Worship, Education, and Philosophy and Children

Basically, man’s need for praying and worship is rooted in his inmost being. Indeed, man by nature tends to worship God. Such inclination in man is not something alien to him, but is something internal, for had it been otherwise the concept of worshiping God would have been failed to be realized. In order to persuade its followers to worship God and attain spiritual perfection Islam prescribes certain rules. In Islamic thought man is considered to be the vicegerent of God on earth. In order to materialize such station the ground must be prepared from the childhood for assuming such assignment in the adulthood period. Accordingly, it is necessarily to teach the philosophy of praying and worship to man from the childhood and bring him up in the lap of Islamic teachings. The aim of this paper is to explore the notion of praying and worship, education, and Philosophy and Children in an analytic-descriptive manner. It also deals with certain issues such as the reality of worshiping and its impact upon man, the effects of praying and worship in life, the motive of worship, its roots and fruits, its contents, the importance of education and philosophical thought for children, and the role of philosophical education of children in attracting their attention towards praying and worship. Concluding that like all men, children also possess thinking power. Moreover, by nature they are curious as well. By directing their curiosity it is possible to bring them up as creative scholars. Creativity can develop their intellectual capacity. It is by means of this method that children turn up to be thinker and critic, and then learn to know how by criticizing an idea to direct their thought towards a better one in their creative nature. On the contrary, failing to foster their creative thought will bring in its wake a kind of imitative state in conduct and finally cease their critical and thinking power.