Teaching Religion
Recently I was reading about a 5 year old that has already memorized more than half of the Qur’an. MashAllah! While I do respect this accomplishment and admire his parents for such a remarkable feat, I can’t help but wonder what this 5 year old had to give up.
Now, I am in no way saying that this is a bad thing, or that it should not be given priority, I think that any religious person (regardless of the religion) would love their kid to be in such a position at such a young age. But, I look at my ‘almost 5 year old’ and I think about if he could do it, and I think he likely can, he has already memorized quite a few suras, my question though is if I would want him to do it at his age.
You know what worries me about this situation, kids need to be kids, they need to learn skills to become productive, contributing, understanding members of the community, and a lot of these skills are learnt early in life by playing (and disagreeing) with other kids.
I think it’s also important for kids to learn to see beauty in their world and in people, and to love diversity. They learn this by interaction with people outside of their immediate community.
Creativity and imagination, when allowed to grow and flourish from an early age, can lead to great innovative ideas, great solutions, and great thinkers.
I look at my son, and I know he is a sponge, thirsty for knowledge, waiting to experience everything that life has to offer, and I want him to soak it all in. I am not worried about his love for God, because it is already apparent that it is in him. The way he talks, sings, worries, I know that his little heart is becoming full with love and kindness. Of course I am scared for him as he grows up, scared of the disappointments that he will surely experience, of the hurt, of the injustice that will follow him, but I am hopeful that he will be a teacher, an example of the true meaning of a Muslim.
Sometimes I wonder if living in a non-Muslim society scares us so much that we become extreme (no, not as in ‘extremists’) but as in we either force our kids into all things ‘Muslim’ and nothing else, or we force our kids into all things ‘North American’ and keep that ‘Muslim-thing’ very low key. I try to keep a balance, it’s somewhat easy for me because I have always lived in Trinidad, and grew up pretty ‘westernized’, so I don’t struggle much with the way of life here, but I think that the balance that I grew up with has helped me to ‘integrate’ (as they like to call it) more easily.
Back to the little genius, I hope that he is experiencing all aspects of being a child in addition to his memorizing Qur’an. I hope he is also playing soccer, or baseball, or hockey, I hope that he is enjoying crafts, learning to swim, or just running around in a playground, I hope that his parents are teaching him balance. Because balance is also part of being a Muslim, the prophet Muhammad (saw) did not spend all his days praying, he also spent time playing with kids, earning his living, and building relationships and community with Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
My plan is to keep my sons learning suras until they are about 7 years old inshaAllah, and then start them on a hafiz program, so by then, my hope is that they would understand more about the importance of what they are learning.
This sentiment applies not only to Muslims, but to all God-loving people, I completely agree that instilling faith into children early in their life is good, but we must all remember that values such as tolerance, patience and kindness to all of “God’s creatures”, as my sons like to call all-of-God’s-creatures is also part of teaching faith and religion.
Responses
(from Maliha at http://lightnessofbeing.wordpress.com/ )
Salamaat,
you know it’s interesting shaz, I was just reading the “well trained mind” and one of the most important points she emphasizes is that kids from pre-school to fourth grade have an amazing capacity to absorb and memorize (and they really enjoy it..think how many times you have been bored to tears re-reading the same story to your child.)
The point is that it comes more naturally to them at a young age, then when they are older. Also since their brain is still developing, when they do memorize facts, geography, the Quran, rhymes, poetry etc at a young age, it literally forces the brain to make more connections and neurons and expand.
There’s also a study done about kids who memorize young, grow up more successful in life only because all the “professions” like medicine, law, engineering etc. require a lot of memorization which is much harder to do at an older age, if it wasn’t encouraged at a younger age.
She also mentions that meaning comes later…their brain absorbs at the first stage of life and then decodes more and more as they grow.
All that said, I agree with you there has to be balance. But just because memorization is tough for us adults, and painful, it’s not the same with kids (and they do it at a much much faster rate…) so I would hope the parents allowed the kid to run around and do other things too.
The last part (and sorry I am being long winded, I have been reflecting/reading on this lately)..most muslim scholars had memorized the Quran by age 6 or 7…which made me think of the wisdom of that in retrospect.
What the well trained mind says about creativity at a young age, is yes, kids are sponges but you can’t squeeze a dry sponge. The point is we build the foundation and later on, they are able to express and imagine even better.
I am sorry, I don’t want you to lose your point, balance is key in everything we do.
thanks Maliha, this is true, we do experience things differently from kids. My son does memorize things very fast, and I like the point you are making about there being wisdom in early memorization - gives us something to think about! 
But, I notice that a lot of these parents don’t let their kids be kids, and they are quite segregated from other cultures and religions, so I wonder how they would manage when they grow up.
I think my perspective is a bit different because neither I nor my husband can speak Arabic or have much formal Islamic education - I think for people such as yourself, that can speak Arabic, it’s a natural course of action. What I am trying to say is that even now when my son is trying to memorize, I can’t help him because I don’t know it, so that may be a reason for my reluctance as well.
Mostly I just wanted to stress the importance of balance.
Great points though, thanks!
Next entry: The Story of a Poet and His Comfort Zone
Previous entry: Can unarmed civilians break the siege of Gaza?
