Page 179 - UAE Truncal States
P. 179

Chapter Four


                 why things were the way they were and why most people did things
                 in a certain manner. The daily routine of people of this  area was
                 abundant in manifestations of a universal deeply felt identification
                 with the spirit of Islam. The humble manner in which people
                 accepted even the most grievous afflictions and the many invocations
                 of God throughout the day, before and after meals, before climbing
                 into a vehicle, when promising or planning anything: these were not
                 mere words but were often really meant.
                   Several years ago a European couple visited the family of a beduin
                 with whom they had made good friends in his encampment in the
                 desert. They found that their only girl was very ill and loo weak to be
                 transported to a doctor. The mother was quite beside herself,
                 worrying, consulting people, crying and praying. When the couple
                 returned to the encampment several weeks later and enquired about
                 the health of the daughter, the mother answered with a smiling face
                 that she was well; asking to see the child, the couple were told by the
                 composed and serene woman that it had been God’s wish that she
                 should die, “Thanks be to God”.
                   In the traditional society of this area it was not difficult to observe
                 that Islam not only moulded the patterns of social behaviour and the
                 many conventions of the daily life, but also permeated people’s
                 minds, behaviour, thoughts and desires in such a way as to make it
                 appear that they were born natural believers. Compared to the
                 western way of separating things religious from things secular, and
                 of making religion a subject of speculation, the spirit of Islam was
                 totally intertwined with the traditions of this tribal society. Thus
                 everything concerning the family’s domestic structure, its functions
                 within the community and all its daily routine were part of man’s
                 very existence as a Muslim.

                 Education

                 Within the family
                 In the traditional society of theTrucial States formal education was
                 usually understood as being religious education. In the majority of
                 families the education of children consisted of encouraging them to
                 behave like adults as soon and as well as possible. The mother and
                 other females in the family as well as the older children are very
                 tolerant of young children’s behaviour up to the age of about five,
                 while fathers and other male relations also did not interfere. The

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