Hazrat Mir Muhammad Ishaqra
Once, some clothes were given to the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, as gifts that included a black stripped shawl. The Holy Prophetsa asked who he should give the shawl to, but there was silence in response; everyone remained quiet. Upon this the Holy Prophetsa said to call Umm-e-Khalid (who was a girl of 4 or 5 years of age). When she was brought before the Holy Prophetsa, he wrapped the shawl around her with his blessed hands and, affectionately, prayed for her by saying ابلی واخلقی twice, meaning, “May God grant you a long life and wear this with joy.”
Then the Holy Prophetsa showed Umm-e-Khalid the lines on the shawl and while pointing towards it said:
یا ام خالد ھذا سناہ
Meaning, “O Umm-e-Khalid, [look] how nice and beautiful these lines are.”
From this hadith, we can learn how much love and kindness the Holy Prophetsa showed towards children; how he would make them happy and take care of their feelings and needs. Some parents treat their children in a very bad manner. They do not fulfil their needs and, as a result, their children develop bad habits. Even when they are older, they cannot let go of these bad habits.
In this way, their whole life is destroyed and ruined. Thus, children should be treated very kindly and special attention should be paid to their needs and acceptable demands. From childhood, [parents] should inculcate healthy habits within them. Ill-disciplined children do not only cause disgrace for their parents, but rather if the parents purposefully neglect the [good] upbringing of their child, then they will be answerable to God, as due to their neglect, a person went astray from the right path.
(Originally published in Al Fazl on 13 April 1940 in the form of notes taken by Mahmood Ahmad Khalil Sahib from the lectures on hadith by Hazrat Mir Muhammad Ishaqra, a scholar of hadith and brother-in-law of the Promised Messiahas)
