Methods for physical preparation:
- To make sure that the child is clean in his body, clothes, his surroundings and has a love of cleanliness in his life.
- To make sure to feed the child from the good without excessive expenditure or stinginess.
- To encourage the practice of sports such as running, swimming, shooting and riding, and their sports that make the body strong and active in a whole some atmosphere.
Methods for mental preparation:
- To teach reading and writing and to ensure a superiority in all kinds of knowledge and sciences.
- To practice attentively looking at all creations and events around him which will enable his mental growth and give him the correct inference capabilities.
- Touring or traveling in the land and pondering all the different marks and signs of Allah and the history of previous people and nations.
Methods for moral preparation:
- Showing the values of good deeds and their effects on the individuals and society; also showing the effects of bad deeds, all within the child's capability of understanding.
- Parents should be a good example in their behavior because children like to imitate their parents in their sayings and their deeds.
- Teaching the child the religious principles and tutoring him in worship, taking into account the child's capability of understanding. The Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H.) had said, "Order your children to pray at the age of seven."
- Treating children nicely and kindly; the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) taught us that practically.
- One of the important things that parents must teach their children to select the good company and the avoid the bad, because children are always influenced by their company. The bad behavior can be transmitted through bad company.
- Encouraging the child's sense of belonging to the Muslim nation, by teaching him of the brotherhood between Muslims, teaching him to care for Muslims in any land, and that he is part of the Muslim body, to feel joy when Muslims are joyous, to feel sad for Muslims' sadness, and to do best to achieve the Muslim nation's goals. All of this can done practically through by:
- Taking children to mosques and introducing them to their brother in Islam regardless of race, language, or origin.
- Teaching the children the history of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) and his companions and the history of Islam with in to the child's capability of understanding.
- Encouraging children to sympathize with Muslim problems and to contribute to the solutions such as the poverty problem and to donate some money to the hungry Muslim children.
- Taking part in the celebrations and festivals with Muslims, and sharing picnics and creating ties with their Muslim brothers of the same age.
- Growing the sense of distinction from society, and that does not mean arrogance because arrogance is forbidden: but it means the sense of being a Muslim and that Muslims are different from non-Muslims in their sources of belief and behavior. Clarify that the society is good and bad, so as a Muslim, take and benefit from what is good and leave and avoid what is bad.
- Growing the feeling of love of Allah, his Prophet, Muslims, and all people. This love will lead to special behavior towards all those loved.
This is a general guideline, so every Muslim can take care of his children and know the correct path that must be followed, so we can do the job we are entrusted to do as Allah proscribed, as well as the responsibility the prophet has clarified to protect the future generations of Muslims, as Allah said in surat At-tawbah, verse 105, what can be translated as, "And Say Do deeds! Allah will see your deeds, and (so will) his Messenger and the believers. And you will be brought back to the All-Knower of the unseen and the seen. Then He will inform you of what you used to do."