The Development of Religiosity in Early Childhood: an Islamic- Psychological Approach

The present study investigates "the development of religiosity in early childhood" from the view of Islam and psychology, in order to have a more comprehensive and deeper understanding of this issue. This study is mainly concerned with the commonalities and differences between the two approaches. The results of this comparative study indicate that the two approaches differ in terms of describing and explaining the foundations and roots of religiosity. According to psychology, the prime roots of religiosity are ascribed to the child's experiences of the surrounding environment. Islam sees that the roots of religiosity should be found in the child’s innate nature, i.e. love of goodness and perfect happiness, and the child's experiences of the surrounding environment can only prepare the ground for the development of or deviation from innate nature. Concerning how religiosity develops, the two shares the view that emphasis on creating safe and dynamic environment contributes to optimum development of religiosity and they emphasize that child- parents experiences are recorded in the child’s psychological system and have impact on the child’s future religiosity.