Indeed, the creation of Allah Ta‘ala is most beautiful and amazing, and yet it reflects not even a miniscule amount of the infinite and unimaginable beauty and perfection of the Creator – Allah Ta‘ala. Therefore, when we ponder over the creation of Allah Ta‘ala, we learn many important lessons and begin to recognize the greatness of our Creator.

Recently, we were fortunate enough to observe a hen sitting on eggs, and what we noticed was that the hen almost never left the eggs. It was just two or three times a day that the hen stood up, drank some water, ate some food, messed in the corner and then returned to her precious eggs. Similarly, the hen would normally flee if we approached her, but her dedication to sitting on the eggs was such that she even tolerated our immediate presence, though she puffed out her feathers to try and appear threatening in an effort to scare us away.

This prompted the children to wonder, “What is required for the egg to hatch?” On doing some research, we discovered that the main requirements are a constant temperature (around 38° celsius), controlled humidity, and regularly turning the eggs.

However, during the entire 21-day period until the chicks hatched, it was the hen’s determination and commitment that stood out, as through rain and shine, she remained single-mindedly glued to them. Unsurprisingly, this commitment and dedication paid off with the eggs hatching on the 21st day, revealing small, fluffy baby chicks.

But then, calamity struck. Two days later, the mother hen turned her back for just a few moments, and in a split-second, a predator struck and her chick was no more.

This entire experience taught us many valuable lessons regarding the upbringing of children. The first lesson is that in order for the child to be raised correctly, with the correct Islamic beliefs, values and character, the parents will have to remain dedicated and committed to their child at all times. Just as the mother hen cannot leave her eggs, the parents cannot leave their children unattended or ignore their upbringing and hope that the desired results will magically manifest.

The second lesson is that the correct requirements will have to be met for the child to be moulded correctly. Just as the hen keeps the eggs warm, the parents will have to keep the home ‘warm’ with the noor (light) of Islam and the sunnah. The home must be alive with nafl salaah, zikr, ta’leem, recitation of the Quraan Majeed, du‘aa and other righteous actions that will nurture the imaan in the heart of the child.

Similarly, just as the hen keeps the humidity controlled, the environment of the home must be ‘humid’ with the love of Allah Ta‘ala, love for Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) and the sunnah, and love for the Sahaabah (radhiyallahu ‘anhum) and the pious.

Finally, just as the hen continues to check on the eggs and turn them, the parents will have to continue to check on their children, guiding them and correcting them when necessary, in order to instil the correct habits and ways into them and mould them according to Islamic values.

The third lesson is that even after everything else is carried out correctly, the parents MUST remain vigilant and on guard at all times. When the hen turned her watchful gaze away for a few moments, her chick was snatched away from her. In the same way, if we turn our gaze and attention away from our children, and allow them to leave our supervision and go about unattended, then they will rapidly fall victim to the predatory influences of evil and haraam that prey on their Deen and imaan.

We have listened to numerous personal accounts of recovering drug addicts, and almost all of them concurred on one point – it was their parents blindly trusting them and giving them unfettered freedom that gave them the leeway to fall into drugs.

This point is not exclusive to drugs, but rather most sins and evils which plague the youth, destroying both their Deen and dunya, such as addiction to pornography etc. are allowed to take root and progress due to the parents not exercising the required level of vigilance and caution (especially with the internet, cell phone, etc.).

During the holiday period in particular, let us not turn a blind eye to our children and allow them to roam about freely. It takes just a split second for a young, susceptible and impressionable child to take the first puff, pop the first pill or take the first peek on the phone, which is actually the first step on the road to drug or porn addiction.

May Allah Ta‘ala save us and our children from the evils of the time, and may He grant us the ability to uphold Deen completely in our lives, aameen,