In his sermon ‘On Children’, Gibran assumes the persona of Almustafa and speaks to the people with the intention of enlightening them about ‘children’ and to guide them as to how they should bring up their children.
First, he says that ‘children’ are born to fulfil the ‘longing’ of life itself. They are a gift from the abundance of existence. God, the supreme power, uses parents as a vehicle or passage to bring children to this earth. Since parents do not create ‘life’, parents do not own children. They may house their bodies but not their souls.
Secondly, children have their own souls and are not non-living things. Therefore parents cannot possess them as puppets. Life’s longing for itself brings forth children in the form of sons and daughters. Hence, our sons and daughters do not belong to us though we have borne them.
Thirdly, since parents bring children to this earth, they should also take care of children as ‘stewards’ and protect them, take care of their needs until they grow and mature and become fully developed individuals. Parents should take care of their needs only and should not impose their thoughts and ideas on them.
