Imam al-Ghazali, the renowned 11th-century scholar of the outward and inward Islamic sciences, was known by his contemporaries as Hujjat al-Islam, the living proof of the religion itself, and then as al-Mujaddid, or the reviver of the religion in his century. Two centuries after him, Imam al-Nawawi famously said of al-Ghazali’s great work, “If all of the books of Islam were to be lost, except only for the Ihya, it would suffice to replace them all.” His legacy has not faltered since. The Ihya `Ulum al-Din comprises 40 books on a vast range of topics. From the personal obligations of knowledge, faith and ritual jurisprudence to the social teachings of marriage and career; from warnings of vice to encouragements of virtue – the Muslim will find in it what he needs in his journey through this life.
Given this, it is not surprising that Imam al-Ghazali includes a concise set of instructions on how to raise young children. He places the discussion in the Book of Training the Self, and the section’s full title elucidates the topics [1] covered within: how to train young children (riyada), educate them (ta’dib) and refine their character (tahsin al-akhlaq). The title further points to, from the outset, that there are authorities – parents, guardians and teachers – who are responsible for caring for the child, capable of instruction and decision-making, and desirous of the best for the child. In other words, this is not an educational philosophy that has the child, who is not yet grown into the full and amazing ability of his intellect and spirit, running the show.
By beginning his discussion with the assertion that children are precious, uncut jewels, Imam al-Ghazali reminds us that children are among the most beautiful of Allah’s blessings and that they are a trust from Him. Caring for them properly is something that we will be held accountable for. Al-Ghazali’s perspective is clearly one of ultimate mercy toward the child – his upbringing must be done well, because his salvation depends heavily upon a solid upbringing and the habits instilled in him. The Prophetic warning, “He does not belong to us who does not have mercy on our young and know the honor due to our elder,” is seen throughout al-Ghazali’s instruction. Thoughtful reminders such as not disgracing the child publicly when he errs, but rewarding and admiring his good behavior, as well as balancing his studies with sufficient play, are juxtaposed with an unequivocal expectation of respect from the child to his elder, such as behaving demurely in the presence of elders and calmly bearing their anger or punishment.
Al-Ghazali’s way is that of placing the final abode of the Akhira as the goal. When the reader keeps this in mind, advice that may seem irrelevant or unnatural to the modern context is transformed to the relevant and desirable. For example, Imam al-Ghazali advises to, at times, feed the child nothing other than bread and to teach the preference of coarse varieties of food. If we feel taken aback at this or find such restriction harsh or counterproductive, we look to the end-goals of the advice. Imam al-Ghazali describes his aims as checking the vice of excess eating, of teaching the preference of nicer foods for others instead of for oneself, and distinguishing the self-restraining human from the insatiable beast. The end goal is that the human is not preoccupied with food; instead, he is mindful of Allah the Great and the honor bestowed on him by Allah. He too could have been created as a lowly beast, but instead Allah chose him to have the honorable position of the human being who can know and love Allah in a way different from all the rest of creation, and this awareness necessitates humility toward others and His Lord. If we find ourselves in a context in which accustoming a child to simply bread does not achieve this end, then we can search for similar manners and foods that do reach this goal.
A major theme throughout al-Ghazali’s advice is haya’, or shyness and modesty. (The translator of the excerpt below has chosen the word shame.) The well-known hadith teaches us that the quality of having haya’ is a part of faith, that it can bring forth only good, and that when it is missing, faith is missing. Even more, it is a quality of Allah Himself as seen in two ways: Allah covers the faults of His servants, and He dislikes to turn away the supplicating servant empty-handed. For Imam al-Ghazali, the innate sense of haya’ in a child is a key turning point in his maturity and a tool by which all good character traits can be reached. When a child develops his sense of haya’, it is a sign of the development of his intellect. This is because the intellect is much more than test scores; it is that which restrains from excesses and vices as it guides. Therefore, the sense of haya’ should be nurtured, rather than neglected with abandon in favor of attitudes of entitlement and specialness.
According to our scholars, the Prophetic words “if you do not have haya’, do as you please,” is either a declarative sentence to show the definition and function of haya’, or it is a warning for those who do not have any haya’ to check their actions (i.e. they may do as they please, and then see what ensues from their actions). The hadith also explains that haya’ is from the earliest prophetic teachings to mankind, indicating that it is an essential part of being human. Muslims have long understood the value of haya’ from these Prophetic words. However, haya’ is lost in the majority of modern education and culture, and has only been rediscovered, by some, after witnessing the collapse of parent-child relationships and the lack of basic concern for others that children have to exhibit. In the Collapse of Parenting, psychologist and physician Leonard Sax declares that humility, cognate with haya’, “has become the most un-American of virtues.” Sax sees that children are now taught to be so self-assured and confident that they think themselves the best. This results in dissatisfaction in life and disappointment when they reach adulthood and find that reality is actually different. Sax believes that teaching humility is the first solution in fixing the problems that we see in our children today.
A final noteworthy feature of Imam al-Ghazali’s teachings is that they focus on the training and upbringing of boys. More specifically, he is addressing men on how to raise their boys. There could be a number of reasons for this, and much of the advice could be applicable to both parents of both boys and girls, but Imam al-Ghazali’s approach is useful for us as moderns because it illustrates two matters. First, gender-specificity in education and child rearing is needed because each gender has its own methods, rules, and end-goals that are appropriate for them, though it is no longer common or socially correct to point out this difference. Second, the highest level of responsibility over the family, including that of raising the children, belongs to the man of the household, as can be seen in the hadith, “Certainly every one of you is a shepherd, and each is responsible for his flock. The leader is a guardian, and he is responsible for the people. The man is a guardian of his family, and he is responsible for them. A woman is the guardian of her husband’s home and his children and she is responsible for them…” Women are often tasked with the majority of child-rearing, but al-Ghazali’s directives to a male audience, on raising the next generation of male leaders of the family, fills a needed hole in modern norms and education.
Scott Galloway, the well-known marketing professor and author, has studied the history of how the ship of America is currently “floundering in a sea of … corruption, and selfishness.” He writes in Adrift that our future is in the hands of a generation who are “failing to form relationships, and our brightest seek individual glory at the expense of the commonwealth.” Galloway identifies one of the weaknesses in the foundation of the nation as the current situation with men. He writes that parents have lower educational expectations for boys than for girls and warns that a “large and growing cohort of bored, lonely, poorly educated men is a malevolent force in any society, but it’s a truly terrifying one in a society addicted to social media and awash in coarseness and guns.” Al-Ghazali’s admonitions are a series of measures that are to be applied over a key period in a child’s life. These measures are needed for the successful enculturation of our youth into a society of believers with outward moral uprightness, inner spiritual soundness, and genuine compassion for their brethren.
Imam al-Ghazali ends this chapter with an exemplar of our ummah, for children to model and for parents to work toward raising the likes of. Sahl ibn ‘Abdallah al-Tustari, may Allah have mercy on him, was unique in that he turned to Allah at an age as young as when our children may still be running around in diapers and did not waver in his dedication from that time onward. He is a superhero to encourage and inspire our children but not with unattainable qualities. Rather, his story is one in which one turns to Allah and Allah turns to him: when one takes steps toward Allah, He comes to him with speed. Of al-Tustari’s many teachings is the following; it mirrors al-Ghazali’s comprehensive teachings in the Ihya.
قَالَ سهل أصولنا سَبْعَة أَشْيَاء التَّمَسُّك بِكِتَاب الله تَعَالَى والاقتداء بِسنة رَسُوله صلى الله عَلَيْهِ وَسلم وَأكل الْحَلَال وكف الْأَذَى وَاجْتنَاب الآثام وَالتَّوْبَة وَأَدَاء الْحُقُوق
“Our principles are seven matters: Holding fast to the book of Allah, carefully following the way of His Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, eating halal, holding back from harm, shunning sinful actions, repenting, and fulfilling rights.”
When a child has been brought up with Imam al-Ghazali’s approach – that is, with the conviction that they are from Allah, belong to Him, and will return to Him – then Imam Sahl’s principles for their life journey fall easily into place, with Allah’s will. This is because, by Allah’s grace and through the sincere effort of their parents, the foundations for true success had been established through the way they were raised as children. May Allah bless us to follow the advice of these models of the Prophetic way.
ON THE RAISING OF CHILDREN
(From the Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din of Imam al-Ghazali) [2]
An exposition of the way in which young children should be disciplined, and the manner of their upbringing and the improvement of their character.
Know that the way in which young children are disciplined is one of the most important of all matters. A child is a trust in the care of his parents, for his pure heart is a precious uncut jewel devoid of any form or carving, which will accept being cut into any shape, and will be disposed according to the guidance it receives from others. If it is habituated to and instructed in goodness then this will be its practice when it grows up, and it will attain to felicity in this world and the next; its parents too, and all its teachers and preceptors, will share in its reward. Similarly, should it be habituated to evil and neglected as though it were an animal, then misery and perdition will be its lot, and the responsibility for this will be borne by its guardian and supervisor. For God (Exalted is He!) has said, Ward off from yourselves and your families a Fire. A father may strive to protect his son from fire in this world, but yet it is of far greater urgency that he protects him from the fires which exist in the Afterlife. This he should do by giving him discipline, teaching him and refining his character, by preserving him from bad company, and by not suffering him to acquire the custom of self‑indulgence, or to love finery and luxury, in the quest for which he might well squander his life when older and thus perish forever. Rather should he watch over him diligently from his earliest days, and permit none but a woman of virtue and religion to nurse and raise him; her diet should be of permitted things; for there is no blessing (baraka) in milk which originates in forbidden food, which, should a child be nourished on it, will knead his native disposition in such a way as to incline his temperament to wrongdoing.
When the signs of discretion appear in him he should again be watched over carefully. The first of these is the rudiments of shame, for when he begins to feel diffident and is ashamed of certain things so that he abandons them, the light of the intellect has dawned in him, whereby he sees that certain things are ugly, and different from others, and begins to be ashamed of some things and not others. This is a gift to him from God (Exalted is He!) and a good foretoken that his traits will be balanced, his heart pure, and his intellect sound when he enters upon adulthood.
The child who has developed the capacity for shame should never be neglected; rather this and his discretion should be used as aids in his education. The first trait to take control of him will be greed for food; he is to be disciplined in this regard, so that, for instance, he picks up food only with his right hand, says ‘In the name of God’ when raising it, eats from that which is nearest to him, and does not start eating before others. He should not stare at his food or at the other people present, neither should he bolt it, but should chew it properly instead; he should not eat one mouthful after another without pause, he should not get food on his hand or his clothes, and he should acquire the habit of sometimes eating nothing but bread so that he does not think that the presence of other kinds of food is inevitable. He should be made to dislike eating large quantities by being told that this is the practice of animals, and by seeing other children reproached for overeating or praised for being well‑mannered and moderate. He should be made to enjoy giving the best food to others, and encouraged to pay little heed to what he eats and to be contented with its coarser varieties.
He should be encouraged to like white rather than colored or silk garments, and made firmly to believe that these latter are proper to women and to effeminate men, and that (true) men disdain them. This should be repeatedly emphasized to him so that he dislikes and criticizes the wearing by any child he sees of silken or colored clothes. He should be protected from children who are accustomed to luxury and comfort, and to wearing expensive garments, and from mixing with all who would speak to him of such things and thereby make them seem fine in his eyes. For the child who is neglected in the early years of his growth will usually grow up to be ill‑natured, dishonest, envious, obstinate, inclined to theft, backbiting, and excessive chatter and laughter, and slyness and immorality, from all of which things he can be protected through a sound upbringing.
Next he should be busy at school learning the Qur’an, the Traditions, and tales of devout men, so that love for the righteous takes root in his heart. He should be preserved from those varieties of poetry which treat of lovers and passion, and from the company of such men of letters as claim that these things are part of an elegant and sophisticated nature, for this would implant the seeds of corruption in his heart. Whenever a good trait or action manifests itself in the child he should be admired and rewarded with something which gives him joy, and should be praised in front of others; likewise, when once in a while he does something bad it is best to pretend not to notice and not to bring it to the attention of others (but never to reveal to him that it is something which others might be bold enough to do,) particularly if the child himself has diligently endeavored to hide his action, for the exposure of such deeds may cause him to grow emboldened, until he no longer cares when they are made public. Should he repeat the action, he should be privately reproached and made to feel that it was a very serious thing, and be told, ‘Beware of doing anything like this again, or I shall tell others and you will be disgraced in front of them.’ He should not be spoken to at length every time, for this would accustom him to being blamed for his misdeeds, and destroy the effectiveness such words have upon his heart. A father should rather preserve the awe in which the child holds his speech by reproaching him only sometimes; similarly the mother, when reproving him, should frighten him by (threatening to mention the matter to) his father. He should not be permitted to sleep by day, for this conduces to laziness, and should always be allowed to sleep at night, but not on a soft bed, which would prevent his members from growing tough. His body should not be allowed to grow fat, for this would make it hard for him to renounce self‑indulgence; instead he should be habituated to tough bedding, clothing and food.
He should also be prevented from doing anything secretly, for he will conceal things only when he believes them to be ugly, and if he is left to continue these practices he will grow used to doing ugly things. He should acquire the habit of walking, moving about and taking exercise for part of the day so that he is not governed by idleness, and should be taught not to uncover his limbs or walk fast, and not to dangle his arms but to keep them close to his trunk. He must be forbidden to boast to his fellows about any of his parents’ possessions, whether these be money or property, or about anything he eats or wears, or about his tablet and pencase, and should become used to being modest, generous and mild in his speech to all with whom he associates. He should be prevented from accepting anything from other boys if he is from a wealthy and powerful family, and be taught that it is honorable to give, and base and blameworthy to take; while if his parents are poor he should be taught that greed and taking from others is a disgraceful and humiliating practice fit only for dogs, which wag their tails hoping for a morsel.
Children should always be made to deem the love of gold and silver an unsightly thing, and should be warned in this regard even more vigorously than they are warned about snakes and scorpions, for the vice which consists in such a love is more dangerous to them (and to adults also) than poison.
A child should be put in the practice of not spitting, yawning or wiping his nose in the presence of others, and taught not to turn his back to anyone, or to cross his legs, or lean his chin and support his head on his hand, for these practices indicate the presence of laziness. He should be taught how to sit, and forbidden to speak excessively, it being explained to him that this is a sign of impudence and the custom of children from low families. Making oaths of any sort, whether true or false, should be forbidden him, so that he never acquires this habit as a child. He should be put in the habit of never speaking before anyone else, and of speaking only in response to questions and in proportion to them, and of listening properly whenever an older person is speaking, and rising (when he enters), and making a place for him and sitting facing him. He should be forbidden to speak loosely, or to curse or insult anyone, or to mingle with those who do such things, for these habits will inevitably be acquired should he fall in with bad company, the preservation from which is the very root and foundation of the education of children. If his teacher strikes him he should not cry out and sob, or seek anyone’s intercession, but should rather bear his punishment, and be told that to do so is a mark of courage and manhood, while to cry is the practice of slaves and women.
After school, he should be allowed to play in a fashion which gives him some rest after his hard work in class, but should not be allowed to grow exhausted. To prevent a child from playing, and to fatigue him with constant lessons will cause his heart to die and harm his intelligence, and make life so hateful to him that he will cast around for some means of escape.
He should be taught to obey his parents and his teachers, and all people who are older than himself whether relations or not, and to look upon them with respect and admiration, and not to play in their presence. As he reaches the age of discretion he should not be excused the ritual ablutions and the Prayer, and should be told to fast for a few days during Ramadan, and should be prevented from wearing gold, silk or embroidered clothes. He should be taught about the limits laid down by the Law, and put in fear of theft and unlawful gain, and also of lying, treachery, deceit, and all the other traits that tend to predominate among children. If he is brought up in this way, then as he approaches adulthood he will come to understand the reasons which underlay these things, and will be told that food is a means of maintaining health, and that its sole purpose is to enable man to gain strength for the worship of God (Great and Glorious is He!) and that this world is without reality, since it will not endure, and that death must bring its pleasures to an end, and that it is a place through which we pass but in which we cannot abide, unlike the Afterlife, in which we must abide and through which we cannot pass, for death awaits us at every moment, and that therefore the intelligent and insightful man will lay up provisions in this world for his journey into the next so as to gain a high degree in the sight of God and abundant bliss in the Gardens of Heaven. If his upbringing was sound, then when he attains to maturity these ideas will have a powerful and wholesome effect which will leave an impression on his heart like an inscription on stone; had it been otherwise, so that the child had grown accustomed to play, boastfulness, rudeness and insolence, and greed for food, clothes and finery, his heart will shrink from accepting truth in the manner of a field whose harvest withers because of its dry soil.
It is the beginning which should be supervised carefully, for a child is a creature the essence of which is receptive to both good and evil: it is only its parents which cause it to be disposed to one or the other. As the Prophet said, ‘Every child is born with the sound natural disposition (fitra,) it is only his parents who make of him a Jew, a Christian or a Zoroastrian.’
Sahl ibn ‘Abd Allah al‑Tustari said, “When I was (only) three years old, I used to say the midnight prayer, having watched my maternal uncle Muhammad ibn Sawwar doing this. One day he said to me, ‘Do you not remember God, your Creator?’ and I asked, ‘How should I remember Him?’ ‘Say in your heart when you put on your bed‑clothes, three times and without moving your tongue, ‘God is with me. God beholds me. God watches over me.’ This I did for several nights, and told him what I had done. Then he instructed me to say the same words seven times each night, which I did, and then eleven times, upon which I felt a sweetness growing in my heart. When a year had passed, my uncle said to me, ‘Keep doing what I have told you until you enter your grave, for it will help you in this world and the next.’ I continued to do it for several years, finding a sweetness within myself until my uncle said. ‘Sahl! If God is with somebody, and beholds him and watches over him, can he then disobey Him? You should never do so.’”
“Now, it was a habit of mine to keep my own company, and when they sent me to school I said, ‘I am afraid that my concentration will be lost. But they made it a condition upon the schoolmaster that I should be with him and learn for a certain period each day, and would then come back home. And so I went to school, where I memorized the Qur’an by the time I was six or seven years old. It was my practice to fast every day, my only nourishment for twelve years being from barley‑bread. When I was thirteen I came across a question (which I could not answer,) and asked my family to send me to Basra to search for the answer to it there. When I arrived, I asked the scholars of the city regarding it, but not one of them was able to provide me with a satisfactory response. I journeyed therefore to Abbadan, where I met a man named Abu Habib Hamza ibn Abi Abd Allah al‑Abbadani, who was able to answer my question. I then stayed with him for a while, benefiting from his discourse and taking on some of his good manners, and then went back to Tustar. Now I restricted myself in the matter of food to buying for one dirham a measure of barley, which I would cause to be ground and baked, and of which I would eat one ounce (uqiya) before dawn, without any salt or other food, so that one dirham sufficed me for a whole year. Then I resolved to fast for three days at a stretch, and then break my fast; and then for five days, and then seven, and at last twenty‑five days. This I did for twenty years. Then I went out, and wandered in the earth for several more years, and then returned to Tustar, where I prayed all night for as long as God willed.’ Ahmad remarked, “ I never saw him eat salt until he went to meet his Lord.’”
[1] بيان الطريق في رياضة الصبيان في أول النشوء ووجه تأديبهم وتحسين أخلاقهم.
[2] This excerpt is from Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din, (The Third Quarter on Things That Destroy (Rub‘ al-Muhlikat); Book of Training the Self, Beautifying Character, and Curing the Diseases of the Heart; Exposition on the Way of Training Children in the Beginning of Childhood, the Manner of Their Education, and Refining Their Character. Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid, Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din. Jeddah: Dar al-Minhaj, 2011, vol. 5, p. 254-262). This excellent translation of the excerpt is taken with kind permission from the Jerrahi Order of America (see: https://jerrahi.org/articles/imam_al_ghazali_education). Note from the translators at the Jerrahi Order: “The passage which we offer here is—to the best of our knowledge—the only rendering in a European language of bayan 10 of the Book 22 of al-Ghazali’s greatest work, the Revival of the Religious Sciences (Ihya’ ‘ulum al’din). The whole Ihya’ is a didactic work, a vast sermon on the worthlessness of this world and the necessity of deepening the externals of religion by means of Sufism. But while many sections of the Ihya’ are given over to examining the training (tarbiya) of mystical aspirants, only one substantial passage treats of the upbringing of children.”