Esteemed Master, in this lecture, Master Hosseini spoke about the anxieties people in Iran—especially religious people—feel about social and political issues or the upbringing of their children. Drawing on the Quranic verse in which God tells the Prophet not to grieve himself, he explained why the children of believers sometimes do not share their faith and may fall into intellectual error. Sadly, even very great religious figures have faced, and continue to face, these problems.
I remember asking Your Eminence a question before about finding a balance in raising our children: how, during their childhood, can we avoid going to extremes or being too lax in their religious upbringing, so that they do not face such difficulties as adults? Your answer was thoughtful, but because of the examples I had seen, I could not quite bring myself to accept it. There must be something going wrong in the way religious families raise their children for these things to happen. No matter how much I think about it, I cannot identify what that is.
I myself grew up in a religious family, but I never witnessed any of these extremes. Thank God, all of my parents’ children eagerly set out on a spiritual path. We were simply guided properly at the right time; nothing was imposed on us in an excessive or unreasonable way. We learned many things by observing our family and tried to put them into practice. But I do not know what happens in other families that leads to these problems. Please look into this matter so that we can be more successful in raising our children.
I can never forget one particular case: a woman whose manteau hem used to show beneath her chador, and who had grown up in a religious family. Now her hijab is incomplete, she wears a short manteau, and she has set aside her chador. What went wrong in her upbringing for things to turn out this way?
I would be grateful for your guidance.