The “flood” of globalisation, with its corrupting and intrusive values, has struck Arab societies—alongside political, social, and economic changes—leading to a glaring escalation in the crisis of upbringing. This has resulted in behavioural deviations, unprecedented family disintegration, and a profound disturbance of the entire social system.
No matter how much we overlook these challenges, we must confront them to raise well-adjusted future generations.
The Relationship Between Education and Upbringing
Upbringing focuses on values, ethics, and building a conscience, while education emphasises abstract knowledge and information. They cannot be separated during childhood.
The Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Qatar oversees the educational system, ensuring it aligns with the country’s National Vision 2030, aiming to “enable Qatari society to achieve sustainable development.” The state makes significant investments in the education sector, allocating over 22 billion riyals from the 2020 budget, which equates to 10.5% of the total budget. This investment aims to meet “the highest standards” while “aligning with Qatari values and culture.” The educational ladder in Qatar is divided into two phases: the first phase runs from kindergarten through grade twelve, followed by higher education.
Examples of Arab Legislation on Education
Each country has an independent legal system governing education and upbringing. These laws and regulations vary from one country to another, depending on the culture, values, and educational standards of each country. Education laws typically include basic standards for compulsory and higher education and the rights of students, teachers, and schools. They also cover curricula, assessment, and evaluation systems, among other education-related issues.
For example, in Qatar, Law No. (25) of 2001 regarding compulsory education states in Article 11: “The person responsible for a child who fails to enrol the child in compulsory education without an acceptable excuse shall be punished with a fine of not less than five thousand riyals and not more than ten thousand riyals. The penalty shall be doubled in its minimum and maximum limits in repeated offences.”
The Qatar News Agency reported that the Legal and Judicial Studies Center at the Ministry of Justice organised legal awareness workshops for members of various schools and academies. These workshops addressed the phenomenon of bullying in different forms on the street, at school, at university, at home, and even in the workplace. The workshops explained the forms of bullying, such as insult, defamation, assault, and threats, defined by the Qatari Penal Code No. (11) of 2004 states that a bully is punishable by imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, a fine not exceeding ten thousand riyals or both. The penalty is imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years if the threat involves killing.
Qatar’s general directives for the scholarship plan for the academic year 2024/2025 focus on four principles: quality, diversity, excellence, and commitment, with an emphasis on improving indicators. The new scholarship policy aligns with the pillars of the national vision and the strategic goals of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education through economic growth, equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion, and talent development.
In Jordan, Article 3 of the Jordanian Education Law in Chapter Two (Philosophy of Education and Its Goals) states: “The philosophy of education in the Kingdom derives from the Jordanian constitution, Arab Islamic civilisation, the principles of the Great Arab Revolt, and the Jordanian national experience. This philosophy is represented in the following foundations: belief in God and the supreme ideals of the Arab nation, the unity and freedom of the Arab nation and its identity in the unified and integrated Arab homeland, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as an Arab state with a parliamentary, hereditary monarchy, and the Jordanian people as part of the Arab nation, the Arab identity of Palestine and all the usurped parts of the Arab homeland, and working to restore them.”
Therefore, it can be said that the objectives of the (educational strategy) at the Arab level, in general, are a crystallisation of a comprehensive Arab philosophy in the academic field. This philosophy resolves the paths of ideas and principles in different directions, which has led to many aspects of divergence and contradiction in the goals and systems of education. It is also a call to link the movement of education and its reform to the movement of national development so that it performs its social and economic functions in a way that serves the goals of modernisation and progress.
External Influences on Education and Upbringing
Regarding the influence of media and the internet on the upbringing of Arab children, a survey highlighted by Al Jazeera Netand conducted by the Qatari Association for Mental Health Friends (We’yak) showed that the media impacts children’s behaviour more than parents and schools. The survey revealed that the media influences children 34%, followed by parents 32%, friends 20%, and schools 14%.
The association also pointed out that media, especially television and specific digital applications on phones and computers, positively and negatively affect children’s lives. These media engage children’s senses, particularly hearing and sight, which help capture their attention.
Some notable adverse effects include presenting ideological and intellectual concepts contrary to natural dispositions, fostering feelings of aggression, violence, and love for crime, and diminishing respect for others’ rights in pursuit of one’s goals.
Media also hinders the development of children’s reflective and creative abilities, contributes to disrupting their daily routines, and leads to irregular sleep and eating patterns, thereby fostering a disregard for time. Additionally, it causes various physical and health issues.
Regarding the adverse impact of extreme poverty on the upbringing of Arab children, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) prayed, as narrated by Abu Huraira in Sahih Abu Dawood: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from hunger, for it is a terrible companion…” Severe hunger makes a person unable to manage their worldly and religious affairs, and it is one of the most distressing reasons that confines them to bed. What if a person lacks food, a bed, or anything and loses their family and relatives, as is the case with the children of Gaza and other Muslim lands?!
According to a series of studies conducted by the Development Research Group of the World Bank on the impact of economic crises, children in poor countries often drop out of education or do not receive healthcare.
Economists who have studied past crises add that this, in turn, places these children in a very disadvantaged position, even long after the crises have passed.
Poor nutrition in children—especially from pregnancy to their second year—will likely result in stunted growth, reduced years of schooling, and lower lifetime earnings.
In an article on BBC Arabic, an online survey conducted with over 8600 members of the National Education Union from across the UK found that 91% of participants said poverty was a factor limiting children’s ability to learn, with about half of that percentage (49%) considering poverty a significant factor in the problem. These percentages rose to 97% and 52%, respectively, among public school teachers.
Roberta Gatti, Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa region at the World Bank, stated on the World Bank’s website in a report on the impact of food price inflation on children in the Middle East and North Africa, “Rates of food insecurity in middle-income and low-income countries in the Arab region are significantly higher than in comparable income countries. Inflation is a major part of the story. Across all four sub-groups of the Middle East and North Africa region—the developing oil-importing countries, developing oil-exporting countries, conflict-affected countries, and GCC countries—between 24% to 32% of the projected food insecurity in 2023 is due to inflation.”
Just as extreme poverty negatively impacts child-rearing, extreme wealth also has adverse effects. Numerous field psychological studies indicate that the wealthy are expected to cheat on their taxes and with their loved ones and show less empathy for others.
A report published by the Washington Post mentioned that the traits discovered in field research among the wealthy are not surprising but frightening. It concluded that money and social status make their owners feel above the law and entitled to treat others as if they do not exist.
The report highlighted that all religions have warned about the corrupting effects of money, wealth, and power.
One might think that only parents are responsible for raising their children. Still, in reality, the family, relatives, school, mosque, club, street, friends, educators, influencers, decision-makers, politicians, policymakers, media, internet, digital devices, technological advancements, social and cultural dominance, imported ideas, curricula, authors, economic crises, disasters, and local and global events all contribute, consciously or unconsciously, with good or bad intentions, to shaping future generations.
Islamic Proper Upbringing
Proper upbringing has become very challenging over the past two decades. We’ve experienced devastating wars, human exterminations, military coups, economic crises, moral collapses, global diseases and pandemics unlike our ancestors, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, droughts, frightening climate changes, increasing poverty, outrageous inflation, and many other challenges.
According to contemporary educational perspectives, if a teacher warns students about frequenting a dubious place that might expose them to particular problems and responds that they cannot do without it, they would be bombarded with accusations of bad manners from all directions.
However, this concept of contemporary education contradicts a similar stance taken by the companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Yet none of them considered it a matter of ill upbringing or bad manners.
In the authentic collection of Abu Dawood, from Abu Saeed Al-Khudri, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “Beware of sitting in the pathways.” They said, “O Messenger of Allah, we cannot do without our gatherings to talk in them.” The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) then said: “If you must, then give the path its rights.” They asked, “What are the rights of the path, O Messenger of Allah?” He said: “Lowering the gaze, refraining from causing harm, returning greetings, enjoining good, and forbidding evil.”
Can contemporary education—claimed by some to be advanced—be compared to the stance of the Messenger of Allah mentioned above?
What would you do if you faced such a situation with your children or students? Would you find any Arab laws and regulations that could resolve such confusion?
Raising children in today’s world is one of the most challenging tasks for those who understand the gravity of their responsibility.
In Sahih al-Tirmidhi, Anas bin Malik reported that the Messenger peace be upon him said: “Every year is followed by one worse than it until you meet your Lord.” The rapid events happening to the nation and the world require parents, educators, and reformers to prepare the new generations to be qualified, effective, influential, righteous, and reformative members of their communities.
Without the hope of reward in raising children and the expectation of beneficial effects after death, a person might fall into severe illnesses and die of sorrow and grief.
To raise children properly amid this vast array of temptations, corruption, lack of righteous role models, and the prominence of the insignificant, one must instil in their children the pure and clear faith that Muhammad peace be upon him instilled in his companions—may Allah be pleased with them.
That creed, whose emblem and cover is the verse from Surah Yusuf: “Say, ‘This is my way; I invite to Allah with insight, I and those who follow me. And exalted is Allah; and I am not of those who associate others with Him.'”
One of the most crucial aspects of upbringing is for the child to early recognise the purpose for which they were created: to worship Allah alone in devotion, intention, and seeking, to follow the Prophet peace be upon him in word and deed, to love all the prophets and messengers (peace be upon them), to be loyal to Muslims even if they are far apart, and to disavow followers of disbelief both externally and internally.
With love and mercy, we instil dignity, courage, and noble morals in their hearts. Let the Holy Quran be their guide and their beacon. Remember, the faith of their close companions influences a person, so let us bring them closer to the righteous and reformers and keep them away from criminals and corrupt individuals. Simultaneously, we develop their mental, psychological, and physical skills and capabilities, sparing no time, effort, or money to improve their worldly and spiritual affairs. We engage with them, consult with them, and play with them.
As an educator, you must quench their thirst for love, compassion, care, affection, attention, respect, and appreciation, considering all this as a perpetual charity for the sake of Allah, hoping that your efforts will be the cause of your salvation and theirs, per His words in Surah Al-Qasas: “Indeed, you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He is most knowing of the rightly guided.”
