18 - To following him means to like and do the rules of Islam willingly, to regard and revere his commands and the things which the Shariat cherishes and holds great, such as, his scholars and the pious, and to strive to spread his Shariat and not to love those who do not want to follow the orders of Allahu ta'ala.

[Our Prophet 'sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam' said, "All of you are like shepherds of flocks. As a shepherd protects his flock, so you should protect those under your command from Hell! You should teach them Islam! If you don't, you will be held responsible." And once he said, "Many Muslim children will go to the Hell named Wayl because of their fathers, for their fathers, being seized by the ambition of earning money and making merry and running after worldly affairs only, did not teach their children Islam and the Qur'an al- karim. I am far removed from such fathers. And they are away from me. Those who do not teach their children their religion will go to Hell." And once he said, "Those who teach their children the Qur'an al-karim or who send them to teachers of the Qur'an al-karim for each letter of the Qur'an al-karim they will be given rewards as if they visited the Kaba ten times, and on the Day of Resurrection a crown of sovereignty will be put on their head. All people will see it and admire it." And once he said, "Teach your children how to perform salat (ritual prayer). When they are seven years old, command them to perform salat. When they are ten years old, beat them if they do not perform it and have them perform it." And once he said, "When a Muslim's child worships, his father will receive as much reward as he gets. When a person teaches his child to sin and whenever this child commits sins, his father also will be recorded sinful to the same extent." Ibni Abidin [Sayyid Muhammad Amin bin 'Umar bin Abdulaziz was fiqh savant. He was born in Damascus in 1198 and died there in 1252 A.H. He became mature with the tawajjuh and the presence of Mawlana Halid-i Baghdadi. When this sun of Wilayat set in Damascus, he became the imam and conducted the namaz of janaza performed for him. He wrote many books. His commentary for Durr-ul-Mukhtar consists of five volumes and has been printed several times under the name of Radd-ul-Mukhtar. It is the most dependable fiqh book in the Hanafi Madhhab. The major part of the fiqh information that covers 130 chapters of the Turkish version of our book, Endless Bliss, has been translated from its five volumes that were printed in Egypt in 1272 A.H. He is credited with many fatwas.] says at the end of the section on the makruh actions in namaz, "If a person has his child do the things that are haram for himself to do, he has committed a haram. A person who has his son wear silk clothes or ornaments him with gold or who has his children drink alcohol or lets them urinate in the direction of qibla [The direction a Muslim turns when performing namaz. This direction points to the Kaba.], or causes them to stretch their legs in the direction of qibla will be sinful."

The hadith ash-Sharif in the book Murshidun-nisa states, "The salats and fasts of those who do not observe the rights of their wives and children will not be acceptable."

Imam-i Ghazali says in his book Kimya-i Saadat, "For example, it is haram (forbidden by the religion) for women to go out with naked head, arms and legs. Also, it is haram for them to go out by covering themselves with thin, tight, ornamented and colored garments. Not only will such women be disobedient to Allah and sinful, but also, their father, husband, brother and uncle, who are responsible for them; that is, the one who lets them go out in this manner will be their accomplice in disobedience and sin."

The basis of the Islamic religion is to learn and teach iman, the fard and haram. Allahu ta'ala has sent Prophets ('alaihimussalawatu wattaslimat) for this purpose. When these tenets are not taught to youngsters, Islam will be demolished and annihilated. Allahu ta'ala commands Muslims to do Amr-i maruf. That is, He says, "Communicate and teach my commands." And He commands them to do Nahy-i anil-munkar. That is, He says, "Communicate my prohibitions and do not condone their being done."

Our Prophet said, "Teach Islam to one another! If you give up Amr-i maruf, Allahu ta'ala will send the worst among you upon you and He will not accept your prayers." And he said, "The reward that is given to all worships when compared with the reward given for the ghaza (war in the way of Allah) will be as much as a drop of water compared to an ocean; and the reward given for ghaza, versus the reward given for Amr-i-maruf and Nahy- i-munkar, is like a drop of water versus an ocean." It is for this reason that Ibni Abidin says at the end of the fifth volume, "The thawab for a fiqh savant's helping a Muslims is more than the thawab of jihad."

In short, a child is a deposit in the hands of the parents. The child's pure heart is like a precious gem. Like wax, a child can take any shape. When small, it has not taken any shape. It is like pure soil. You will reap what you sow in pure soil. If children are taught the tenets of iman, the Qur'an and the commandments of Allahu ta'ala and accustomed to doing them, they will attain religious and worldly happiness. Their parents and teachers will share this happiness of theirs. If they are not taught and trained, they will become unhappy. The sin of each evil they will commit will be given to their parents and teachers, too. Allahu ta'ala declares in the sixth ayat of Surat-ut-tahrim, "Protect yourselves and those in your homes and under your command from the fire!" It is more important for a father to protect his children against the fire of Hell than against worldly fire. And protecting them against the fire of Hell is to teach them iman, the fard and haram to accustom them to worshipping, and to protect them against irreligious and immoral friends. The source of all kinds of immoral deeds is an evil friend.

Our Prophet 'sall-Allahu alaihi wa sallam', by stating, "All children are born fit and suitable for Islam. Later, their parents make them Christians, Jews or irreligious," indicates that both for the settlement and for the annihilation of Islam the most important work on children can be done when they are still young. Then, the first duty of each Muslim is to teach his children Islam and the Qur'an al-karim. The child is a great blessing. If the blessing is not appreciated, it will be lost. Therefore, pedagogy, i.e. the science of teaching children, is a very valuable science in the Islamic religion.

And because the enemies of religion also understand this important point, Masons and communists, the most dangerous sources of irreligiousness in our century, say, "Education of the youth is our main goal. We should train children to be irreligious." In order to annihilate Islam and to hinder the teaching and practicing of Allah's commands, freemasons say, "We should not tire the brains of the youngsters. They will learn the knowledge of the din themselves when they grow up." And they also say, "We all should do our best to spread the idea of freedom of belief all over the world and should establish the decisions we take up in our lodges in every country. We should annihilate the brotherhood in the din and establish the masonic brotherhood instead. Thus we will achieve our holy purpose, which consists of the eradication of religions."

Therefore, Muslims should not fall for the tricks and lies of the enemies of the religion; they should not believe their flattering, deceitful and falsely adorned flatteries. Muslims must do Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar to one another.

In every country today, youngsters are taught physical training and made to do physical exercises in order to strengthen, beautify and harmonize their bones, muscles, hands, feet and, in short, all their limbs. They are made to memorize and do the rules and exercises of arithmetic, geometry and psychology for the improvement and refreshment of their mental efforts and spiritual activities, and they do physical exercises in order to purify their cells by activating their blood. While all these and the information that will be necessary for worldly affairs are organized as lessons and duties to be practiced, it is appropriate to misrepresent it as a crime and an aggression against the conscience to teach and practice iman, Islam, the fard, the wajib, the sunnat and, the halal, which will prepare children for real happiness in this and the next worlds? For everyone's comfort and peace, for improvement and progress, for attaining Allah's love and consent, for understanding the haram and the things that will cause disbelief so that everyone will abstain from them, is teaching Islam a crime? In all Christian countries today, as soon as a child is born they impress on it all the requirements of their corrupt religion. Assiduously, they inoculate people of every age with Judaism and Christianity. In order to steal and annihilate Muslims' belief and faith and to Christianize them, they sent chests full of books, brochures and motion pictures to Muslim countries. For example, Christians, presuming that Hadrat Isa (Jesus) is the son of God (never!), call Allah "Father" or "God, the Father". In their novels and films, they say such things as "God, the father will rescue us." However, person who calls Allahu ta'ala "Father" or "God, the Father" loses his iman and becomes a disbeliever. Muslims should not watch such tricky films, nor should they read such novels. Here, with these and various other approaches, they insidiously steal the belief of youngsters. While they name these efforts of theirs as service to humanity, a right and freedom, gifted by a democratic regime, isn't it an injustice to name it religious propaganda, retrogression, aggression against the freedom of conscience for a Muslim to remind one of his Muslim brothers of Allah's commands?

While it is considered extremely normal for a non-Muslim to put forward theories and ideas against Islam, isn't it retrogression, fanaticism and bigotry to misrepresent it as a crime, murder and perfidy for Muslims to talk about real and correct Islam, which the Ahl as-sunnat savants have communicated and have shown as the bright way of Hadrat Muhammad. By giving Islam such names as reaction, bigotry, retrogression, fanaticism and defeatism against secular principles, they blemish these innocent people? Isn't it a malicious lie to say these men were primitive and abnormal who, in fact, were pure- souled, far-sighted, useful people who ran after knowledge, morals, science, virtue, and to describe those who dislike Islam as modern, enlightened and vigilant men? If they, on the one hand, try to oppose Amr-i maruf and Nahy-i munkar by saying that religion is free, that you cannot interfere between Allah and man, that everybody will recognize and worship his Allah according to the inspiration in his conscience, and thereby extinguish our iman, an inheritance from our ancestors, and, on the other hand, offer youngsters poisonous books and magazines through false advertisements that are prepared by missionaries called Jehova's Witnesses with tricks and plans under the name of Islam in order to annihilate Islam, won't Muslims get hurt?

Disbelievers, who have focused all their energies and efforts on the extermination of Islam from the earth and who would not tolerate younger generations' being curious about Islam, which might lead them to making research and consequently learning Islam despite all the strenuous interceptive measures, get mad with a fire of grudge, malice and revenge from head to toe when they hear about the statements of Ahl as-sunnat savants (rahmat- Allahu ta'ala alaihim ajmain). Drawing pictures of turbans, beads and beards in their TVs, newspapers and magazines, they say, "The black force has risen from its grave: Reaction!" As their bodies and souls will burn eternally in the fire of Hell as a punishment for their disbelief, so their foul souls burn in this world, too. These kinds of radio and television programs are very harmful.

Muslims respect one another, run to help one another. When they see others in trouble in matters of religious or worldly affairs, they rescue them. They love and revere the month of Ramadan (the holy month in which Muslims have to fast), those who fast, mosques, the adhan (call to prayer), those who perform namaz and those who walk on the way of the Shariat. As the Qur'an is being read or recited, they listen to it silently and with reverence. Keeping the Qur'an above any type of book, they don't put anything on it. They do not read it at musical or cocktail parties, while playing, or at places of entertainment. When it is read improperly, they leave the place without listening, if they cannot silence it. When they see the Qur'an or its pages or its lines or its letters or all respectable or blessed names at low, despicable places, they at once raise them, their hearts aching. They observe the rights of all human beings and animals. They don't attack the property, souls, or chastity of disbelievers or tourists. They pay their taxes in time, and they don't violate the laws. They obtain the love and respect of everybody by living in accordance with the high moral principles of Islam. As for disbelievers, they try to cause the Qur'an and the Mawlid and all sacred names to be despised and referred to as foul. They print them in magazines, on pieces of paper, and in newspapers so that they will be used as covers for packages, or on tables of entertainment, so that they be disrespected and placed on the floor. In plays, in comedies, in cartoons, in films, in records and on radios they make fun of Muslims, great religious men, and commandments of Allahu ta'ala. In all these, they represent a loathsome, funny vagabond as a Muslim. That is, by insulting Islam and Muslims, they misrepresent them as unsympathetic and deserving of hatred. They give loathsome names to great Muslims and to the things which the Muslims deem great. Muslims should not go to see and hear shows, nor should they buy or read words, writings and newspapers of this sort. They should be very vigilant so that their iman will not be stolen. If a person who criticizes a religious savant or finds a religious book erroneous and full of mistakes, performs namaz, fasts and abstains from the harams, then oral and written statements made by this person are worth studying and that savant or that book is worth questioning. If the person who speaks ill of a religious book or a religious savant does not worship or abstain from the haram, we should not believe his opinion, realizing that it is only a slander and an expression of enmity towards the religion. Blemishing religious men (rahmat-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihim ajmain) and religious books has been a tool, a weapon for the enemies of religion today. A savant only can appreciate a savant. Only the nightingale appreciates the value of a rose, only the jeweller perceives the carats in gold, and only the chemist understand a genuine pearl.

Muslims do not buy, use, listen to, read or look at the harmful things which Allahu ta'ala prohibits. They do not harm anybody. They do not respond to base behavior with base behavior. They are always patient. They give advice with a sweet tongue and a smiling face. Muslims try to learn, teach and do the things which Allahu ta'ala commands. They search for them even among disbelievers. It has always been so in the course of history; those who could not think of mankind as a superior being have borne hostility against the Islamic religion, have tried to deceive youngsters and, at a time they did not expect at all, have died leaving their worldly pleasures, which they had been clasping so tightly, and have gone to Hell. The names of many of them have been forgotten, with no fame, no sign of them having remained behind them, whereas the Islamic sun has continued to spread its light all over the world.

Disbelievers embrace the comfort and beauty of the world which is sweet outwardly but bitter inwardly, adorned outside but poisonous inside, pleasing in the beginning but vain in the end. Muslims should embrace the commandments of the Qur'an, which is the way of our Prophet (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam), and should ceaselessly struggle to improve in this way. They should beware from bidats, which have appeared later in the religion and have been made up by enemies of the religion, by religion reformers, and by ignorant, stupid people].

Our prophet (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) says, "A person who respects performers of bidat (that is, those who do and teach as worship words, writings, ways, and deeds that did not exist in the time of our Prophet and his four caliphs, but were developed and made up later in the religion), who praises them when they are alive or dead, and who deem them great, in fact, helps the religion to be demolished, to be eradicated from the world."

Every Muslim should try to protect his iman lest it should be seized. He should deem enemies of Allahu ta'ala and His Prophet as enemies and struggle to humiliate and disgrace them.

Every Muslim should endeavor to maintain his iman and should not have it stolen. He should not love disbelievers who do not believe Allahu ta'ala and His Prophet. [But one should not treat harmfully or cruelly those whom one does not like. Disbelievers and bidat holders should be given good advice with a smiling face and with a sweet tongue. We should try to rescue them from disaster so that they may attain happiness.] Hadrat Mazhar- Jan-i Janan (radiallahu anh) declared, "We are commanded not to love disbelievers, men of bidats, and those sinners who commit sins boldly. One should not speak with them, go to their homes and meeting, salute them, or make friends with them. However, these prohibitions are suspended under indispensable conditions within a time of necessity. Although it is permissible to contact them under these conditions, it is a must not to love them in a heartfelt way."

Jihad is done to save people who have been deceived and oppressed by ignorant parents, by priests who work for their worldly advantages, and by commanders who practice torture for their own pleasures, from disbelief and from the way to calamity, and to use force in order to that they be honored with Islam. Jihad means to sacrifice one's life and property for the elimination of the wickedness of dictators and exploiters, who intercept Islam's light from reaching those wretched people who were brought up under oppression and among atrocities and thrown into darknesses. It means to resort to force in order to save them from torment of Hell and to make them attain the boundless blessings of Paradise. Jihad is not done individually, but by the state. Attacking others individually is not called jihad, but barbarism or plunder. It is fard for those who have not joined in a jihad to pray for the mujahids (fighters). Disbelievers are rescued from the tortures of oppressors and honored with iman owing to jihad. We do not touch the religion, life or property of those who, after hearing about and understanding Islam, still persist in disbelief and will not accept iman. They live freely and comfortably under the justice and mercy of Islam. Owing to jihad, no disbeliever will be able to say, "I did not hear about it. I would have believed if I had heard." It is fard for Muslims to work, to become strong in order to perform jihad. If they do not work and perform jihad, they will have done a great disservice to the whole of humanity.