ROYALTY: The challenges of raising pious children in the 21st century, by Osun Monarch

An extract from a lecture delivered by His Royal Majesty Oba Olatunbosun Adebamiji Abdulazeez, the Akire of Ikire-Ile Kingdom, at the Sixth Annual Speech and Prize Giving Ceremony of The Light International Academy,  held on Sunday 4th of August, 2024 at the Command Day Secondary School, Ede, Osun State, Nigetia

Protocols

Under a normal circumstance, parents are the first mentor of the child; the teacher is the second, the society is the third, the social media is the fourth, and the fifth is the child him or herself. A brighter future for our children can be guaranteed when parents and teachers play their vital roles before they get to the society or before the society and the social media get to them. Both (parents, and then the teachers) have immense contributions and responsibilities in shaping the attitude and perception of our children to life for a brighter future. The perception of the young ones to life is largely dependent on their family background, religious orientation, and education, particularly at the early stage of their lives. Let us highlight some key roles expected of responsible parents and good teachers:

Roles of parents

1. A great family name: Protect your family name by being a great person with integrity and fear of God.
2. A great father/mother: don’t choose a liar, a kaafir, a whore, a drunkard, etc for your child.
3. A great personal name: don’t allow people to call your child a bad, terrible name, because Orúkọ ń ro ni.
4. A great language: your mother tongue and not a foreign language, eg. English (come and enter your shoe; I very hate you!)
5. Guidance and positive role modelling
6. Choose a great school for your child
7. Integrate discipline into your life and the life of your children.
8. Give them complete education: education that includes religious education, knowledge of the Qur’an and Islam, biography of the Prophet as excellent example, etc.
9. Enrol your child in a good, standard madrasa to memorize the Qur’an, learn Arabic, and the knowledge of the Din. This way, you won’t regret at your old age.

Roles of Teachers

1. Treat the pupils/students as if they are your own children
2. Take your job as your passion, and not as a vocation. Be passionate, and the pupils would love you and would never forget you.
3. Do your teaching job with all your heart irrespective of the pay involved. No amount of salary can compensate for the grooming you are doing for our future leaders
4. Improve on your own teaching skills as one of the ways to attract better pay.
5. Be in touch with your pupils’ parents so as to understand certain things about your pupil or student.
6. Be a guidance counsellor to your pupils/students
7. Correct them gently and with love.
8. Don’t give up on them, whatever their performance and attitude. No mother gives up on her child. Even a mad woman doesn’t. A kìí fi ọmọ burúkú fún ẹkùn pa jẹ.

The Danger of the Social Media

A child does not need an android phone until after passing their school certificate exam. Some parents make the mistake of giving their primary and secondary school kids android phones. At the end, most parents regret their actions for several reasons.
1. Social media is attractive and fascinating, and so it is going to seduce your child away and snatche them away from you.
2. Social media is a distraction. Their minds would be distracted, and they won’t be able to give the required concentration to their studies.
3. Social media is a veritable source of bad company
4. Social media corrupts the impressionable minds of your children through corrupt videos, tik tok, ponography, pictures of naked opposite gender, etc

Finally, as parents, let us take the raising of our children seriously. The Prophet said that when a person dies, all his good deeds end except for three, and one of the three is waladun sooliha yadihu lau (a good child that prays for his/her parents). Only a well brought up and religiously educated child would remember to pray for his/her parents before and after the death of his/her parents.

May Allâh, Azza Wajal help us to raise great children who would pray for us before and after our death.