A mother wishing to wean her child doesn’t introduce him to a diet of 100% solids overnight. She understands that the child’s digestive system will not cope with such a sudden, drastic change and therefore makes small, gradual adjustments to the diet.
Similarly, when a child becomes mature (reaches the age of puberty), it is now obligatory for him to perform the five daily salaah, fast in the month of Ramadhaan, etc. If these obligatory ‘ibaadaat are introduced to the child all at once, he may find it difficult to make an ‘overnight’ change. Therefore, the Sahaabah (radhiyallahu ‘anhum) would begin training their children to perform ‘ibaadaat long before they reached the age of puberty. In this way, they ensured that their children were not only accustomed to all the ‘ibaadaat, but that the ‘ibaadaat were actually a second nature to them.
Nabi (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) himself has taught us to train our children in this manner. He instructs us to make our children perform salaah at the age of seven and to punish them for not performing salaah when they reach the age of ten – emphasizing the importance of giving the child the correct training early in life. (Sunan Abi Dawood #494)
When a tree is a young sapling, it is easy to guide it and ensure that it grows straight. If left without guidance, however, it will grow crooked and become set in its crookedness. To adequately train the child for the duties he will face later on in life is actually kindness to the child – not cruelty. If we do not inculcate the Islamic way of behaving, dressing and speaking and the habit of ‘ibaadah into our children from a young age, thinking that they are “still too small”, what will we do when they are suddenly “too big” to heed our “too-late” guidance?