Rights of children

Rights of children

• Children have the right to be fed, clothed, and protected until they reach adulthood.
• Children must have the respect, to enjoy love and affection from their parents.
• Children have the right to be treated equally, vis-a-vis their siblings in terms of financial gifts.

A tradition reports:

Prophet Muhammad was reported as saying: "Be fair and just in terms of the gifts you offer your children. If I was to give preference to any (gender over the other) I would have preferred females over males (in terms of giving gifts)."

—Abdulrahman Al-Sheha, Women In the Shade of Islam

• Children have the right to education. A saying attributed to Muhammad relates:

  "A father gives his child nothing better than a good education."

  —Hadith collected by Tirmidhi and Al-Bayhaqi

• Parents are recommended to provide adequately for children in inheritance.
• Umar in a Sunni tradition summed up some of the rights of children in the following anecdote:

One day a man came to Umar ibn al-Khattab to complain of a disobedient son. So Umar had brought the boy to him and he blamed him for his disobedience. Then the boy addressed Umar by saying "O Commander of the faithful: Are there no rights for a boy against his father?". Umar said "Yes". Then the boy said "What are these rights O Commander of the Faithful?" Umar said, "To choose a good mother for him, to select a good name to him and to teach him the Quran" Then the boy said: "O Commander of the faithful; my father has not accomplished any of these rights. As for my mother, she was a black slave for a Magian; As for my name, he has named me Jual (beetle); and he has not taught me even one letter from the Quran". Then Umar turned round to the man and said "You came to me complaining disobedience on the part of your son, whereas you have not given him his rights. So you have made mistakes against him before he has made mistakes against you".

—Abd-Allah Nasih Ulwan, Child Education in Islam