China Mosque Travel Guide Yunnan: Children in Mosques, Muslim Youth and Community Revival
Reposted from the web
Summary: This old essay argues that a community begins to decline when children are no longer heard in the mosque, using Yunnan mosque education, khalifa students, family responsibility, and youth learning to show why Muslim community life needs the next generation.
In the past few days, I have seen many Muslim self-media writers in WeChat Moments focusing on the same issue - children playing in mosques. Everyone's views are surprisingly consistent, which is an excellent phenomenon, but in the current environment, everyone's concerns are becoming reality step by step.
Today I will also take advantage of the popularity of this type of tweets. The title of my tweet today is "The decline of religious communities started when there were no children's voices in the mosque!" ". I remember when I was a child, every winter and summer vacation, friends in the village would bring their holiday homework to the mosque, because the mosque would invite Hui college students to tutor the children's homework every holiday. The children also used each holiday to learn a lot of religious knowledge. At that time, in almost every place, many children who could not continue studying for various reasons came to mosques to recite the Qur'an and study. At that time, almost all mosques were full of books.
Today, almost everywhere in the country, religious communities are experiencing a cliff-like decline. To sum up, the root cause is that most mosques are empty because of some policy tightening, and young people are affected by the current social and economic wave. There are no students in many places. Only a few old people come during prayers. Otherwise, more often than not, imams and wives guard the mosques. Time passed slowly, and some of the old people who came to pray passed away, and some were unable to come to the mosque to pray due to physical reasons. Only the imam and the wife of the mosque guarded the empty mosque. Occasionally, one or two birds fell in the yard and they were considered "visitors." Even those mosques that are still working hard to run schools are basically "living on". The mosques have offered many favorable conditions for enrollment, such as the school providing free books and free meals, giving students hundreds of yuan in subsidies every month, and learning motor vehicle driving licenses for free during school... However, they still cannot attract many students. People are saying privately: “Hey, why is it getting harder and harder to recruit students now? ".
I saw a tweet in the past few days, saying that on the first four or five days of Ramadan this year, a mosque in a certain place was praying "Huo Futan", and someone brought a child to the mosque. The adults went in to pray, but the children were playing around outside. As soon as the Imam came out to pray with his eyes open, the old man shouted loudly: "You brought children here, please don't bring any more children. We can't pray quietly because of the noise!" ”, saying that from that night on, there were many fewer children who stopped praying. Children are the future of a nation. If children are completely cut off from contact and learning a little bit of religious knowledge, then this nation will soon disappear in the long river of history!
If the "khalifa students" (we here in Yunnan are accustomed to calling the students who recite the Qur'an in mosques "khalifa students") is the hope of a local religion, then children are the foundation of this local religion. The old people will eventually perish quickly, while the children will thrive, and the children are also the cradle of talent for the "khalifa students". If the roots of the religion are not rooted in the hearts of children, then when the children grow up, they will most likely send us to the crematorium after our death!
If the decline of religious communities in a place begins when there is no "khalifa students", then the decline of religious communities across the country begins when there are no children entering the mosque to cause trouble! Fellow citizens, please do not scold the children who are playing in the mosque! Taking advantage of the opportunity to bring your children to the mosque now, take your children to the mosque more times. I’m afraid you won’t have the chance in the future!
PS: I published this article on the public account four years ago, but I was bitten by a anti-Muslim hate account and complained, and then the post was deleted by Tencent. Today I am re-posting an old article with a new one, hoping to resonate with everyone.
Summary: This old essay argues that a community begins to decline when children are no longer heard in the mosque, using Yunnan mosque education, khalifa students, family responsibility, and youth learning to show why Muslim community life needs the next generation.
In the past few days, I have seen many Muslim self-media writers in WeChat Moments focusing on the same issue - children playing in mosques. Everyone's views are surprisingly consistent, which is an excellent phenomenon, but in the current environment, everyone's concerns are becoming reality step by step.
Today I will also take advantage of the popularity of this type of tweets. The title of my tweet today is "The decline of religious communities started when there were no children's voices in the mosque!" ". I remember when I was a child, every winter and summer vacation, friends in the village would bring their holiday homework to the mosque, because the mosque would invite Hui college students to tutor the children's homework every holiday. The children also used each holiday to learn a lot of religious knowledge. At that time, in almost every place, many children who could not continue studying for various reasons came to mosques to recite the Qur'an and study. At that time, almost all mosques were full of books.
Today, almost everywhere in the country, religious communities are experiencing a cliff-like decline. To sum up, the root cause is that most mosques are empty because of some policy tightening, and young people are affected by the current social and economic wave. There are no students in many places. Only a few old people come during prayers. Otherwise, more often than not, imams and wives guard the mosques. Time passed slowly, and some of the old people who came to pray passed away, and some were unable to come to the mosque to pray due to physical reasons. Only the imam and the wife of the mosque guarded the empty mosque. Occasionally, one or two birds fell in the yard and they were considered "visitors." Even those mosques that are still working hard to run schools are basically "living on". The mosques have offered many favorable conditions for enrollment, such as the school providing free books and free meals, giving students hundreds of yuan in subsidies every month, and learning motor vehicle driving licenses for free during school... However, they still cannot attract many students. People are saying privately: “Hey, why is it getting harder and harder to recruit students now? ".
I saw a tweet in the past few days, saying that on the first four or five days of Ramadan this year, a mosque in a certain place was praying "Huo Futan", and someone brought a child to the mosque. The adults went in to pray, but the children were playing around outside. As soon as the Imam came out to pray with his eyes open, the old man shouted loudly: "You brought children here, please don't bring any more children. We can't pray quietly because of the noise!" ”, saying that from that night on, there were many fewer children who stopped praying. Children are the future of a nation. If children are completely cut off from contact and learning a little bit of religious knowledge, then this nation will soon disappear in the long river of history!
If the "khalifa students" (we here in Yunnan are accustomed to calling the students who recite the Qur'an in mosques "khalifa students") is the hope of a local religion, then children are the foundation of this local religion. The old people will eventually perish quickly, while the children will thrive, and the children are also the cradle of talent for the "khalifa students". If the roots of the religion are not rooted in the hearts of children, then when the children grow up, they will most likely send us to the crematorium after our death!
If the decline of religious communities in a place begins when there is no "khalifa students", then the decline of religious communities across the country begins when there are no children entering the mosque to cause trouble! Fellow citizens, please do not scold the children who are playing in the mosque! Taking advantage of the opportunity to bring your children to the mosque now, take your children to the mosque more times. I’m afraid you won’t have the chance in the future!
PS: I published this article on the public account four years ago, but I was bitten by a anti-Muslim hate account and complained, and then the post was deleted by Tencent. Today I am re-posting an old article with a new one, hoping to resonate with everyone.
