On what's under the foreskin

What better way to address Islamophobia and lack of interest of youngsters towards praying

A common scene seen in the typical Malaysian musolla: the children gets a line to themselves during prayer behind all the adults, usually this line would be 2 lines behind the last adult line, just in case more adults come in for the prayer. Perfect. 

Except that 2 minutes after starting the prayer, a boy bumps his behind against the boy next to him, and another boy at the other end does the quite convincing 'silent pinch' to his mate next and another boy in the middle starts running around laughing because the boy beside him passed gas. Soon, all the boys start to make noises of all sorts and run around in response to the gas passed, or simply because all the other boys are doing it. 

And upon experiencing this, the adults have understandably taken precaution measures against disruptions to their prayer (refer to the photo above). Yes, in this particularly beautiful mosque, a national treasure, children under 7 must not set foot in the main prayer hall. This is of course because kids under 7 cannot control their bowel and flatulent movements as well as adults can (read in sarcastic tone: even the 80 year olds) and they are more likely to run around the hall yelling and disturbing the other devout people trying to pray with their hearts fully concentrating on each syllable of the Al-Fatihah that most of them don't even know the meaning of. 

Well, as a fellow friend quite automatically pointed out to me when I showed the photo to him, and I quote "of course, because we don't want the kids to start making noise and run around and disturb all the adults...", this issue on the surface may well be just that. About kids and themselves being kids and adults and themselves being adults and kids should go somewhere else and not disturb the adults because the adults need to pray as their deeds are taken count and kids should pray at the back so as to not disturb the adults and not 'break' the saff because kids arent 'counted' just yet and kids may be dirty.

I have a problem with this.  

I have a problem with kids running around in the prayer hall unattended by the adults who are supposed to be in charge of their children. I have a problem with people saying that children 'break' the saff, I have a problem with people making 'religious' policies without referring to religion in the first place. So the issue is much bigger, its about what Islam we practice in Malaysia and what Islam we teach our children.

And so  the issue of the entry today is about the children saff. Should there be such a thing? Is it in anyway children friendly? 

Why have i decided to post an entry about this?

Well, its the same reason as many of these authors. I saw an event in the mosque where a child was pushed to the back by the devout 60 year old uncle who says that the child cannot join the saff because he was uncircumcised, even when the imam told the boy to join the saff. So I've done a bit of research and have come across these blog posts:

1. http://halaqah.net/v10/index.php?topic=2847.0
2. http://ibadah.blog.com/2006/11/28/kanak-kanak-dalam-saf-orang-dewasa/ 
3. http://www.zaharuddin.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=276&Itemid=95 
4. http://maben.multiply.com/journal/item/47

You may not have time to read all those entries, so let me break the issue down into simpler headings:

The biggest issue of why people think that children shouldnt be in an adults' saff:
Uncircumcised children may carry filth under their foreskin that may cause them to be filth themselves and upon touching filth, the prayer of a person is not accepted. Thus to avoid the saff being broken, it is best to leave the children to pray amongst themselves at the back. If there will be a 'broken' saff, it is better for it not to be the adult saff.
 
Problems with this conception and the children saff:
1. children are afraid to join the prayer with the adults
2. children are left to their own devises to do whatever they want
3. it gives a conception that religion is for adults only
4. parents cant pray with concentration worrying about where their child may be and if the child is screaming 'PAPAAAA..!!PAPAAAA!!!!!' and tugging at their parent's pants all the while, they may be a bit concerned about their image too.

My conclusion after reading those articles:
1. uncircumcised children should not be considered as filth or 'possibly filthy' (excuse the usage of the word filth, it just ads to the sarcasm of the whole entry) as per the hadith and conclusions of many scholars.


2. it shouldnt be compulsory for children to be told to stay at the back because they do count as of the hadith quoted in many of the blog entries.The hadith quoted most is

Daripada Anas bin Malik katanya neneknya, Mulaikah telah menjemput Rasulullah s.a.w. untuk makan makanan yang disediakannya. Lalu Rasulullah s.a.w. makan sebahagaian darinya kemudian bersabda: "Bangunlah, saya akan mengimamkan sembahyang kamu. Lalu saya mendapatkan sekeping tikar kami yang berwarna hitam kerana sudah lama digunakan kemudian saya merenjiskannya dengan air. Rasulullah s.a.w. berdiri, seorang anak yatim berdiri bersama saya dan nenek di belakang kami. Baginda bersembahyang mengimami kami sebanyak dua rakaat."


3. if children were to pray beside their fathers in the same saff, the father can better watch them and make sure they behave.

So, the next time you have a boy following you to the mosque, have him pray beside you. Of course this isnt the ultimate solution to kids running around and being kids, but at least it can make the number of kids running around in the prayer hall less. And this could probably help in us teaching kids the way collective prayer should work and the spirit of acceptance and love among muslims for children.  

So people! Ask your kids to join you for prayers in the mosque, and teach them Islam the way the Prophet taught Islam to the children around him. With gentle and tender love. 
 

“Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression.”  (Dr. Haim Ginott)

If anyone finds this entry pitifully incorrect and deviated, please let me know. I personally am afraid of publishing this for fears of getting things wrong. As this is just an honest opinion of a person not so well educated in fiqh and related areas, any corrections to it is much welcomed.