What to teach my child!!!???
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I am a new mom, recently had a baby girl in April, which is part of what led me here. It's really gotten me to thinking how do you teach children about religion? I did not grow up in a Muslim home, my folks were (and still are) very liberal Christians. I was never really taught religion, we were taught to believe in God and I was Baptised when I was a kid (I remember asking my mom about why and she told me it was like car insurance, just in case anything happened...)
I suppose the best way is to lead by example, which of course I will try to do, but the reality is that in the grand scheme of things my daughter will probably spend more time out of the house than home with me and my husband. Where I live there is really a movement that looking like a Muslim determines how religious you are, and especially since I had a daughter, the conversation always seems to end up being about when/if she'll wear hijab! My husband and I are really concerned with making sure that she has the Muslim character and that you can tell she is a believer from her actions and how she treats people. Why does this seem to come secondary when you are raising Muslim girls...well maybr its just the people I'm hanging around, lol.
Anyway I digress, what I am really questioning is for those of you who have children or know children or have spent time with children, how and when do you introduce them to the religion. Most people (sunnis) I know would translate that into teaching them 'things' (how to pray, teaching them surahs etc.) but teaching 'spirituality' is sort of abstract thought for children. Is this making any sense? I hope so...
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I have thought about many of the same things. It was much worse when my husband was a believer and I was still Mormon. I recently came to god alone, and that has made things much easier. I have not had any children yet, but I plan to start introducing our belief system from birth. As a baby, I will start reading them the Quran. As a young child I will start teaching them about the spirituality parts. I will have discussions with them; such as, having an open-ended question that I would ask them and have them tell me how they feel about it. And I will constantly instill good morals and a belief the Allah. I feel that even if they just practice the good morals and have a belief in one god, then I have succeeded.
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Dear Jippy...First of all many congratulations on your new baby. May she bring lots of happiness to your family.
You are fortunate that your husband and you think on the same lines...thats half your battle won.
Just my small experience which may or may not help you.
I myself converted to Islam upon marriage and well several years later I questioned it and discovered the true islam....which is now causing conflicts with what my husband wants me to believe. Also, my own family cannot help me out in this spiritual matter.
My daughter is terribly confused, but since I discovered like-minded web-sites and people, I have been able to explain things very logically to her and she is so much at peace.
I have tried to explain that basically all Gods commandements are directed towards making us all better human beings. She is fasting and she told me an incident in school where one of the girls was looking in a book at a picture of a chocolate cake. Another girl commented "If you look at food while you are fasting, you get more blessings" So the first girl kept her eye glued to the picture "to receive more blessings"!! When she related that to me, I told her "Well have you done anything to make you a better human being by looking at the picture of chocoalte cake?" She said "No" So I told her "Then how are you going to recieve blessings just by looking at the picture?" This appeals to her logic...and later on when she was helping me make some dinner, I joked with her "See you are looking at and smelling and touching food. You will get soooo many blessings!" Yes she got the wit and laughed with me.
Thing is you cannot plan for all the scenarios. Take it as it comes. The answers come to you when it is time.
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Setting example for the kid is the most important thing a parent should do. This comes from personal experience. When I was little my father used to give countless good advices which he did not practice himself. As a result, me and my sister paid little attention to what came out of his mouth.
