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘Everyone of you is a shepherd and he will be questioned for his flock; the man is a shepherd in his family and he will be questioned for his flock’.
Quraan on the Children’s Rights
Children are therefore a deposit entrusted to the parents and they will have to answer for them on the Day of Resurrection. To educate them in religion and good behaviour therefore relieves the responsibility of parents towards this flock. Children become straight people and are then rejoicing the eyes of their parents in this world and in the next one. Allah says:
{And they who believe and whose seed follow them in faith, We cause their seed to join them (there), and We deprive them of naught of their (life’s) work. Every man is a pledge for that which he hath earned.} (Soorah at-Tûr, 52 :21)
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ on the Rights of Children
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, ‘When a servant dies, his deeds come to an end except for three things : an ongoing charity, a knowledge which is beneficial or a virtuous descendant who prays[and invoke Allah] for him.’ This is the result of the good education of the child: if he received a pious education, he will be beneficial to his parents, even after their death.
Duty of Parents to Give Children their Proper Rights
Many parents have failed with this right, they have neglected their children and have forgotten them, as if they had no responsibility unto them. They do not ask where they are going out or when they will return; they do not question them on their friends and their companions; they do not guide them towards good and do not forbid them no harm.
And what is amazing is to see all precautions to preserve their assets, to prosper; they work late in order to make them fruitful, while most of the time, they make them prosper on behalf of others.
They do not take their children into account while preserving the mis more important and is more useful in this world and in the hereafter. In the same way that it is mandatory to the father to feed the body of his child with food and drink and to clothe him, it is mandatory to feed his heart with science and faith and to clothe his soul with the habit of piety, which is better (than this world’s goods).
Among the rights of the child is the fact that the father spends for them according to what is suitable, without waste nor greed, because it is a right that his children have on him and a gratitude to Allah for what He granted him as goods.
How could he then forbid these goods and be stingy with them during his lifetime, only to keep these goods so that they will take them by force after his death? And if he is stingy with them as regards to compulsory expenditure, they can take from his goods what will be sufficient for them to live with, as considered the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) in the case of Hind bint Utbah (May Allah be pleased with her).
Among the rights of the children, there is the fact to favour one on the other with presents and gifts; he must not give one thing to some of his children without giving it to others, because this is an injustice, and Allah does not like wrong-doers.
This leads to scare away those who have been deprived and to bring the enmity between them and their father. Some people prefer one of their children for his obedience and his loving relationship with his parents, and his father gives him gifts because of his obedience, but it is not a sufficient reason to specifically give it to him (and not others).
It is not permissible to give to the one who stands by his obedience, as his reward is with Allah. And to reward the obedient child will lead him to be imbued with himself and suggest he has a particular merit, and it will make the other children to flee and persist in their breakup. In addition, we do not know how the situation may evolve, the obedient child may become disobedient and vice versa, because the hearts are in the hand of Allah, and He turns them as He wills.
Don’t Discriminate between your Children
Al-Bukhârî and Muslim report from An-Numân ibn Bashir (R.A) that his father Bashir ibn Saad, offered him a servant. He informed the Prophet of this and he said, ‘Did you do this for all your children?’ He replied, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Take him back.’ And in another version, ‘Fear Allah and be fair with your children.’ And in another version, ‘Call someone else to witness, because I do not testify transgression.’
The Messenger of Allah(ﷺ) thus named the fact to focus on some of their children more than others a transgression, and transgression is an injustice and this is prohibited.
But there is no harm to give to one child what the other does not need, as supplying him with office materials, a cure or what he needs to get married, because this is motivated by the need, this is considered a (compulsory) expenditure.
And if the father carries out his obligations towards his children in terms of education and expenses, it is more likely that the child will be obedient to his father and will give him his rights. But if the father neglects his obligations, he deserves to be punished, to see his child deny him his right and to be tested by the disobedience as a reward for his actions, because as you have done to others, you will get back.
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