Responsible Raees

Ask our children:

1. Why is it important for a person to be careful and responsible with his things?
2. Why is it important for a person to be careful and responsible with other people’s things?

Now tell them the story:

Raees was a little boy who was intelligent and had good manners. Raees would always know his sabaq in madrasah, and he would speak respectfully to his parents, his Moulana and his elders. However, Raees had one bad habit. Raees’s bad habit was that he was careless and irresponsible. He did not look after the things that he had, so sometimes he would damage them, and sometimes, he would lose them.

One day, as Raees left home to go to school, he saw that it was windy and stormy outside. Seeing the weather, he put on his raincoat, zipped it up and then went to school.

A few hours later, when the weather had cleared up, and the birds were out and about chirping in the trees, Raees removed his jacket. However, since he was careless and irresponsible, he left his jacket lying somewhere in the school, forgot about it and lost it.

Raees’s final period of the morning in school, after English, was Maths. As soon as the bell rang, Raees went to the Maths class and sat at his desk. As he sat, his friend Dawood asked him for his calculator. Dawood had lent Raees his calculator the previous day, and now Dawood wanted it back. But, though Raees searched his school bag from top to bottom, he could not find it. In fact, he could not even remember where he had last left it! Since Raees had been careless and lost Dawood’s calculator, Dawood was upset with him and he needed to replace Dawood’s calculator.

That afternoon, when Raees got to madrasah, he began walking from the car towards the classroom. Since he was careless, he did not bother to look where he was walking. There were puddles of water and mud all over, and Raees stepped into the puddles, causing his shoes to become soaked with water and covered in mud.

A little while later, when Raees went to read his sabaq to Moulana, Moulana was surprised to see that Raees’s pen and pencil were both damaged and could not be used anymore! Moulana looked closely at the pen and pencil, to try and see what had caused the damage, and then realized what had happened. He asked Raees, “Tell me Raees, are you chewing your pen and pencil?” Raees said yes, admitting that he had damaged them by chewing them. When Moulana asked him why he had chewed his pen and pencil and damaged them like this, he said, “I don’t know Moulana! Just! I was feeling bored!” Moulana was very disappointed with him and corrected him.

That evening, when Raees went home, his mother was waiting for him, and he could see that she was very angry with him. She scolded him saying, “Raees! Did you open my freezer yesterday?” Raees thought for a second and then said, “Jee mummy! I took out some ice cream yesterday!” His mother said, “You did not close the freezer door, and now everything inside the freezer got defrosted and some of the food even went rotten! Why are you always so careless and irresponsible?”

Then, Raees’s mother saw his filthy shoes, and noticed that his jacket was missing. Thereafter, Raees told her that he needed a calculator to replace Dawood’s calculator which he had lost, and he needed a new pen and pencil as well because he had chewed and damaged his pen and pencil. Hearing this, his mother became even more disappointed.

She said to him, “You are always careless and irresponsible! You are not careful with where you keep your things and so you always lose them, or you are irresponsible and allow them to get damaged! You must look after the things that Allah Ta‘ala has given you by becoming more thoughtful and responsible. You must not take what Allah Ta‘ala has given you for granted, because that will be showing ingratitude to Allah Ta‘ala for His favours, and Allah Ta‘ala does not like those who are ungrateful. If you had been grateful to Allah Ta‘ala for the pen and pencil He gave you, then you would not have damaged them so badly by chewing them.”

“Also, when you are careless and irresponsible, then you cause pain and inconvenience to others. Through your carelessness, other people’s things will become damaged and spoiled, and other people will not like you. A Muslim must try his best, at all times, to avoid causing any harm or inconvenience to the next person. That is why you must learn to be more careful, considerate, responsible and thoughtful.”

Raees kept his head lowered in shame, because he knew that what his mother was saying was right. He was always careless and irresponsible, and did not look after the things that he had. Since Raees had a good heart, he did not pull up his face and sulk when his mother scolded him. Instead, he said to her, “I’m sorry mummy! You are right! Insha Allah, from now on, I will try my best to be careful and responsible!”

Lessons:

1. A Muslim must try to be careful and responsible at all times. If we are not careful and responsible, then we may lose and damage the things which Allah Ta‘ala has given us. We must not take the things which Allah Ta‘ala has given us for granted, because this is showing ingratitude to Allah Ta‘ala, and Allah Ta‘ala does not like those who are ungrateful.
2. We must always be careful and responsible with other people’s things. If we are careless and irresponsible, and we cause another person’s things to become damaged, then we will be causing pain and inconvenience to that person and people will not like us and will not trust us with their things.