Teach Your Child to Be Truthful

As Muslims, we know that honesty is very important since telling the truth is a quality that Allah loves and encourages us to do. Allah says in the Quran:

“O you who believe! Have fear of Allah, and be among the truthful.” (Quran 9:119)

There are many Quran verses relating to truthfulness as well as many ahadeeth. The following is one:

Abdullah bin Mas`ud said that the Messenger of Allah said, "Hold on to truth, for being truthful leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise. Verily, a man will keep saying the truth and striving for truth, until he is written before Allah as very truthful (Siddiq). Beware of lying, for lying leads to sin, and sin leads to the Fire. Verily, the man will keep lying and striving for falsehood until he is written before Allah as a great liar." (Al Bukhari and Muslim)

The question that many parents have is how do we teach our children to be truthful? Before we look at the ways parents can their child to be truthful, we'll look at why children lie.

Childhood Anxiety Islamic Parenting Pack

Childhood anxiety can be caused by any number of things. It can be from obvious stress and trauma or it can be as insidious as from just watching family members modeling it. The effects can range from mild to severe. As a parent, it can be gut-wrenching to watch your child have an anxiety attack and feel helpless when you can't do anything to help. This is where the 'Childhood Anxiety Islamic Parenting Pack' can help.

Parenting Lessons from Hajar

Most of us know the story behind the hajj ritual of walking swiftly between Safa and Marwa. There are lots of lessons to learn from it. (This is an excellent article on it.) Specifically, what are the parenting lessons that we can glean from it?

This is the story as narrated by Ibn Abbas:

Let Your Child Accompany You

When you attend public lectures or gather with friends to have serious conversations, do you include your child? Most parents would either leave their child with someone to baby sit, leave their child with the child care facility or shoo their child outside or the back of the room to play with other children. The more responsible choice would be to let your child accompany you and sit next to you so they can be in the company of other adults to learn and mature.

There are a few ahadeeth that tells us that during Prophet Muhammad's time, peace be upon him, the children would sit with the adults.

Abdullah Ibn Omar narrates saying: “We were at the Prophet’s house, prayers and peace of Allah be upon him, he got out palm pith, then he said: “Among the trees (there is a tree) that is like a Muslim .(What is it)?” I wanted to say the palm tree, but I was the youngest among them all so I kept quiet. The Prophet, prayers and peace of Allah be upon him, said “It is the palm tree”.” [Agreed upon]