Teaching Islamic Manners and Morals to Children: The Complete A-Z of Akhlaaq Series

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Want to teach your children Manners in Islam but don’t know where to begin or how to go about it? In this post: Learn all about our hands on activities to teach children Manners in Islam one letter at a time.

We have a 26 day series about Islamic Manners (Akhlaaq) which contains art, craft and books activities that help children learn the correct Islamic manners according to the Quran and Sunnah. This post talks about what it is and how you can teach these lessons in your home easily and stress-free.

Manners in Islam – A-Z of Akhlaaq Series DIY At Home Bootcamp

Years ago when my children were still small – in 2015 and 2018, I conducted an at home Ramadan camp for my children. The goal was to teach kids our essential Islamic values – Akhlaaq, in an easy to understand manner. Hundreds of families from around the world joined in and shared with us how they enjoyed it.

Since then, in the past 10 years we have had thousands of people who have gone this exact process to teach their children – at home and in Islamic schools.

What is this A-Z of Akhlaaq Series?

The A-Z of Akhlaaq series is a 26 day challenge in which each day, we teach one alphabet with an Islamic word starting with it. A for Akhlaaq, B for Bismillah and so on… until Z for Zulm.

Through these letters, we are creating conversations regarding what the word means, why we are talking about it, what that etiquette or moral looks like, why it is important with relatable child-level stories, enacting plays or skits, crafting, art or books. We use references from the Quran and hadith and even tell stories where appropriate.

We have also created 26 small downloadable activity books to make it more fun for the children.

I get a lot of questions about what we did and how to really go about it. So below, in this post, you will find all the details of how you too can conduct an everyday Manners in Islam series for your own children at home.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to some of the products and resources.  As an associate we may earn from qualifying purchases.

Why we need to teach our children about Islamic Manner and Morals.

Most of us Muslims, we live away from our families. Many are expats or migrants or at least nuclear families living in independent homes and apartments. We don’t have family close by. So the whole responsibility of teaching our children our family culture, manners, religion, everything falls on us – the parents.

I live in the GCC in a multicultural society as an expat. I have family in the US and Canada and have spent a few years in India too. As a mother, I know how hard it is to raise children – be it in an Islamic environment or not.

Years ago, when my eldest was still in primary school, I realized how hard it was for me to make him understand what is right and what is wrong manners-wise.

He was learning behaviour at school that was just not appropriate according to our family’s culture. I can’t give examples but if you have kids studying in multicultural schools, you may know.

Simple things like how to greet elders, attitude with friends and family, eating and using the toilet — I found he was just not able to see why we behaved the way we did.

And then there was the fact that he was growing up and learning a lot about human emotions and interactions. When I told him to be kind or respectful, I saw that he had no idea what kindness felt, looked like or what he was to do. And words like charity, gratitude and forgiveness – what does a 7, 3 and 2 year old understand by that?

Although all cultures of the world have similar morals, manners differ. As Muslims, we have teachings from the Quran and Sunnah that we follow. How we use the toilet, what we do after sneezing or how we sleep at night, these are things we need to teach.

Most of these manners are much similar the world over. Simple lessons on gratitude or how to treat your neighbor go a long way in making the world a better place for all of us.

“If you don’t teach your child about your culture, how will they learn?”

There was one incident that made me start homeschooling my children in Islamic Studies.

When my son was 7 and the girls were 2 and 3 years old, I was angry at my children for some random misbehaviour. In a fit of anger, I yelled at them if they did not know better than to do what they did.

All three of them shook their head innocently and said ‘But you never said we should do it this way.‘

It was eye opening for me. Shocking, to be precise. They were right. I had never advised them what was permissible and what wasn’t. I had just assumed that they would learn on their own.

This is a mistake most of us parents make. We expect our children to know. Often forgetting that:

If you didn’t teach them something and if they still haven’t learnt it at school, how would they know?

Also, if your school is not your culture, chances are they will learn something that is totally not YOU.

So my dear parents, for this reason, we need to teach our children, our culture and tradition first and foremost, from the start — from when they are little toddlers.

Manners isn’t about just cultures… etiquettes can be traditional too and what better way to teach tradition than with the Hadith and Sunnah – the prophet’s traditions, right?

All those questions like:

• Why can’t I eat with my left hand?
• How to sit with the Quran
• The right way to sleep in Islam
• What to say when you are not too happy that ‘your friend won the competition…’

… all such question we will answer in this series. From table manners in Islam to the adab, going to the toilet to how to treat your parents with respect… I compiled a small list from A-Z and crafted activities based on my children’s age.

Why we repeat the series every few years?

My children were 7, 3 and 2 years old the first time I taught them about manners. That Ramadan we had a theme for our Ramadan Activities – A-Z of Akhlaaq. It was so much and my kids and I absolutely enjoyed it.  But it wasn’t enough.

Three years later, I found the need to go over the activities with my children again because by then my send child was 6 years old and this time she was showing the same attitude that I had seen in my eldest. So we had the A-Z of Manners again for all three of them – 11, 6 and 5 year olds.

In 2022, my kids and I decided to make some workbooks, posters and play activities for their cousins. We also wrote out our entire process and what prompts we had used to learn this series. We converted them into workbooks.

A- Z of Akhlaaq to teach Islamic Manners 

Akhlaaq is an Arabic word which is understood in Urdu too. It roughly translates to mean morals and manners.

I got the idea for this series while we were reading the book ‘A To Z of Akhlaaq: Moral Values for Children‘ by Nafees Khan published by Goodword Books.

It is has been one of our favorite books about Akhlaaq and my children would request that we read it every night. I thought:

‘Well… if I am to read it until I memorized every word, why not throw in some skills for life?‘ 

Although, the idea is from this book, you will find that I have changed some of the words. And the book has no reference to what I teach.

Goodword Books or the author of the book Nafees Khan are no way affiliated by this series nor in anyway connected to it, except that I have used the book title A-Z of Akhlaaq for my series the first time for lack of a better name. The series is now called Manner in Islam for Kids.

This Islamic Manners Challenge Has Been Followed By More Than 2000 Families From All Over The World!

I wrote about this challenge in 2015. That year, starting from the first day of Ramadan (18 June 2015) to the 26th of Ramadan (13th of July 2015), (Alhamdulillah), I posted a letter with a word and coupled it with either a book , an activity or a craft so that my child can understand and remember the word.

On the blog, for the parents, I included positive parenting tips wherever appropriate. Some parents used it to devise lesson plans on Manners in Islam. The activities are perfect to be used as Unit Plans if you are teaching Islamic Studies to school aged children.

This series was conducted twice – during Ramadan of 2015, 2018 and then again every Ramadan since, with the sole intention to remind our children their morals and manners. You can scroll below to know why we did it again and again.

In the past, it was called A-Z of Akhlaaq Series but now after writing the whole series of posts aimed at teaching Muslim children Islamic Manners, it is called Manners in Islam Series. 

How we make lessons on Islamic Manners and Etiquettes interesting

We love 5 minute lessons in our home. Children understand and remember better by doing things rather than being taught to listen. When they are given a chance to experience something or interpret meanings themselves, they will remember the lessons for life. For this reason, I prefer to teach my children with simple 5 minute hands-on activities.

My kids love spontaneous science, art or craft ideas and they always remember them better. So, I applied this same trick to teaching them Islamic manners. We used books and every day items from around the home to teach children meaningful lessons.

We also used Islamic crafts where possible, and lesson plans from our Islamic studies school books as well as general Islamic books that we had. Mostly, these were spontaneously thought ideas that I adapted to my children’s ages.

All these ideas are now available in worksheet format so you can just print and offer them to children. The activities and prompts are already built into it. And as an additional support, I send you daily emails with ideas on what all to teach and how to make things interesting.

Should you repeat these lessons on manners every few years too?

Yes. I did this series with my kids, in 2015. At that time my children were 7 years old, 3 years old and 2 years old. You can imagine how much they learnt.

Although, I had been reminding them through verbal as well as visual reminders, most of it was lost. How much do you think a 2 and 3 year old understood to recall?

So you see… It was not enough that we teach our children their manners once or twice and then expect them to carry them for life.

Repetition, gentle reminders and following up to make sure that they are really understanding and implementing will ensure that they mind their teachings even behind our backs.

How to make time to teach these Islamic Manners

How can I make time for this theme in my busy schedule? I have little babies.

This is another question I often get. And I understand it very well. I have been there myself. Juggling Ramadan with little babies and toddlers is not easy. I have written an in-depth article about preparing for Ramadan and managing life with little kids. Please read it.

Having said that, the best way to find time is to prepare your children that this Ramadan, you are doing something fun together. There is nothing that kids love more than to sit with their mom and play! How many times has your child said ‘Mommy play with me.‘

InshaAllah with the activities, crafts and book ideas, you will find yourself enjoying this series too.

In the 2018 version, I expanded the series, so that more children (younger as well as older) can have more involvement. The series started 1st Ramadan (16th May 2018) and continued for 26 days.

Now we have the 26 A-Z of Akhlaaq letters as a workbook series which you can easily download, print and give to your children.

How to sign up for the Islamic Manners / Akhlaaq Challenge

When we did this series, the first time, I had just a few blogposts about it. But I got so many questions.

So next time, I created an email course around it. SubhanAllah, there were almost 300 families that joined our series in Ramadan 2018!

Everyday, the subscribers received an email with details about that day’s activity plus parenting advice. Some letters had printable worksheets or posters while some had book recommendations. Mostly, we focussed on the Islamic part with reading and memorizing Hadith or mentions in the Holy Quran.

This email series is now available in PDF format. You can get the 26 days workbooks as a single download here. Plus we have a few bonuses to make it more value for you.

You can get the workbooks to all these letters here. It also has a complete list of letters that we did.

After you purchase the workbooks, you will get emails for the next one month. In those emails, I share with you details about each letter, prompts, book ideas and more.

Ready to Teach Your Child Islamic Manners the Easy Way?

You’ve read the story. You understand why this matters.

Now it’s time to take action.

Here’s what happens next:

1️⃣ Click the button below
2️⃣ Complete your $29 order (takes 2 minutes)
3️⃣ Instant download—get all 26 workbooks immediately
4️⃣ Print Letter “A” tonight
5️⃣ Start teaching tomorrow (15 minutes is all you need)

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⏰ REMINDER: Special pricing expires in 48 Hours

After that, the price returns to $97.

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Total: $155 value for just $29 today

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Print unlimited copies
Use forever with all your kids

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💬 Have questions? Leave message on this post (I personally read every message)

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JazakAllah Khair for trusting me with your child’s Islamic education.

Ayesha
Founder, Jeddah Mom

P.S. Remember that story I told you about my 7-year-old who didn’t know right from wrong because I never taught him? Don’t let that be your child. Start teaching them today—before it’s too late.

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