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The Islamic Basis of Society

        child sleeps and eats largely when and how it wants to, but is
        constantly in bodily contact with or at least under the eyes of some
        adult or older child. The child is told many limes during the course of
        the day that it should be rajul (a man) or hurmcih (woman) and
        visitors admire a child by saying masha’allah sar riyyal (by God he
        became a man) even to a toddler. In this way the children become
        motivated to live up to this expectation, and a previously quite
        unruly child under this influence suddenly, within the span of a few
        weeks, turns into a well behaved boy who accompanies his father
        silting in a majlis, or into a demure little girl who could be entrusted
        with the care of a younger child; though left on their own they are as
        boisterous and mischievous as any other children. These children are
        taught to behave like little adults; as they grow older they participate
        more and more in the duties performed by the elder members of the
        family, until in their early teens they are expected to accept the
        responsibilities of adult life, including marriage.
          Because the growing child is involved in the duties and the
        activities of the adults in the family, the values of the adults are
        instilled in the child; it learns by example how to master the very
        same duties and to conduct its life in the same fashion as the adults.
        A family of devout Muslims could thus not fail to bring forth a new
        generation of Muslims, even though very little formal instruction may
        be involved. Observing the adults perform the salat (prayers),
        listening to the frequent invocations of God, hearing stories about
        Muhammad, his followers, and exemplary Muslims, and witnessing
        the giving of alms to the poor and of money to the mosques, the
        children grow up to be practising Muslims themselves before
        questioning Islamic tenets intellectually. Thus Islam in this society
        has hardly ever been a formidable array of doctrines and theological
        interpretations such as had to be absorbed by young people who
        become believing and practising Christians.
        Formal Education
        In earlier days most families required the help of the growing
        children in the household, in the date gardens, on the fishing boats
        and with the domestic animals, and few would have been able to
         afford to pay for formal education. Some families did, however,
        consider it to be important that one should be able to read the Koran,
         and therefore they sent their children to learn reading and writing
         and reciting the Koran. A mu(awwa\ or even a qadi, gathered a

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