Asma Balfaqih
Faith in daily life
Allowing questions, faith included
In Quran lessons I met children who could recite beautifully and almost never asked a question about the meaning. And I met children who asked without stopping: why do we pray like this, what does this word mean. The second group was louder and more demanding. After a few months it was also far more connected to what it was learning.
This is why the stories in my books never end with a moral, but with a question. A child should not only hear what is right, but find out for itself why. That applies to the question of why we help our grandmother carry her bag just as much as to the question of why we give thanks before eating.
For parents this means that a question you cannot answer is not a failure. Say calmly that you are not sure and that you will look it up together. In doing so you show your child something far more important, namely that learning never stops.