The Role of Mother in Religious Education of Children with Emphasis on Prenatal and Postnatal Stages

Raising a child has been emphasized as the most important role of parents in Islamic verses and hadiths. In most theories of personality development, mother has been introduced as an influential person on the upbringing and development of the child’s personality. One of the areas of education is religious education which has several backgrounds and factors, and in the meantime, the mother has a high role. This study investigated the role of mothers in religious education of children. The research method is descriptive-analytical with analysis of prenatal and postnatal stages. According to the results, mothers have two roles in the upbringing of a child; a) Before birth: By reforming and strengthening her cognitions, emotions and behaviors in line with religious education, the mother provides the grounds for creating such an upbringing, B) After birth: In this period, the mother plays an important role in the religious education of children by strengthening the religious spirit of the children in performing obligations and abandoning the worship (worship model), avoiding moral vices (ethical pattern), teaching Islamic manners (educational model), fostering religiosity (the model of education) and learning through observing the behavior (the child imitates him through observing the mother's pattern behavior and adapting his behavior in religious matters with him) plays an important role in the religious education of children.