Preparing for Life:

Publisher: Kube Publishing, Markfield, 2022, 117pp. ISBN: 9781847741868

The book has eighteen short and readable chapters with an introduction, conclusion and an index. It is the outcome of the author’s long experience working with Muslim communities in a secularised society. Muhammad Abdul Bari is an author of several books, parenting consultant and commentator on socio-political matters. As such, some material appears to have been repurposed for this critical reminder to parents about multifaceted parenting to assist them to prepare their children for life with the ethos of universal human and Islamic values.

The first chapter rightly celebrates motherhood and, with it, the importance of ensuring that from conception onwards children are strongly nurtured spiritually and physically. Readers are reminded, with care, to ensure their offspring consume healthy foods, are physically active and engage in intellectual games so that they are raised as God’s stewards.

The second chapter stresses the need to invest in children. Contemporary Britain, like many developed western countries, is going through social challenges such as economic inequality, intolerance, Islamophobia, discrimination and extremism as well as the anxieties and confusions which are the consequences of modern life. The globalisation of individualism, the sexualization and commercialisation of life are issues that also affect all members of British society (p. 8). Thereafter, the author, drawing on his vast experience, unapologetically calls for addressing the overall well-being of children, tackling bullying, and hate crimes and preserving childhood innocence. In advocating the need for a better generation, he assertively calls for the creation of a positive environment and to help children reach adulthood with values and life skills.