Take a moment to think back to your childhood.

Who was your favorite adult?

Chances are, it wasn't the one who gave the best lectures or had the most impressive credentials.

It was probably that uncle or aunt who crouched down to your eye level, who asked about your latest obsession with dinosaurs or dolls, and who made you feel like what you had to say mattered.

Now imagine that person was the Prophet ﷺ.

"He Is Not Amongst Us..."

The Prophet ﷺ drew a clear line in the sand: "He is not amongst us who fails to show mercy to the young ones."

He made it a defining characteristic of his community.

Show mercy to children, or you're missing something fundamental about what it means to follow him.

But what did this mercy look like in practice?

It wasn't just about being "nice" to kids when they were around.

Picture this scene: Parents bringing their children to the masjid, and instead of the kids dragging their feet, they're practically pulling them forward.

"Is the Prophet ﷺ there?

Is he going to talk to me today?"

The Prophet ﷺ made the masjid a place children genuinely wanted to be.

Not because he bribed them or made it into a playground, but because he made them feel seen and valued.

When children came around, he played with them.

He spoke to them as if their thoughts mattered.

Anas ibn Malik (RA) gives us one of the most endearing glimpses into this reality.

He had a little brother named Abu Umair who owned a small bird called Nughair.

And here's what's remarkable: every single time the Prophet ﷺ saw this child, he would ask about the bird.

"Ya Aba Umair, ma fa'al an-nughair?" -

"O Abu Umair, what did the little bird do?"

Not once, not occasionally, but every time he saw him.

Anyone who has spent time with children knows this takes extraordinary patience.

Kids can talk your ear off about the most random things.

They'll tell you the same story seventeen times, ask "why" to every answer you give, and somehow turn a simple question into a 20-minute monologue.

And the Prophet ﷺ?

He leaned in.

He asked follow-up questions.

He remembered details from previous conversations.

The Investment That Shaped History

Those children playing around the Prophet ﷺ weren't just having fun, they were absorbing.

They were watching how he moved, listening to how he spoke, internalizing his character through every interaction.

Many of them would grow up to become the scholars and transmitters who would carry Islamic knowledge to future generations.

The patience he showed to a child asking about his pet bird was the same patience that would one day make that child a careful, precise narrator of hadith.

The kindness he showed in answering their endless questions was forming the very people who would answer the ummah's questions for centuries to come.

So the next time a child interrupts your conversation to tell you about their loose tooth, or when they want to show you their drawing for the fifteenth time today, remember: you're not just managing a moment of childhood chaos.

You're potentially shaping someone's entire relationship with faith, community, and feeling valued.

The Prophet ﷺ understood something beautiful: the mercy we show to the smallest hearts often yields the greatest returns.