al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya lil-Shabab

al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya lil-Shabab (Islamic Upbringing of Youth) is a pedagogical treatise authored by Abd al-Rahman Balla Ali, an assistant professor at the College of Arabic Language at the Islamic University of Madinah, addressing the principles, methods, and responsibilities involved in nurturing Muslim youth Majallat al-Jami'a al-Isl…+1.

Overview and Linguistic Framing

The work begins with a philological examination of the term shabab (youth), outlining its singular and plural forms (shabb, shubban, shababa; feminine shabba, pl. shawabb) and tracing its root (sh-b-b), which connotes vitality, strength, freshness, growth, and beauty al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…+1. Ali defines the youth stage as spanning from sixteen to forty years of age—followed by middle age (kuhula) up to sixty, and senescence (haram) thereafter—while noting that these boundaries are fluid and interconnected with earlier formative periods al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li….

Significance and Objectives of Youth Upbringing

The treatise emphasizes that youth constitute approximately sixty percent of the Muslim community in quantity and serve as its core driving force, shield, and store of future aspirations in quality al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…. Ali argues that the true benchmark of a nation's strength lies not in its financial reserves or mineral wealth, but in the moral and religious integrity of its youth al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…. Consequently, spiritual and educational cultivation must take precedence over mere material and economic development al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…+1.

The goals of preparing youth, as outlined in the work, encompass fostering individual righteousness to enable social reform, defending against ideological subversion and destructive creeds, dismantling religious innovations and superstitions, and equipping young people to carry the intellectual and cultural mission of Islam al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…+1.

Stages and Dimensions of Care in Islam

The author contends that Islamic care for youth begins before their birth and progresses through distinct developmental stages:

• Pre-natal and infant stages: Selecting a pious spouse of noble lineage, reciting the prescribed supplication prior to marital relations, pronouncing the adhan in the right ear of the newborn, performing tahnik with dates, offering prayers for blessing, performing the aqiqah on the seventh day, giving a good name, avoiding foolish wet-nurses to protect innate disposition (fitrah), and providing lawful (halal) sustenance al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…+1.
• Childhood and early maturation: Instructing children to pray at age seven, disciplining them for neglect of prayer at age ten, and separating their beds to safeguard their moral sensibilities al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li….
• Bodily and moral awareness: Providing early, age-appropriate instruction on personal hygiene, the conditions of prayer, bodily functions, and the invalidators of ablution al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li….

Historical Exemplars and Contemporary Challenges

Ali highlights scriptural and historical models of righteous youth, citing the Quranic praise of the Companions of the Cave ( إِنَّهُمْ فِتْيَةٌ آمَنُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ وَزِدْنَاهُمْ هُدًى —"Indeed, they were youths who believed in their Lord, and We increased them in guidance") and the Prophet Ibrahim ( قَالُوا سَمِعْنَا فَتًى يَذْكُرُهُمْ يُقَالُ لَهُ إِبْرَاهِيمُ —"They said, 'We heard a young man mention them who is called Ibrahim'") al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…. He also notes early Islamic leadership assignments entrusted to young Companions, including Ali ibn Abi Talib sleeping in the Prophet's bed during the migration (Hijrah), Mus'ab ibn 'Umayr heading the mission to Medina, the consultation of youth prior to the Battle of Uhud, Usama ibn Zayd commanding the northern campaign, and Zayd ibn Thabit being commissioned by Abu Bakr al-Siddiq to compile the Quran al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…+1.

Addressing modern dilemmas, the author warns against blind cultural imitation (taqlid) of the West, advocating for discernment: adopting beneficial scientific advancements while rejecting moral corruption al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…+1. He cites Muhammad al-Ghazali's analogy comparing the uncritical emulation of Western vices to a sickly person copying a strong man's tobacco smoking rather than his physical strength al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…. Ali further notes the historical debt of European sciences to Islamic civilization, mentioning that works of figures like Ibn Sina were taught in European universities up into the eighteenth century al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li….

Parental and Scholarly Responsibilities

The work specifies duties for parents and scholars in preserving the younger generation:

• Parental responsibilities: Instilling core creedal convictions through prayer, Quran recitation, and prophetic biography; offering advice suited to the child's cognitive development; monitoring companionships, recalling the prophetic parable of the perfume merchant and the blacksmith; organizing study schedules while permitting wholesome recreation; and providing living role models through righteous parental conduct al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…+1.
• Scholarly duties: Religious scholars are described as societal physicians tasked with diagnosing and treating intellectual and moral deviations al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…. Citing the divine covenant regarding knowledge in Surah al-Baqarah and poetry by Abdullah ibn Ahmad Qadiri, the author urges scholars to actively educate and guide the youth al-Tarbiya al-Islamiya li…+1.