The Role and Domains of Affection in Raising Children from the Viewpoint of the Holy Qur’ān and Ḥadīth

Human children are creatures who need to be appropriately educated and guided in the light of love. Love is, indeed, a major need of children. Their hope increases towards life by means of generously given love, and they can build a bridge to success from their mistakes with acuity. This causes them not to experience disappointment but rather be successful. Love brings about warm relations between parents and children and makes them intelligent and enlightened. It keeps their spirits high and wards depression off. A child who is satiated with love does not feel any shortage, developing proper relationships with others. Thus, he or she does not get involved in behavioral deviations. Friendly love should be rendered in a purposeful and step-by-step manner. Its factors and indicators need to be distinguished well from its barriers, and those factors should be predisposed and encouraged while the barriers, if any, should be weakened or possibly eradicated. Islam prohibits any extremes in expressing affection towards children and bases child breeding on moderateness. Children’s age and needs should be taken into consideration, and loving them should be based on such considerations. If love is expressed excessively or inappropriately, it makes children pampered, spoiled, bully, weak, and too dependent on their parents. In this regard, the educational method proposed by Islam is based on three principles of love, dignity and firmness. Therefore, this study aims to discuss the role and domains of affection in child education and the extent of its application as proposed in the holy Qur’ān and religious quotations, or ‘Ḥadīths’.