Recordings › Monday Nights with Mufti #199 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth · 26 Jan 2021 › Segment 8 of 36
At what age should children start learning about Islam, and what should they learn?
salat salaah namaz salaat namaaz as-salah al-salah salawat muftis koran quraan al-quranWhen should children's religious education begin, and what should it include?
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This segment36:00 to 39:55 · 3 min 55 sGeneral teaching
The answer in brief
machinesummary, machine-writtenKeep early religious education basic and natural, such as reading the Quran, the prayer and the stories of the prophets, with deeper study when children are older; he admits it depends on the child.
In more detail
Asked when religious education should begin and what a good Islamic education programme for children should include, Mufti Abu Layth says he does not know whether his answer would work in practice. He thinks it is fine for young children to grow up with a general identity and affiliation to Islam, learning to read the Quran and recite the prayer, at home or in a class, along with basics such as the five pillars and the stories of the prophets. He doubts the value of making young children memorise advanced material such as Arabic when it is not meaningful to them and is retained only out of fear, and suggests deeper teaching about Islam when they are older. He says it is a difficult question, since outcomes differ and children are individuals with their own personalities and circumstances.
Question as read aloud · questioner not identifiedWhat is your view on religious education: when should it begin, what should the curriculum focus on, and what should a good Islamic education programme for children include?
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says that, as far as he can tell, it is fine for young children to learn only the basics, such as reading the Quran, the prayer and the stories of the prophets, with deeper teaching when they are older, while admitting he is unsure and that it depends on the child.
“when they get a bit older then maybe teaching them things about islam and a more deeper insight that's what i'm thinking”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
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themselves ex-muslim it's a you know and they were saying well because the truth is an x never speaks well of you yeah because that you see the irony is you're still trapped in the thing by being an ex-muslim you're kind of the name says it all you're still trapped until you don't give that up multi what is your view on religious education when should it begin age what should be the curriculum focus
what should be included in good islamic education program especially for children turn and talk podcast you do in it turn and talk you do and uh let me know about your podcast as well reach out to me and let's chat if it's interesting and i don't know what the kind of things you discuss but maybe we could take it to mindtrap so uh that's a very good question religious education when should it begin you see these things i don't know if i have the answer i could have an answer
but i honestly won't know if it works well because i you see to me i feel that it's okay bringing children up with just a general kind of like they have that identity affiliation to islam they know basic things um you know they may hear them from you they may hear them from where they you know go to class as a kid or you know whether it's at home or at the is
you know like quran school or wherever they but i i don't feel that you need to yeah of course you teach them how to read the quran i think that's important you teach them how to recite salah let them whether you do it at home or whether they go to a class and learn it but how to re you know read the salah and things like this but this is basic stuff and basic knowledge you know you'll learn the the primitive version there's five pillars of islam this is you know story of these prophets this is this
and that's to me i think that's kind of fine it depends you know like on the environment some people they um may be able to teach their kids an advanced amount of i don't know like let's say arabic and all kinds of things i mean i don't know whether it would one i do think that's hard as well if you're not um speaking arabic all the time so or not speaking arabic so it's hard for kids to but kids can pick it up if you try if you're strict with them they can
but then i'm not sure what whether they would retain that because how how meaningful is it to them in their lives it's it's obviously not meaningful they just see as you know i'm doing it because i'm going to get in trouble if i don't do it so they memorize something and then they just three years later will they still know it so to me i think it's okay just leaving it kind of very natural stroke casual except certain things are taught and they can practice like salah and how to recite the quran reading it and things like that
fine and i think you know stories and that are just casual stuff that they but when they get a bit older then maybe teaching them things about islam and a more deeper insight that's what i'm thinking but i see once again i don't know like somebody could say well you know they did that and it was a disaster and somebody could say well you know they did it and it was a great success and it does depend on the children as well because the people you're speaking about are individuals with individual personality and context and circumstances and you know so there's so much in this kind
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Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2021-01-26b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/s/8/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2021, January 26). At what age should children start learning about Islam, and what should they learn? [Video, segment 2021-01-26b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/s/8/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2021. "At what age should children start learning about Islam, and what should they learn?" Video, segment 2021-01-26b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded January 26, 2021. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/s/8/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2021-01-26b-S08, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{At what age should children start learning about Islam, and what should they learn?}}, year = {2021}, month = {1}, date = {2021-01-26}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/s/8/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/s/8/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2021-01-26b-S08, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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