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Description

Building a unified and thriving Umma begins with the upbringing of Ummatic children. To develop a mature Muslim identity capable of navigating life through an Ummatic lens, it is essential to instill elements such as strong faith, moral integrity, and the ability to shift from a self-centered perspective to one that embraces the interests and well-being of the entire Umma. Parents play a key role in this process. This colloquium examines what constitutes an ummatic child, identifying the key elements essential for developing a mature Muslim identity. Given the present-day tarbiyah challenges, we also delve into practical methods and strategies that parents can employ to nurture the ummatic identity in their children. This discourse is crucial for understanding the role of familial upbringing in fostering a cohesive and prosperous Umma.

Dr. Osman Umarji is a scholar of Islam and educational psychology. He studied at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, and received his Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Irvine. He is currently the Director of Survey Research and Evaluation at the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. He is a seasoned religious scholar and developmental scientist with an interest in researching the intersection of religion, psychology, and education. His areas of expertise include the development of religiosity, human motivation, and decision making.

The discussion and subsequent Q&A session was moderated by Dr. Usaama Al-Azami, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

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Summary

Presentation

Introduction

• Concern for the Umma is often framed in terms of harnessing material resources, when a more fundamental factor is human resources—specifically, cultivating people with a proactive stance towards the Umma.
• Quality is more important than quantity: one person may equal 1,000.
• Adolescence is a key period of concern when raising children.

 

Adolescence

• Adolescence is fundamentally about identity and figuring out one’s place in the world.
• Adolescents are simultaneously trying to navigate two contradictory questions:
  • How do I fit into the world around me?
  • How do I stand out from it?

 

Ummatic Upbringing

• Under pressures of raising children in the West, many parents set a low bar of expectations, merely hoping their children will know the basics of Islam.
• A slightly higher bar aims at raising individually pious Muslims, with emphasis on excellence in dunyā pursuits—this is not how the Qurʾan frames the task of upbringing.
• The ideal of the Muslim in the Qurʾan is “And who speaks fairer than he who calls unto Allah and does righteousness and says, ‘Surely I am of them that surrender’?” [44: 33]
• The central problem is how to raise children with a strong ummatic identity: i.e., children who identify deeply with the global Muslim Umma to which they belong.
• Belonging is a fundamental human need—if children do not find belonging in the Umma, they will seek it elsewhere: nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, class, politics, sect, etc.

 

Ummatic Socialization

• In navigating multiple identities, children will develop rankings of their identities based on how strongly they identify with each.
• The priority a child will assign to each identity is the result of a socialization process.
• In order of importance, prioritizing ummatic solidarity results from:
  • Family influence
  • Neighborhood and community influence
  • Wider society and cultural influence

 

Ummatic Parenting

Key steps to parenting children to care about the Umma include:  

• Role Modeling
  • Children should see parents demonstrating concern for the Umma in behavior and action.
  • A good measure is whether concern is expressed toward Muslim causes besides those to which the family ethnic ties.

 

• Mindset and Motivation
  • Parents should actively build the child’s concern for the Umma and motivate them to support it.
  • In current circumstances of political disempowerment, it is key to emphasize agency, capacity for positive change, and a positive vision of the future.

 

• Parent-Child Coactivity
  • Parents must share activities and experiences with their children.

 

• Providing Ummatic Resources and Experiences
  • Language resources: offering access to other Muslims globally, as well as their historic and living intellectual heritage.
  • Travel: take children to see Muslim countries, architecture, peoples; allow them to get a sense of awe from seeing a masjid unlike those they are accustomed to.

 

Discussion

Instilling Hope and Optimism

• Though ḥadīths state the earliest Muslim generations were the best, others indicate that the last generations will be equally good and that the best may be yet to come.
• Children should be shown that even in the face of the unspeakable horrors of genocide, Muslims achieve success and victory.

 

“Undercover Muslims” and Modeling Visibility

 

• Islamophobia and the suppression systems of the “War on Terror” pressure Muslims, especially wealthy and materially successful ones, to conceal their Muslimness.
• Signaling through Modeling: parents should model visible, confident Islamic practice, remaining mindful of small signals that affirm or undermine their child’s identity.
  • Parents praying in public, regardless of context, teaches children that faith is not something to hide.
  • Parents subtly hiding their Islamic identity (e.g., abbreviating names to be palatable) signals that being Muslim is something to conceal.
• Importance of Jamāʿa (Community) and Social Belonging: humans are social beings and cannot be expected to thrive as mere individuals, especially in hostile environments.
  • Children gain confidence in their faith and their ability to engage in faithful actions when among others who share their faith.
  • Parents should actively seek or create environments where group Islamic practice is normalized.
  • “Hijra” need not be necessary—moving to a city or neighborhood with a higher Muslim population density can help alleviate alienation.

 

 

Building Resilient Communities

Parents being conscious of their sense of agency is key.

• If they are the only Muslims in town, starting small with modest spaces is important.
• Such endeavors under conditions of relative isolation often foster ummatic sentiment through the necessity of interethnic collaboration.
• If the current environment lacks spaces for children’s worship, education, and socialization, parents’ agency is reflected in one of two options: either take leadership in establishing those spaces [25:74] or move somewhere that provides them [4:97].

 

Rescuing and Reorienting Identity in Later Years

• It is never too late to nurture ummatic identity.
  • Even in their 20s, as they gain more agency, children can be influenced through gap year travel, language study, exchange programs in Muslim countries, and exposure to Muslim cultures—parents should encourage and support this.
• Ummatic sentiment may be further strengthened in the domain of marriage.
  • Parents who insist on intra-ethnic marriages often contradict ummatic values.
  • Particularly in minority contexts, interethnic marriages help strengthen ummatic bonds and counter fragmentation.

 

Adolescent Autonomy and Parental Balance

• Adolescents thrive on autonomy, agency, and exploration—parents should allow for that.
  • Parental enforcement of Islamic practice or Qurʾan memorization may backfire—leading to burnout or unhealthy relationships with Islam—whereas empowering child agency and choice may yield more beneficial long-term results.
• Though children may drift away during adolescence, they almost always return in early adulthood after encountering the realities of secular excess.
• Parental warmth and open-door policies are crucial—parents should never shut their children out, even if they say, “I’m no longer Muslim.”

 

Tackling Sectarianism

• Children raised only with exposure to the madhhab predominant among their ethnic group are not equipped to recognize other madhāhib prevalent in the Umma as valid.
• Parents must actively expose children to diverse traditions (e.g., Maliki in Morocco, Hanafi in South Asia, etc.).
  • Islamic history education helps contextualize these differences as part of a rich and legitimate tradition.
• Personal and political commitments are often distinct: Muslims stand in unity and mutual support across theological and sectarian divides (e.g., Yemeni support for Palestine).

 

Understanding Identity

• Ummatic identity—incorporating “religious” and “political” dimensions—is distinct from “religious” identity—concerned with personal piety alone.
  • This is not to endorse a secularized notion of a personal piety as separable from the Umma, but to acknowledge that, psychologically, this identity exists because children are socialized to think of things in this way.
• This Ummatic identity must be actively nurtured by parents beyond standard accepted modes of “religious” learning that treat religion as the domain of private piety.

 

Social Media

• The impact of social media upon children is immeasurable.
  • Everyone is surrounded by social media, even those forced to stay off it—parents must help children navigate their desire to connect with the world.
  • Children are vulnerable to manipulation, image obsession, and identity confusion.
  • Platforms like YouTube are particularly dangerous due to algorithmic drift toward inappropriate content.
• Strategies include:
  • Delaying smartphone access until late teen years.
  • Replacing YouTube with bounded tools like video game consoles that can be supervised.
  • Educating children early on responsible digital behavior.

 

Ummatic Technological and Cultural Autonomy

• A pressing issue is ummatic technological autonomy and the development of technologies driven by Islamic values rather than secular capitalist logics.
• Children are shaped more by cultural forces than textbooks and formal education—songs, stories, and entertainment play a critical role in worldview formation.
• Developing ummatic media and literature—reflective of Islamic values and global Muslim narratives—is key, including fiction, cartoons, video games, and board games.
• There is a severe shortage of quality Muslim literature that speaks to teens.
• Reading for leisure should be actively cultivated:
  • Build home libraries.
  • Model reading behavior.
  • Communal reading activities.
  • Avoid over-reliance on devices, even for reading.

 

Concluding Reflections

• Qurʾanic recitation can be interwoven with stories of the prophets and the sīra.
• Ummatic literature, available to some extent in Arabic, must be made available in multiple languages.