What does 'teaching religion' mean

I posted at nisaa today, so those of you who are religiously-inclined can join the discussion

Thoughts from Achelois

Salaam Shazia,

You may have noticed that I tried to comment on <span class="caps">NISAA</span> but it didn’t come through. Basically, I agree with a lot of things you say here. You have written a beautifully thought-out post, bravo and thank you!

One more reason I’d like to add (and which I use when I discuss home-schooling with Muslim mums) is that most parents are first generation immigrants to the English speaking west. No matter how much they may say otherwise, the general native population does not ‘readily’ accept the immigrated population as ‘the people’ of the country especially the Muslims because we have our own religious reservations. For example, Bharati Mukerjee very nicely explains that while US is the melting pot, Canada is a mosaic and by being tolerant of several communities/cultures/peoples and by being a mosaic it very firmly negates the melting pot approach. In a mosaic each tile is an individual tile and although all tiles together make the mosaic, they can never be one body. My point is growing up in such cultures and especially in difficult times, Muslims need to socialize more with other people and try to be citizens and not only Muslims. True that young age is great for memorization, but if a young child spends several hours memorizing a large book, how does he get the time to socialize? My son is four and he needs to eat and sleep as well. He still takes an afternoon nap. He loves football and he adores his friends. More importantly he can’t even pronounce words correctly especially in Arabic.

I know a lovely family and their two boys have memorised the Quran but they started at age ten. One is a lawyer in Canada and the other works in MIT!

Thoughts from shaz

cakes, your kids would grow up to be really inspirational men and women - it’s completely obvious that you and your hubby teach them so much about humanity.

suroor, I do agree with you, but I love the mosaic that is Canada, I think we are stronger because we keep our individuality. But, there are those that decided that they don’t want to do anything that is not from their culture, and that’s when the problems arise.

It’s funny, today mousehunter and I were talking about a mosque close by and I said there would be no point in me going there because it’s only pakistanis and indians, and they do not ever speak english! Sadly, it has happened to me many times - on seeing me they assume I am Pakistani, so they start speaking to me, then when I tell them that I only understand english, they dismiss me, like I no longer matter!!

I know I just went off topic, but my point is that I agree that sometimes immigrants forget when they are living!

Thoughts from Cakes

I’m not sure where to post my comment, so I’ll post here respectfully and you can add it if it seems appropriate.

I agree so much with what you are saying.  My main goal right now, at my children’s ages of 4 and 3 yrs, is to help them feel God’s love for them.  The world is so big and can be quite unsettling to them, I want them first and foremost to know that God knows the number of hairs on their heads because they are that precious to him.

They already have such faith and love for God even at their young age.  Their understanding of God’s mysteries and their connection to the world is so awe-inspiring to observe.  There is nothing between them and God at this point. 

My biggest fear is getting in the middle of that relationship and messing it up with my “adultness” Jesus tells us in the bible, that we must become like little children to get into heaven, not little children must become like grown-ups. So, while we read scripture everyday and memorize psalms, and talk about the ways God wants us to live our lives, I try to keep my intervention minimal and just lead them to the water. Then later, we can become more formal in our teachings.

Jeez, Cakes, why don’t you just go write your blog entry.

Thoughts from Maliha

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.

Thoughts from shaz

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! smile

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!