Educational Environment and Training Factors for Children: An Analytical Study in the Light of Islamic Principles

بچوں کے لیے تعلیمی ماحول اور تربیتی عوامل :  اسلامی اصولوں کی روشنی میں تجزیاتی مطالعہ

Abstract

Education remains a cornerstone of human development across eras, with the learning-teaching continuum spanning from birth to death. Formal education necessitates foundational elements—learner, teacher, learning, society, teaching, and curriculum—any absence of which renders the process incomplete. The core objective is to nurture children’s potentials, interests, and inclinations, transforming them into productive societal contributors, thereby sustaining social equilibrium through effective teacher-led training. This analytical study, rooted in Islamic principles, Quranic injunctions, and Prophetic traditions, examines critical factors for optimal child training in contemporary educational settings. It underscores ignorance as darkness and knowledge as light, advocating parental adornment of children with beneficial worldly and hereafter-oriented knowledge. Revelation’s initiation with “Iqra” (Read) highlights knowledge’s primacy, with all sciences tracing Quranic origins. Parents and educators must foster spiritual, intellectual, physical, individual, familial, social, and moral growth, aligning with the child’s innate fitrah (Islamic disposition). Educational goals encompass divine proximity, faith fortification, ideological resilience, skill enhancement, and character refinement. Responsibilities of parents (first educators) and institutions are delineated, alongside balanced religious (madaris) and secular curricula. Teachers’ pivotal role demands diligence, ethical modeling, and adaptive pedagogy, eschewing corporal punishment for compassionate guidance. Integration of modernity—technology, sciences—while preserving Islamic ethos is imperative. Etiquettes of knowledge-seeking emphasize intention, respect, patience, and dissemination. In Pakistan’s context, amid technological influx and cultural shifts, Islamic training ensures balanced personalities obedient to Allah, societally beneficial, and hereafter-successful, countering vices through enlightened upbringing.