Page 180 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

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

155