Читать книгу The Children's Book of Islam Part One - Muhammad Manazir Ahsan - Страница 6

Foreword

The education of Muslim children is one of the major responsibilities that rests on the shoulders of the older generation. It is a problem which besets the responsible people of Muslim society everywhere in the world. But it assumes challenging proportions in countries where Muslim children are exposed to a culture basically different from the Islamic culture.

The Islamic Foundation is a research and educational organisation. It has been founded to improve human communication and develop a better understanding of Islam amongst Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It is trying to produce literature on Islam in the major languages of the world.

One of the major projects on which it is working relates to Islamic education. An effort is being made to produce new educational media to disseminate the teachings of Islam to the younger generation of the Muslims living in Europe and other parts of the world. In this respect, the Islamic Foundation is working in close co-operation with other educational organisations, particularly the Muslim Educational Trust, London, which is engaged in a pioneering experiment in Islamic education in the United Kingdom. The Muslim Educational Trust is organising classes in Islamic religious instruction in county schools having a sizeable number of Muslim children. At present it is imparting Islamic education in fifty-seven such schools in the United Kingdom. The Trust has also established a number of weekend schools for Islamic instruction.

The Islamic Education project of the Foundation was originally organised to fulfil the needs of the Muslim Educational Trust and of other similar organisations and institutions imparting Islamic education in the West. But the usefulness of this literature is not confined to this part of the world. It is equally useful in other places, and some of our publications are being used in different parts of Africa and Asia. Their translations have also appeared in a number of languages.

The Islamic Foundation proposes to produce a number of books and other educational material to cater for the needs of Islamic education at different levels. For beginners, it is publishing The Children’s Book of Islam, which will appear in twp parts. These books may be followed by a series on Essentials of Islam, a course of some forty lessons on the basic teachings of Islam. There will be a third series covering different aspects of Islamic history and culture and a fourth one providing supplementary reading material in the form of stories and anecdotes from Islamic literature.

The Children’s Book of Islam is a thoroughly revised and enlarged version of the First Primer of Islam formerly published by the Muslim Educational Trust. The Children’s Book of Islam aims at providing elementary but basic knowledge of the important principles of Islam. This is written especially for children who are being taught in the English language. An effort has been made to keep the language simple and lucid, keeping in view the vocabulary and the level of understanding of a child of eight or over. It covers all the essential elements of the faith, without burdening the child with details and without introducing things beyond his level of comprehension. We have also avoided, at this stage, many details which one would like to convey to the children, keeping in view their response to the course. Nor have we always given the rationale behind the principles, as this would have been beyond the scope of an elementary book of this sort. We hope, however, that the parents and the teachers will provide supplementary information to the children in keeping with their response to the material presented in this book.

We hope the teachers will find this book a useful basis for their teaching and discussion. Some exercises for students on each chapter accompanies this book. If parents and teachers want to draw from more detailed works on the fundamental principles of Islam, they may consult some of the following books which we have found useful:

The Children’s Book of Islam has been prepared under the auspices of the Islamic Foundation. Mr. Ashraf Abu Turab is in overall charge of the Islamic Education project of the Foundation. We have benefited from the comments and observations of Mr. Afzal-ur-Rahman, Chairman, Muslim Educational Trust, London, and Mrs. D. Buckmaster. Mr. Sultan Faruqi has taken care of the art work. The Foundation records its gratitude to all colleagues and friends, particularly to the young friends from the Islamic Youth Movement whose critical observations were of much use in revising the manuscript.

Finally, we would request parents and teachers not to hesitate in writing to us about the areas of difficulty encountered by them and to share the many fruitful experiments they may make in the course of their teaching. We are eager to benefit from their advice in revising this book in its later editions. Comments and observations from students and general readers are also welcome.

The Islamic FoundationLeicester

Director General

15th April, 1975

3rd Rabi al-Thani, 1395 A.H.