Advice on Raising Children in the Practice of Prayer

Question:
We begin with a message from Sister Umm Abdullah. She says: I hope Honorable Shaykh Salih will give me advice on the proper upbringing of my children. I am truly struggling to keep them maintaining the five daily prayers. They have reached the age of sixteen and are now teenagers, and they have neglected this obligation. When I speak to their father, he says, "What business is that of yours? They are growing up and becoming sensible." We ask for your guidance on this matter?

Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. After that, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So the child has the right to proper upbringing: physical upbringing and spiritual upbringing. That means raising their hearts to the remembrance of Allah and to loving the prayer and maintaining it, because they are under your responsibility, and you are accountable for them before Allah. "Every one of you is a shepherd, and every one of you is responsible for his flock." The obligation regarding the father in this matter is greater than the obligation of the mother, because the father has authority and power; he strikes when necessary and disciplines them. So why does he say this useless talk? In fact, it compounds the problem. When the mother has goodness and love for her children's well-being and commands them to pray, he orders her to leave them alone, saying, "They will grow up and become righteous," or something like that. Will they become righteous without upbringing?
Upbringing is the cause of their righteousness. If they are raised with laxity regarding prayer, they will not care about it later. The point in this question is that they have reached sixteen years of age. These are not young boys; the age of puberty is fifteen years. So they are adults and deserve discipline and striking if they abandon the prayer. Therefore, the parents must fulfill their obligation toward their children: proper upbringing, cooperating to command them to pray and to compel them to do so. As for the father being discouraging and saying, "What is it to me? When they grow up, they will be fine," that is empty talk. It is a loss of responsibility, and he will be held accountable for it on the Day of Resurrection. Yes.

The presenter:
May Allah reward you,