Page 179 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

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 I he 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 too 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 the Trucial 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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