Muslim Teens

Abstract

This is the second book on parenting by the husband-and-wife team of Dr. Ekram and Mohamed R. Beshir. Muslim Teens addresses an issue of deep concern to all Muslim parents: how to keep one’s children on the “straight path” when they reach the turbulent years of adolescence. The authors are professionals who have raised four daughters in Canada. Their daughters, now adults, have contributed to the book with insights from a teen’s point of view, based upon their own experiences of growing up Muslim in North America. The first two chapters draw a picture of teens and their environment. Drawing on Ekram’s background in medicine and child psychology, these chapters describe the turbulent nature of puberty and the physical and emotional growing pains experienced by teenagers. The second chapter also gives an overview of North American teen culture, which should be required reading for all immigrant parents raising children in a culture that can be viewed as largely antithetical to Islam. Chapters 3 to 6 provide a “road map” for raising teens and presents an overview of the aims and stages of Islamic tarbiyah (education, upbringing). They advise parents to start early and state that both parents should share a common vision of childrearing and set clear goals, such as spiritual conviction (not just knowledge of Islam) and enabling teens to develop strong and confident personalities. These chapters contain extensive quotations from the Qur’an and Sunnah to support what the authors say, thus enabling readers to gain a solid overview of parenting from an Islamic perspective. The authors also take some basic Islamic principles of social ...