The Concept of Childhood Islamic Education in the Family
Ujang Dedih, Maslani Maslani, Hariman Surya Siregar, Ratu Suntiah and Supiana Supiana
UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Jl. AH Nasution 105, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Education Concept, Childhood Phase.
Abstract: Education program proposed by Abdullah Nashih Ulwan is more comprehensive because it includes sex and
psychological education that other scholars’ programs do not offer. An educational process consists of
instructional objectives, approaches, methods, media, tactics, and techniques. The present study was aimed
at finding out the concept of childhood Islamic education in family as proposed by Abdullah Nashih Ulwan
in the book of Tarbiyah al-Aulad Fi al-Islam. To this end, this study employed a qualitative library research
design. The data were collected through a documentary technique and analyzed using a constant
comparative method. The objective of Ulwan’s childhood Islamic education is to develop real and pious
Muslims that can positively contribute the society. There are seven education programs to achieve this
objective including faith education, moral education, reasoning education, psychological education, social
education, and sex education.
1 INTRODUCTION
The family plays an important role in shaping
children’s characters. It is the family who teaches
children love, respect, responsibility, and so on.
However, nowadays, the family provides little
religious education, cultural education, moral
education, and life skills education. This is due to
the fact that parents do not really know how to
educate their children (Ahsani, 2014).
Education is provided to a child to develop his
potential intelligence. Childhood is the most
appropriate phase to shape an individual’s characters
so that he can grow into a man with a strong
character. This is why childhood education is very
fundamental to future of a nation (Atabik, 2015).
Islamic education can help the family play its
role. Islamic education can help the family play its
role in providing religious education, cultural
education, moral education, and life skills education
(Mahmud, 2013). When an educator carries out his
duties perfectly, trustably, and in accordance with
Islamic teachings, he is actually putting his efforts to
shape individual with special characters. Thus, he
indirectly contributes to the social development
through shaping pious individual and family (Ulwan,
2007).
Citing Omar Muhammad al-Taomi al-Syabani,
in Bukhari (2011), defines Islamic education as a
process of changing an individual’s personal and
social behavior by providing education as a basic
and professional activity. Islamic education is firmly
based on Quran and Hadiths (Al-Attas, 1977;
Douglass, 2004). Islamic education in the family is
an Islamic family education (Mahmud, 2013).
Islamic education encourages critical thinking as a
research method for the development of knowledge
and science (Rayan and Al-qarbiyh, 2012).
The purpose of this study is to figure out a
childhood Islamic educational concept in family so
as to avoid a malpractice of childhood education
(Al-Attas, 1977). The purpose of education is to
educate mind and soul and submit it to the maximum
possible limit of a person in achieving the happiness
of life in this world and the hereafter (Luk, 2013).
Education works to find a balanced and fair
relationship between the people, a relationship
characterized by mutual integration where one
cannot survive without the other (Rayan and Al-
qarbiyh, 2012).
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study employed a qualitative library research
design. The data were collected through a
documentary technique and analyzed using a
constant comparative method. The data needed by
406
Dedih, U., Maslani, M., Siregar, H., Suntiah, R. and Supiana, S.
The Concept of Childhood Islamic Education in the Family.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 406-408
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

this study were qualitative textual data. The aspects
studied included definitions, concepts, views,
thoughts, and arguments in the related literatures.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
According to Abdullah (2004), the effective methods
to educate children is education by examples,
trainings, advice giving, caring, and punishments
(Ulwan, 2007). Providing good examples in
education has been proven to be the most successful
method in preparing and shaping a child’s moral,
spiritual, and social characters. “No one can deny
that a child will grow up with the true faith, behave
in an Islamic way, even reach the highest spiritual
values, and develop special characters provided that
he is equipped with two things: Islamic education
and good environments” (Bukhari, 2011).
Education by care giving and supervision means
to always pay full attention to the child’s faith and
moral development and his mental and social
readiness in addition to his physical and scientific
skills. According to Abdullah Nashih Ulwan, an
educator should pay great attention to the following
aspects of a child: Faith, moral, mental, intellectual,
physical, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects
(Abdullah, 2004).
Abdullah (2004) also suggests that the Islamic
method of punishing children with great gentleness
and compassion is a childhood educational
foundation.
Approaches
 Psychological approach: this can be seen in
the discussion on sex education. Abdullah
Nashih Ulwan suggests that childhood
education be carried out in the following
phases: (1) ages 7-10 (tamyiz phase where a
child can tell right from wrong), (2) ages 10-
14 (balig phase, the age of reason/discretion),
(3) ages 14-16 (balig phase to adolescence),
and (4) post-adolescent period.
 Historical approach: this can be seen in the
discussion on fear treatment, the fifth point
discussing the story of the Prophet pbuh.
 Religious and philosophical approaches: these
are embodied in all parts of discussion as they
are based on Quran, Sunnah, opinions of the
Companions and the pious predecessors.
 Systemic approach: this can be seen in the
components listed in each educational duty.
For instance, on social education, Abdullah
Nashih Ulwan begins with introducing the
basic principles of noble characters, respect of
the rights of others, social etiquettes including
table manners, sneezing manners, and
yawning manners, and social criticism
(Ulwan, 2007).
The result of analysis revealed that the objective
of Abdullah Nashih Ulwan’s childhood Islamic
education in the family is to develop pious Muslims
who can positively contribute to the society. This
objective is relatively similar to that of other
scholars’ education program (Abdullah, 2004).
Education program proposed by Abdullah
Nashih Ulwan is more comprehensive because it
includes sex and psychological education that other
scholars’ programs do not offer. The process of
Abdullah Nashih Ulwan’s education program can
also be said comprehensive because it consists of the
following instructional components: objective,
approach, method, media, tactic, technique
(Abdullah, 2004). However, there is no pretest to
determine the entering behavior. The evaluation also
relies on observation.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Abdullah Nashih Ulwan’s concept of childhood
Islamic education in the family is a concept with a
purpose to develop pious Muslims who can
contribute to the society. This objective is achieved
through faith, moral, physical, reasoning,
psychological, social, and sex education using
audiovisual media and properties (Ulwan, 2007). In
the process, the education is carried out using
systematic, pedagogic, psychological, religious, and
historical approaches. The method is teaching by
examples, training, advice giving, care giving, and
punishments. The evaluation is conducted through
observation (Ahsani, 2014; Atabik, 2015).
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Al-Attas, S. M. N., 1977. The Concept of Education in
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Atabik, A., 2015. PENDIDIKAN ANAK. Elementary.
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Bukhari, U., 2011. Ilmu Pendidikan Islam, Amzah.
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