Introduction to the Khalifah Project:

How to raise children of excellent character while helping to solve the many problems facing today’s world.

I am forced by unforeseen circumstances in my life to offer this plan for the creation of a much better world a year or two earlier than I had anticipated. I have been preparing and perfecting this work for about 35 years, and by the mercy of Allah, it has recently reached the point where it is so logically true, so appealing to those that hear it, and so successful in practice that it could no longer be doubted that this plan could and (InshaAllah) will make today’s world, facing so many terrible problems, into a world of peace, love and spirituality as Allah would want us to have.

The unforeseen circumstance I refer to is that I have recently been diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer. I now have only a few months left in this world. I, of course, accept this as the Will of Allah and feel blessed that I at least have been given these last few months to offer this lifework to the Muslim Ummah and to all of human society.

I spent over half my life as one of the most committed atheists you could ever imagine. I was totally convinced of the rightness of secular philosophies and materialist science. I spent over thirteen years as a full time university student. These long years of study included three Ph.D. programs. My early studies were in theoretical physics and my later studies were in child and clinical psychology.

I had never expected in my wildest imaginings that I would ever be a believer in God, and even more unexpected, that I would become a Muslim. About 30 years ago I decided that if I wanted to be honest as a scientist I would have to accept that the findings of modern science, particularly theoretical physics and cosmology, led undeniably to the conclusion that God did indeed exist.

In a search for a religion which I could be a member of and remain an objective scientist I looked first at Christianity, then Buddhism, and then the Hindu faiths. In none of those great faiths could I find a place for my understanding of God and spirituality. I almost didn’t look at Islam, perhaps due to biases imposed growing up in a Western culture. As I read the Qur’an (English translation with commentary) I found Islam confirming everything I had independently found to be true in my long search for the true nature of our reality.

I have now been a Muslim for about 25 years and have studied Islam with the same objective scrutiny I applied to any other subject. These years of study have only served to further establish the deep truth and rightness of the glorious religion given to us by Allah as our way of life. The theology and metaphysics of Islamic revelation and the enlightened interpretation of the early great Muslim scholars is now almost daily being further confirmed by the findings of modern empirical science and logic.

I am soon to face the Judgment of Allah so I would not be so foolish as to tell you anything but the truth. This plan to make right our world which is now plagued with so much wrong is based on the hypothesis that, “If you give any individual or social group a positive, accurate, and motivational worldview (Islam objectively and correctly understood), plus a good understanding of the Laws of Learning by which all human characteristics develop, that individual or social group will move naturally and inevitably toward everything good and right.

These two necessary bodies of socially transforming knowledge have been formulated and are now available. In their whole these bodies of knowledge are quite complex and not always easily understood, but what is required to put them into practice at a level which is simple enough for anyone to successfully apply and have significant positive results can be learned by virtually anyone in an amazingly short period of time.

Although the ultimate goal of this plan of positive social transformation is to alter the consciousness of human society in such a way as to result in individuals who will have a good understanding of the difference between right and wrong and a burning love in their heart for all that is right and a strong dislike for all that is wrong, to achieve such an ambitious goal is far to large a first step in our progression toward a much better world than we have today.

Progress toward that idealized goal of a much better world must take place in a slow and practical manner which guarantees the success of the first steps toward all that is good and right. To this end we offer a beginning solution to the world’s many problems that is so simple and so easy to put into practice you might find it hard to believe how much success can be had for so little effort.

Since virtually every nation is suffering from the problems caused by the fast deteriorating behavior of their youth, problems such as drugs, crime, violence, sexual immorality, a general lack of positive values, declining motivation, and a feeling of hopelessness for their future, we have begun by providing parents and teachers with a very simple method to help them raise children of excellent character who can succeed academically, socially, and professionally in today’s world without losing their traditional Islamic beliefs and practices.

I give you my guarantee that if you try these simple, easy to learn techniques you cannot fail to see positive changes in your children. This, for a successful beginning, is all you need do:

• Find several different ways each day to remind your child that they are Khalifah of Allah.
• Take the opportunity, a number of times each day, to give positive attention (warm praise) to your child for any good things they do or good characteristics they show.
• Set firm, reasonable rules for your child, make sure your child understands those rules, and enforce those rules consistently with ‘kind’ discipline (this means without harshness).

To better understand how to use these simple techniques effectively please read these suggested papers: