On 20 April 2025, a delegation of Lajna Imaillah (Ahmadi Muslim women’s auxiliary) from Germany was granted an in-person audience with the Worldwide Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmadaba, at Masroor Hall, Islamabad, Tilford, UK. During the meeting, the attendees had the opportunity to ask questions and seek guidance from His Holiness on a range of topics. One member of the delegation sought His Holiness’s advice regarding the bullying that many children face in schools. In response, His Holiness offered the following guidance:
Firstly, as I always say, parents should maintain a friendly relationship with their children. Sometimes children return from school visibly worried—or in some cases, even small children come home upset and start crying that they do not want to go back. Such cases are often the result of bullying. Parents should immediately ask their children about the reason behind their distress and then approach the school’s head teacher, staff and administration and inform them that their child is being bullied and is distressed.
However, it is important that such matters be handled wisely. At times, when a complaint is raised, the bullying students may retaliate and trouble the child even more, leaving them in an extremely anxious state. In such situations, it may become necessary to temporarily withdraw the child from school, change the school, or even homeshcool them, which is an option available in countries such as the US, the UK, and perhaps even Germany.
Parents must instil confidence in their children. Every day, when the child returns home, parents should encourage them to continue with their studies. They should listen to them and build in them the resolve that they need not fear others or get intimidated by people, thus removing fear from them.
At the same time, children must also be given a sense of protection. They should know that their parents will stand up for them and advocate on their behalf before the head teacher or the school staff, insisting that such instances should not occur, hence making them confident that their parents will protect them. Once a child feels this sense of protection, the symptoms of mental distress may begin to fade.
Ultimately, the real remedy lies in building a friendly bond between parents and children. It should not be that the father is wholly absorbed in earning money all day and the mother is preoccupied in socialising, while the child is neglected and left to suffer. The parents will have to realise that they need to make sacrifices for the sake of their children. They should not just have children and leave them to fend for themselves like wild animals. Instead, they should mould them into (responsible) human beings. This requires real effort and commitment.
This is the reason that Allah has extorted in the Quranic verse recited in the Nikah sermon that one should “look to what it sends forth for the morrow”.[1] What does sending forth for the morrow imply? It refers to the moral upbringing of one’s children, as our tomorrow or our future is our progeny. The verse hence urges parents to inspect what they are sending forth for their children and calls upon them to nurture and train them. When this is achieved, then the next generation will be secured. In doing so, both this generation and the next will benefit, and ultimately, this will also serve as a means to save mankind.
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[1] Holy Quran 59:19
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