Home “pearls”: daughters

Imam al Ghazali writes, “You should know that a child is given to parents for safekeeping. His pure heart is a precious pearl and whatever pattern we carve on it, it accepts it.”

Consequently, if a child is instilled with morality from early childhood and is often reminded to do only good, then, by the will of God, he will find happiness both in this and in the next world. Parents will receive rewards for the good deeds he has done as well.

Moreover it is written in the books that the Almighty will not interrogate on the Day of Judgment the one who teaches a child to remember God and His Messenger r and read the ayat of the Holy Koran. Aisha t related, “A poor woman came to me with her two daughters.

I gave her three dates; she gave each of them a date and was about to eat the third one when one of her daughters asked her for it, so she divided it between her two daughters and ate nothing herself and I liked what she did. After this, the Messenger of Allah came, so I told him what she did, and he said, “Allah obligated Paradise for her due to this date and (also) freed her from Hell.” (Narrated by Muslim)

This indicates that daughters need to be treated kindly, for such an attitude will cause the fire of Hell to move away from her parents. Daughters can distance a person from Fire if he brings them up in the best way! The Messenger of God says, “He who raises two daughters until their puberty will be with me in Paradise like this”, and he symbolised the proximity by showing two of his fingers with a slight gap between them.” (Narrated by Muslim)

The Messenger of God singled out daughters in this way because of their vulnerability and his love for them. With this testament, the Messenger of God raised the status of daughters.

Thus parents should give their daughters with a good education and teach them morality, culture, modesty, thrift, femininity and respect. Later they will become mothers themselves and mothers represent education. If you educate them, you educate entire nations.

It is Sunna for those who have a daughter to show great joy. A hadith says that it is grace for a woman if her first born child is girl.

A hadith also says that if one who had a daughter gave her the correct upbringing, supported and raised her with honestly earned money, then this daughter will be with him on the Day of Judgment and will not allow him to fall into Hell. And so on until he enters Paradise.

The Prophet also noted that if a person who has three daughters or sisters has endured difficulties on their behalf, then Allah brings him to Paradise because of the sympathy that he showed for them. The same outcome will have those who have raised one or two daughters or sisters. Therefore, it is not right to grieve the birth of a daughter and show preference for a son, for parents do not know which of the children will be wellbehaved.

Both a son and a daughter are gifts of God the Almighty and in every child there is benefit and grace. Our religion promises a great reward for caring for our daughters and treating them well. Raising a girl, teaching and educating her is a very worthy deed.

A daughter is as much an extension of our own selves as a son. And she is the future mother of our grandchildren and the grandmother and greatgrandmother of our greatgrandchildren. And the way we treat her, what we put into her, what we teach her, how we educate her, will be reflected in future generations.

Parents of girls should accept this gift of God with gratitude and bear the responsibility entrusted to them in the best way. Raising a daughter is a great thing that each of us does, first of all for ourselves, for we will find the reward for it on the scales with our good deeds on the Day of Judgment.

RAKHMAT ABDULVAGABOVA