THE DECEPTION YEARS PART 3
Deception of the Parents
The deception continues by the parents to their children, feeding them with lies and misinformation until the cycle of deceit perpetuates the next generation. Parents have the duty to provide love, guardianship and protection to their children. They are primarily responsible for the upbringing of their children and to help them obtain the success in this life and in the hereafter.
So where is the deception? It is not being honest with their children on what the purpose of life is and what they should be pursuing in order to achieve that purpose.
Instead, parents infect their children with their our own sickness and blindness, in the name of love whereas it is actually in the name of obsession and possessiveness. Parents conceal the real messages from their children: the honour of obtaining the real success of this life and the hereafter, and instead, pass them the heavy baggage inherited from the diseases of colonialism, culture, habit and their own wicked and sick hearts. Is there a higher level of deception than that?
When parents are deceived by Shaitan, and they then deceive their children to repeat that deceptive cycle with society and mankind. Parents raise them in an artificial environment, teach them to lie, allow them to be selfish, greedy, rude, develop a sense of entitlement, and to achieve dunia success at whatever the price. By constantly showcasing and comparing their children, they are encouraging jealousy, envy and comparison in the next generation. Parents rarely give any systematic education to children on any moral values, ethics, caring, generosity, kindness, consideration to society, their surroundings or to anyone else.
Added to that the biggest deceptive concealment, because parents do not teach their children aboutakhirah, which is the pillar of our faith and our permanent residence: and in that final residence, there is only jannah or jahannam.
Did parents bring their children up with the truth: of loving Allah, compassion for others, trying to elevate themselves and society with mercy, goodness, generosity, sympathy, harmony and peace for all, and to elevate everyone with the ultimate gift, which is Allah’s guidance?
Parents would rather deceive the children by watering their hearts with the polluted, destructive thinking, understanding of life, which is so corrupted and wicked because they are passing them their accumulated diseases. What bigger deception than that?
Parents should having adult conversations with the children about important issues, explaining the majority of the Muslim world are infused with misconceptions, skewed values and ignorance due to 500 years of colonialism and to emphasise the purpose of their existence: to rise up and weed out the legacies of past corruptions, and try to revive the truth, clean up the soil and plant flowers and fruits to be beneficial to ourselves and our ummah.
Consider how many times we talk about ourselves and others as opposed to how many times we talk about the poor and needy of our society. Have we ever taken our children to different slums or poor areas and let them participate in sharing gifts and money with the less fortunate? Do we sow seeds of generosity, kindness and empathy in their hearts?
Do we watch the news, and explain the condition and suffering of the ummah to them, and ask them to think what they can do about it? Or do we simply let them watch the news or read the headlines, which contain misconceptions, inflammatory remarks, racism, discrimination, violence and hatred, without explaining to them the truth, where we should go from here? Do we let them watch TV unsupervised, to the extent that they become confused and muddled over what is right or wrong, or do we censor what they watch or explain to them what they are watching?
Do we encourage them to join the company of those older and wiser, who have different thoughts, insight and understanding, to gain from their knowledge in order to apply their experience to the present, so that they know how to manoeuvre through life and survive the currents and storms?
Young girls today are obsessed with beauty, fashion, food, jewelry, vacations and style of life, and how to succeed in a successful good looking future, starting with the spouse, the wedding style, lifestyle, car, clothing and the list keeps going. Young men are obsessed with earning maximum income to acquire the prestige in life, even if they are hollow and lacking any ethics, deen, faith, responsibility or even a basic understanding of life or personal hygiene.
If you take a random look at the content in the social media, and its daily empty conversations between friends and family members, or the meaningless photos and links on it, what do you think of where we are today?
We also deceive our children from young to switch all the priorities of life. Basic necessities like food, shelter, clothing, jobs, which are necessary as part of the higher goal to achieve the purpose of life, now becomes the main purpose of life. Hence we teach our children to aspire for a dress, sunglasses, a handbag, or a brand name car. We teach them that exams are more important than salat. We excuse them that their studies are more important than helping with the household chores. We deceive our children that their life is only a competition in looks, and material ownership.
Where is Islam? Where is the purpose of life? Where is the purpose of existence? What is my purpose as a member of the family or society?
We deceive our children to think they know what is best for them – so we let them eat whatever they demand, wear whatever they want and spend their free time however they want. We even deceive them in planting the wrong values. There was a young child who changed all the passwords of the electronic devices (which did not belong to her) in the house so that she could block everyone else from using them. Instead of correcting her behaviour, her parents boasted about her intelligence and allowed it to continue. Rather than acknowledging her actions as being obnoxious, lacking in respect to others and selfish – the parents lulled her into the belief that it was cute and acceptable. This child will grow up not even being aware of what the word “selfish” means.
Do parents teach their children basic knowledge such as how to buy the right fruit, vegetable or food, cooking a simple meal,or even doing the dishes or laundry. Most of the younger generation have no idea how to perform these tasks. We conceal from them basic facts of life such as how to have a healthy diet. Parents let them be too dependent when it comes to important life skills. Some parents tend to even continue buying their children clothes long after the child has reached adulthood. Hence, even as adults, the children won’t know how to distinguish between good, bad, beneficial or harmful because they have been raised to give emphasis to appearances, not substance or value. Are these the young people who will be the future parents and the educators for the subsequent generations?
Nothing of the above behaviour makes sense, and this is what happens when the parents have lost basic common sense.
Once the parents disappear from the theatre of the household, and the children leave the household for education or a new job, now they seek knowledge from the surroundings, or worse, the new father and mother for everyone, “Mr Google.” From then on, the values they will pick up is anyone’s guess. When all the ethical, moral and religious foundations were never developed, with anchor to the basic understanding in life, this is where the next generation is headed.
