Page 178 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

The Beating of Children Who

Stop Praying

… When he [a boy] becomes ten years old, then beat

him for prayer. (Sunan Abu-Dawud, Prayer, 494)

Worship is something done willingly and fervently as an expres-
sion of love of God; it is not imposed by coercion. It seems from this
false hadith that a child can be compelled to pray before he even
reaches the age of 10. What possible benefit can there be in imposing
an obligation on a child who is not yet acquainted with God, who is

unaware of the purpose of his existence in this world and who is
ignorant of the Creator and the secrets of creation? What you need to
do in order to make a child religious is not to force him to worship,
but to show him evidence of the existence and oneness of God and
to make him understand and love God and the faith. Once he under-
stands these things, a child will realize that he is an entity with a

responsibility to God, and then he will be grateful and will start wor-
shiping Him with enthusiasm. In that case, worship will be per-
formed sincerely, with great love and zeal.

However, if a child who is as yet unacquainted with God is
forced to perform the obligations of a religion whose wisdom he
does not yet know, and if he is then beaten for not doing so, that
child will in all probability harbor a secret loathing of that religion
and its acts of worship for the rest of his life. Since he may spend the
rest of his life with that terrible prejudice, he will be wrongly

acquainted with God and will not try to see and understand the true

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