Children and youth
Family: People and stages of life · 53 entries
Entries on this theme
Person
Dawud Wharnsby
1972 CE · 1392 AH†The Canadian convert-musician behind Sound Vision's Islamic children's songs like 'A Whisper of Peace'.Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab
The son of the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab and Zaynab bint Maz'un; he embraced Islam young with his father and emigrated, was presented to the Prophet at Badr and Uhud and turned back as too young, and was accepted at al-Khandaq; he is one of the great narrators of hadith and was known for following the Prophet's footsteps; he died in 73 AH on the majority view, some say 74 AH.Zayd ibn Arqam
A Khazraji Companion, judged too young at Uhud, who campaigned with the Prophet in seventeen expeditions; he reported the words of Abdullah ibn Ubayy and the sura al-Munafiqun was revealed confirming him; he was at Siffin with Ali and died in Kufa.
Work
Concept
Custody of a child (hadana)
Custody (hadana) is keeping safe, and raising in what suits, a person who cannot yet manage his own affairs; it is obligatory, since the child may perish or be harmed without it, and it becomes an individual duty when there is no other custodian. It differs from sponsorship (kafala), which is the joining of liabilities, from guardianship, and from the executorship that a will creates. It applies to a child, and to an insane or imbecile adult by general agreement. The mother has the better claim so long as she does not marry a stranger to the child: ”You have the better claim to him as long as you do not marry.” The order of claimants after the mother differs: the Hanafis put the mother's mother, the father's mother, the sisters, the aunts and then the agnates; the Malikis put the maternal grandmother, the aunts, the paternal grandmother, then the father; the Shafi'is put the daughter, the mothers' line, the paternal grandmother, the sisters and the aunts; the Hanbalis put the mothers' line, then the father, the paternal line, the grandfather, and the sisters, aunts and kin. When male and female claimants stand equal, the female takes precedence. The custodian's conditions include Islam for some, puberty and reason, trustworthiness, ability, freedom from contagious illness, soundness of judgement for the Malikis and Shafi'is, and a safe place. A man must be a mahram of an adolescent girl in his charge; a woman must not marry a stranger to the child and must not keep him in the house of someone who dislikes him. The place of custody is the father's dwelling; a custodian's removal to settle elsewhere ends custody for the majority, and the Hanafis draw a distinction for a mother's travel. Payment for custody is allowed for the Shafi'is and Hanbalis, and in the preferred Maliki view there is none. Custody lapses with a bar and returns when the bar is removed, and the views differ on its return after divorce. The mothers' custody of a boy ends at seven for the Hanafis, at puberty for the Malikis, while the Shafi'is give the child a choice between his parents on reaching discernment. Each parent has the right to see and visit the child.Children's rights (huquq al-abna)
Children's rights over their parents, as Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy presents them: choosing a righteous mother, a good name, aqiqa and tahnik, upbringing and mercy, and the memorisation of the Qur'an.Habituation to luxury (ilf al-rafaha)
What Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy calls habituation to luxury, children's growing accustomed to indulgence, which he regards as a blight; with his view that true poverty is poverty of the heart, a statistic on celibacy not yet verified, and a polemical comparison the museum does not adopt.The social condition of the Arabs before Islam
al-Raheeq al-Makhtum's picture of Jahili society: the high standing of women among the nobility and the mixing of the other classes, the four Jahili forms of marriage in Aisha's report, unlimited polygamy, marrying two sisters and a father's widow, divorce in men's hands, widespread fornication, treatment of children from tenderness to burial alive, tribal asabiyya and the maxim 'help your brother, wronging or wronged', the disjointed relations between tribes, and the sacred months as their mercy; the author judges the social condition to have been at its lowest.
Practice
Aqiqa (newborn sacrifice)
Sacrificing two sheep for a boy and one for a girl on the seventh day, with shaving and naming; a sunna for most schools and a family celebration.Caring for orphans (kafalat al-yatim)
Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy urges honouring the orphan and stroking his head, presents the wisdom of orphanhood in the Prophet's life, and warns against replacing tenderness in the care of an infant.Male circumcision
Male circumcision; counted among the fitra by jurists and a firmly rooted practice in law and custom, with ages and celebrations varying by country.Tahnik (rubbing a newborn's palate with date)
A date is chewed and rubbed on a newborn's palate with a clean finger on the seventh day after birth, as Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy describes it in the context of aqiqa.
Screening Room
Abouna
2002 CE · 1423 AH†Abouna.The White Balloon
1995 CE · 1416 AH†The White Balloon.Turtles Can Fly
2004 CE · 1425 AH†Turtles Can Fly.Aladdin
1992 CE · 1412 AH†Aladdin.Aladdin
2019 CE · 1440 AH†Aladdin.Casablanca Beats
2021 CE · 1442 AH†Casablanca Beats.Excuse My French
2014 CE · 1435 AH†Excuse My French.You Will Die at Twenty
2019 CE · 1440 AH†You Will Die at Twenty.Children of Heaven
1997 CE · 1418 AH†Majid Majidi's Iranian film about two poor Tehran children sharing one pair of shoes; among the best-known Iranian films, Oscar-nominated.Times and Winds
2006 CE · 1427 AH†Reha Erdem's film about three children in an Anatolian village whose days are structured by the five prayer times — a landmark portrayal of rural worship.West Beirut
1998 CE · 1419 AH†West Beirut.Bilal: A New Breed of Hero
2015 CE · 1436 AH†The Emirati animated feature on Bilal ibn Rabah, from enslavement to becoming Islam's first muezzin — the first animated feature of its scale on a Companion.Persepolis
2007 CE · 1428 AH†The French-Iranian animated film of Marjane Satrapi's childhood in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Iran — Oscar-nominated.Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame
2007 CE · 1428 AH†Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame.Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo
2022 CE · 1443 AH†Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo.Flee
2021 CE · 1442 AH†Flee.Hafalan Shalat Delisa
2011 CE · 1432 AH†Hafalan Shalat Delisa.Capernaum
2018 CE · 1439 AH†Capernaum.Khawatir
Ahmad al-Shugairi's MBC Ramadan programme across eleven seasons, blending faith with social service and travel — the Arab world's most successful youth religious programme.Horses of God
2012 CE · 1433 AH†Horses of God.The Color of Paradise
1999 CE · 1420 AH†Majid Majidi's film about a blind boy in Iran and his ties to father and grandmother; a warm classic of Iranian cinema.Lorong Waktu
Indonesia's six-season Ramadan series about a scholar and children who travel through time exploring science and faith — a generational classic of religious television.Of Fathers and Sons
2018 CE · 1439 AH†Of Fathers and Sons.From Ground Zero
2024 CE · 1445 AH†From Ground Zero.Mooz-lum
2011 CE · 1432 AH†Mooz-lum.Ms. Marvel
The Marvel miniseries on Kamala Khan — a Pakistani-American Muslim teenager in Jersey City who gains powers; Marvel's first Muslim lead, portraying mosque life, prayer and Eid.Muhammad: The Last Prophet
2002 CE · 1423 AH†An American animated feature about the Prophet's mission and the rise of Islam in Mecca, produced by Badr International; the Prophet is neither shown nor heard.Nussa
The Indonesian animated children's series about Nussa and his sister Rarra learning Islamic values — the most-watched Islamic children's animation worldwide on YouTube.Nussa (film)
2021 CE · 1442 AH†Visinema's theatrical film spun off from the Nussa series — the boy competes in a science fair while the family faces life after the father's passing.Koran by Heart
2011 CE · 1432 AH†Greg Barker's HBO documentary following three children from Senegal, Tajikistan and the Maldives through Cairo's international Qur'an-memorisation contest.Saladin: The Animated Series
MNC Animation's Malaysian series dramatising Saladin's youth for children, aired on Al Jazeera Children's Channel — among the first animated works on a major Islamic figure.The Voice of Hind Rajab
2025 CE · 1446 AH†The Voice of Hind Rajab.Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
2003 CE · 1424 AH†Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.He Named Me Malala
2015 CE · 1436 AH†He Named Me Malala.The Clay Bird
2002 CE · 1423 AH†The Clay Bird.3000 Nights
2015 CE · 1436 AH†3000 Nights.The 99
The animated series based on Naif al-Mutawa's comic of superheroes inspired by the names of God — the first global Muslim superhero franchise.Omar & Hana
Durioo+'s Malaysian animated series about siblings Omar and Hana — one of the most successful Muslim children's channels on YouTube, with billions of views and ten-language dubs.Wadjda
2012 CE · 1433 AH†Haifaa al-Mansour's film — the first feature directed by a woman inside Saudi Arabia — about a girl in Riyadh who wants a bicycle; a quiet study of gender and public space.The Idol
2015 CE · 1436 AH†The Idol.Zaky
One4Kids' kangaroo character — songs and lessons on prayer, fasting and manners for Muslim children; among the first and most-watched Islamic children's works on YouTube.
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