Prohibiting children from forbidden means of entertainment and patience in doing so
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you and bless you. This questioner says — or rather, this is a woman asking, and she says: In this era, means of entertainment have diversified, taking the form of television, computers, PlayStation games, and others, and they contain what they contain of warnings and prohibitions. Is it permissible for me to prevent my children from playing and watching these things because of the warnings they contain? But I fear that this will cause a greater harm than the boys playing in the street, associating with bad companions whom I do not know, and turning my children away from the religion, so they say to us, "You prevent us from everything."
Answer:
Yes, it is obligatory to prevent the children from this. First, the father, then the mother. You cooperate in raising the children, and you prevent the means of evil from your home, and you are patient with that. You are patient with the children's blame, and you are patient with their harm. Do not obey them when they say, "You prevent us in the house," and they say, "We will keep these things in the house and not let them go out to the street," meaning you corrupt them in the house so that they do not get corrupted in the street. What did you do? We have become corrupting them in the house so that they do not go out and get corrupted in the street. No, my brother, make your intention and purpose good.
And may Allah the Exalted help you, and be patient with this. Accustom your children, accustom them to their Lord to this, and say to them, "My children, if this is not good, it is disliked." Show them its harms, and they will leave it. If you raise them and convince them, they will leave it. They will accustom themselves to good and accustom themselves to staying away from evil.
As for if you say, "By Allah, I do not want to let them go out to the street to get corrupted, so I corrupt them in the house." Is this speech appropriate? It means that you do not seek help from Allah and do not trust Allah the Exalted. Allah will help you, and Allah will rectify them through education and training in this. Yes.
May Allah reward you and bless you. This questioner says — or rather, this is a woman asking, and she says: In this era, means of entertainment have diversified, taking the form of television, computers, PlayStation games, and others, and they contain what they contain of warnings and prohibitions. Is it permissible for me to prevent my children from playing and watching these things because of the warnings they contain? But I fear that this will cause a greater harm than the boys playing in the street, associating with bad companions whom I do not know, and turning my children away from the religion, so they say to us, "You prevent us from everything."
Answer:
Yes, it is obligatory to prevent the children from this. First, the father, then the mother. You cooperate in raising the children, and you prevent the means of evil from your home, and you are patient with that. You are patient with the children's blame, and you are patient with their harm. Do not obey them when they say, "You prevent us in the house," and they say, "We will keep these things in the house and not let them go out to the street," meaning you corrupt them in the house so that they do not get corrupted in the street. What did you do? We have become corrupting them in the house so that they do not go out and get corrupted in the street. No, my brother, make your intention and purpose good.
And may Allah the Exalted help you, and be patient with this. Accustom your children, accustom them to their Lord to this, and say to them, "My children, if this is not good, it is disliked." Show them its harms, and they will leave it. If you raise them and convince them, they will leave it. They will accustom themselves to good and accustom themselves to staying away from evil.
As for if you say, "By Allah, I do not want to let them go out to the street to get corrupted, so I corrupt them in the house." Is this speech appropriate? It means that you do not seek help from Allah and do not trust Allah the Exalted. Allah will help you, and Allah will rectify them through education and training in this. Yes.
Source
وجوب الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر، بداية من قول المُصَنِّف : وقد كان المسلمون في عهده وعهد أصحابه — islamhouse.com (38:59)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.