I would like to make a suggestion in respect to the children between young age and seven years. I feel that, as you rightly pointed out, that’s a very important age and the influence of the parents is very necessary with the children. However, one of the things that are necessary also is to bring them to the mosque and so on. Many parents, one of the things that is very important is also to bring the children to the mosque and associate them with our ways and so on.
A lot of parents are hesitant to bring children to the mosque at the age of five, six or even less than that because they feel that they might interfere with the prayers or with the listening or any other so on and so forth. So I suggest that we should have a small room here, like on the fence style of cliché or play pens or whatever they might like to be so that children can be brought. It would also encourage those parents who don’t want to come because of the children to bring them here. So I think it’s very important we should look into this. I think a room should be provided in every mission and this is what I have been telling all the missionaries in charge in various countries, that they must as a routine provide a room for children, for the ladies who come along with their children and they have to deposit their babies somewhere.
So it should be an organized way of providing facilities for children where they could play and somebody could look after them while they are there. Not only the children belonging to the age of five but less than that, even small infants should be provided. A room should be provided for them and all facilities. So in the new missions which we are building now with the grace of Allah, we are permanently providing this place. But in the ones which were built earlier, the difficulty is that of the planning. It’s sometimes very difficult to obtain permission from the planning department to add a room or two to the existing building.
But I think in this one we have already got permission in principle. So somebody should remind Joy Sahib, Sri Abdul Rashid Sahib, that if a children’s room can be provided as suggested, with the view that the ladies should appoint someone to look after them and they should be provided with… In fact I have already spoken to him previously too. You know, like we saw one children’s room in a ship when we came from Norway to here. It was provided with all sorts of toys but also with a floor where they could not hurt themselves. And even if they beat each other with the maximum of their force, they would not hurt each other. Such rooms are very important.
They are called clichés in French. Yes, yes. Cliché. Cliché. What does cliché mean? It means an environmental room for children. Cliché. Yes. Thank you. That’s what we need. Thank you.
