RAISING CHILDREN WHO HATE OTHERS - 4

The third reason I could think of why some people hate others is some behaviour they do not approve of, or consider immoral or wrong. This was the trickiest part to explain in writing and which had made me hesitate to write about it. However, as parents we have as much responsibility for our children's moral and ethical development, as for their physical development. Hence I decided to write about it in the hope that if anyone has any misunderstanding they will talk or write to me directly and clear it up.

From an Islamic perspective, there are two ways of looking at it. The first is the perspective of Fuqaha (scholars of Islamic Jurisprudence). From this perspective, some behaviours are allowed, and some are not which are called sins. However, what human beings have done is that they have created gradations of sins by themselves. This is independent of the classification of major and minor sins in Shariah. For example, most sins which involve harming or hurting another human being regardless of their race or religion are considered major sins in Islam. But we commit backbiting, telling untruths, saying hurtful things, taking people's or government's money unlawfully, without even thinking about it that we are considering a major sin. On the other hand, we have socially designated some prohibited acts as being so wrong that if we learn about someone committing them we are very quick to even start throwing them out of the fold of Islam.

Continued...