How to Raise Children Who Love the Quran – Not Just Recite It

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Are you struggling with teaching the Quran to your kids? Here is how to teach the Holy Quran at home.

Growing children who love the Quran and Sunnah, who pray five times a day is every parent’s dream. After all, we want to raise righteous, saleh children who love and understand Islam.

From teaching them the Five Pillars of Islam, to creating joy for them in Ramadan and Hajj to buying the best Islamic toys and books to starting the Arabic Alphabets, many parents find themselves in a dilemma. There are so many questions!

When it comes to teach Quran to little children, there isn’t one formula that works for all. Some families benefit by sending their child to a formal institute with a learned teacher who can give your child full attention while some parents find it helpful to just teach their child at home.

How to find time to teach your child Quran

As a mother, I know how hard it is to teach your child anything at home. Whether you have one child or more, motivating your child to read the Quran with you is hard.

They just don’t sit! Then there is the fact that we have a 100 things to do. How then can you find time to teach your child?!

I have three children at the moment and my best advise is that start by making sure your child has a good routine. For examples of routines you can see my routine for 3 year old child here. School going children’s routine and summer time routine here. Or get this complete pack of printable routine charts here.

In short, fix a time in a day when you will teach your child.

How to grow children who love the Quran

I am a strong believer that we should direct our children such that they grow up loving the Quran and Sunnah rather than be forced to study something against their will.

We can never love something we fear. Never tell children that they have to study Quran and pray or else they will go to hell. That’s plain wrong. Instead talk to them about the virtues of learning the Quran and praying five times a day.

I have three children – a 12 year old son and two younger daughters – 6 and 8 years old. The elder two are memorizing the Quran (Alhamdulillah) while the little one is close to finishing her Qaida. My son studied at Madrasah but I teach my girls at home.

I am not a perfect parent who knows everything. I am just one passionate mother in progress, trying to figure out how to raise her children under the shade of the Quran. I am sharing my tips here as a journey of what worked for me. I hope you find the solutions to your questions, if you are in a place now where I once was.

Make Quran learning fun!

When children are small 3- 6 years old, they need fun methods to learn. Try to find a teacher who understands this. Also, look at their schedule. Don’t over fill it. If things are not working out, you can devise creative methods yourself.

A few years ago, my little girls were not very happy with their teacher. Let me share with you the story and how we solved it.

There were tears – not just the kids but we the parents too. I felt like a terrible mom. Hubby and I would drive home after dropping them with guilty silence every day.

We both agreed that this is not how Quran studies should be. But we’d argue that they needed the formal training in Tajweed and correct pronunciation.

I grew up with formal Quran education here in Saudi Arabia. My parents send me to attend a Quran school and also Quran classes, not just my childhood but, even as an adult. I knew I could do this. Also, my husband had all his Islamic education at home through his mother. I knew it was do-able.

I wanted to teach my children the Qaida at home just like my mother in law had taught my husband and his siblings. I was confident that I could teach the kids, but my husband believed that it was important for children to go to a Madrasa to learn proper Tajweed. 

We argued back and forth. 

‘Do you like seeing them like this? They are going to grow up associating Quran with something forced upon them. Is this how we want to grow our children?’

Soon we decided that we’d pull them out so I could teach the girls the Qaida nooraniya myself at home.

It was the best decision ever. They literally learnt the Holy Quran from my lap.

If you have a child reluctant to learn the Quran, teach from your lap.

I sat my girls down and told them that we were worried about them. ‘It is important that you study the Quran‘ I told them. ‘But I can’t teach you the Quran until you study Qaida. How can we solve this?‘ I asked.

‘How about you sit in my lap and I read out the words. Don’t you think it will be fun to learn sitting in my lap?‘ I said slowly wondering what their response would be.’

My daughters were and 5 and 6 years old at that time. They loved our 15 minutes of reading hour. Sitting on my lap to read the Qaida was a pleasing idea to them. Mom’s little princess, in mom’s lap… all those cuddles and giggles as we read to each other… the idea appealed to them.

So that’s how we began learning the Quran – on mummy’s lap.

Everyday between 4-5pm, right after Asr, my children and I would study the Quran.

For the first 10 minutes, I would read my two pages of Quran and then who ever was ready to read her lesson, would come sit on my lap and read to me.

When she finished, the second daughter would come sit on my lap and read. After the lessons, we’d make dua, memorize 2-3 lines of a Surah and call it a successful day!

My children started to associate Quran time with love and quality one on one time with their mother. Don’t we all want our children  to grow up and associate Quran learning with a loving time like this?

If you have a child who is reluctant to learn the Qaida, I highly recommend that you consider  teaching them from your lap. 

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