Introduction

Works on the Islamic upbringing of children draw on one of the most consistently emphasized themes in the Quran and the Sunnah: the obligation of parents and guardians to nurture their dependents in faith, knowledge, and righteous character. The Quranic injunction to protect oneself and one's family from the Fire (Sūrat al-Taḥrīm, 66:6) has been cited by scholars across every era as the foundational duty of the Muslim parent, and the prophetic traditions on the rights of children, the cultivation of their intellect and piety, and the consequences of neglecting their religious education are numerous and well-attested. Contemporary works in this tradition, including those produced by senior scholars of the Arabian Peninsula such as Shaykh Ṣāliḥ ibn Fawzān al-Fawzān (born 1933 in Qaryat al-Bālā, Saudi Arabia, a member of the Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fatwā and a leading authority in Hanbali fiqh and Salafi theology), address the urgent practical need to ground child-rearing in Islamic principles at a time when secular educational models and global media exert unprecedented influence on the formation of children's beliefs and habits.

A work on bringing up children in Islam characteristically moves through several interconnected stages of the subject. It opens with the theological basis: children are an amānah (trust) from God, and parents will be held accountable for how they discharged their responsibility toward them. It then addresses the earliest stages of a child's life, from the Islamic practices surrounding birth (the adhān in the ear, the ʿaqīqah, the choosing of a righteous name) through the crucial years of early formation when habits of prayer, Quranic recitation, truthfulness, and respect for parents and scholars are most effectively instilled. The work covers the stages of formal Islamic education, the role of the school and the scholar alongside the home, the dangers of environments and companions that corrupt character, and the responsibilities of parents as the child approaches maturity. Particular attention is given to the question of belief: raising children to know the correct ʿaqīdah, to understand the obligations of their deen, and to love God, His Messenger, and the righteous community of Muslims.

Such works serve a vital function in Muslim communities globally. They translate the vast body of classical Islamic guidance on tarbiyah (education and moral formation) into a form accessible to ordinary parents who may lack advanced training in the Islamic sciences. By grounding practical parenting advice in the Quran, the authenticated Sunnah, and the positions of the recognized scholars, they help Muslim parents resist both the extremes of religious negligence and the pitfall of cultural imitation of non-Islamic norms. The influence of such works has been felt in Islamic schools, parenting workshops, and Friday sermon series across the Muslim world, and they are frequently recommended by Islamic educational institutions as foundational reading for those preparing for parenthood.

A reader approaching this type of work should engage it with active reflection on their own household and the specific challenges their children face. The general principles and specific prophetic guidance it conveys are most valuable when applied immediately and consistently, beginning with the simplest acts: the bismillah before a shared meal, the bedtime dhikr, the patient correction of a wrong word or action. It is also recommended to read the cited Quranic verses and hadith in their fuller context, and to supplement the reading with the counsel of a trusted local scholar who understands the reader's community and circumstances. The reader will come away from such a work with a renewed sense of the gravity and the honor of the parental role, and with practical tools for fulfilling it in a manner pleasing to God.