The Application Of Prophet’s Methodology In Children Education By Uum Woman’s Staff

Children education using the exemplary conduct method

The most prominent method that was applied by Rasululah s.a.w. in the education is through the exemplary conduct which is more practical. Rasulullah s.a.w. never instruct anything unless he himself has performed it first, then only his companions will follow based on his conduct (al-Halabi, 2009). There are more hadiths that indicate the utilization of this method by Rasulullah s.a.w. One of it is the hadith narrated by Ibn ‘Abbas r.a. with the following meaning:

“I spent a night in my aunt’s house, Maimunah. Rasulullah s.a.w. went to sleep and woke up in the middle of the night. He performed light ablution from a hanging water container and prayed. I also woke up and performed ablution as he did. When I stood to his left to pray together with him, he moved me to his right. He then proceed with his prayer” (al-Bukhari, 1987, no. 138, p.64).

This hadith signifies that Ibn ‘Abbas has performed ablution exactly according to the way he observed Rasulullah s.a.w. did. Then, he stood up and prayed together with the Prophet (Ibn Rajab, 2001). This clearly illustrates the exemplary conduct method that was practiced by Rasulullah s.a.w. in education.

The findings related to the application level of the exemplary conduct method among the UUM woman staff are shown in the following table 01 :

The above table shows the five items contained in this method. Almost all respondents agree with all the five items except seven who did not agree with the third item, which is ‘I do not curse other people’ . The findings indicate that almost all respondents do portray exemplary conduct to their children by performing prayers five times a day and fasting in the month of Ramadan without fail. They also demonstrate good moral by not cursing other people, respecting the elders, and preserving cleanliness. The findings are in line with those of (Zakaria, 2009) that focuses on the preparation of children spiritual education by parents in Taman Batu Permai, Kuala Lumpur. Her findings reveal that the respondents always show good exemplary conduct to familiarize their children with virtuous moral.

Moreover, Yahaya, Ma’alip, and Ismail, (2013) support this findings by stating that children can easily follow and imitate the observed or watched behaviour, especially of those closest to them. The closest individuals to the children are their parents, siblings, caregivers and other family members that live with them. Without being aware, some examples of conducts that are being observed and imitated by the children include eating and speaking styles, conversation, as well as behaviour while being angry and honest. Therefore, individuals should demonstrate good and consistent behaviour.

Children education using the admonition through storytelling method

Admonition through storytelling is an effective method in educating children. This method has been used by Rasulullah s.a.w. This is evidenced in the hadiths that recorded the stories of previous community or ummah as conveyed by Rasulullah s.a.w. Among them is the story about a prostitute that was forgiven by Allah s.w.t. for saving a dog. This hadith was narrated by Abu Hurairah r.a. as follows:

Narrated by Abu Hurairah r.a. from Prophet s.a.w., Allah Messenger said: “Once, a prostitute of Bani Israel passed by a dog that was about to die of thirst, panting round a well, thus the woman took off her shoes (to go down the well and fill up the shoes with water), then gave the dog water to drink. So, Allah s.w.t. forgave her sins for her noble behaviour”. (al-Bukhari, 1987, no. 3280, p.1279).

The above hadith will certainly encourage children to do good and abandon bad deeds even to animals. In this matter, (al-‘Uthaimin, 2005) concludes that this method will be used by Rasulullah s.a.w. if he were to relay any story related to Bani Israel so that we can have a lesson learned from such story.

The findings pertaining to the application level of the admonition through storytelling method among the UUM woman staff is shown in the following table 02 :

table 02 shows that majority of the respondents agree that they have applied all the items contained in the methodology. Therefore, it can be concluded that most respondents do remind their children by relaying stories from the al-Quran and hadiths concerning those who Allah s.w.t. loves and detests. Storytelling has been identified as an effective method in shaping a child personality. According to Suaid, (2013), story can play an important role in getting children’s attention as well as their intellect and thinking consciousness. This method is ranked in the first place since its thinking technique can be enjoyed by children. This is supported by Bowkett, (2012) by suggesting that story exposes children to various ideas, perceptions, and perspectives as well as sharing of experiences.

Nevertheless, there is a small number of respondents, not more than two percent, indicates that they did not apply the storytelling method. This may be due to the time constraints faced by working mothers. Their busy schedules caused them to less time spent to tell story to their children. This assumption is backed by Ko Teik Yen, a clinical psychotherapy specialist and the Asian Parenting Academic Principle, who claims that the busyness in managing their children as well as the demanding office tasks have made most of the parents tend to ignore not only on their own selves but also those around them (Hafidzin, 2015). Hence, parents should be wise in managing their time so that their children’s education is not neglected.

Children education using the monitoring method

The monitoring method in children education is about keeping an eye on the child, always be with him or her in shaping his or her creed, moral, spiritual, and social besides continuous monitoring on his or her physical education and knowledge development (‘Ulwan, 2013). This is the method being practiced by Rasulullah s.a.w. in education. Among his monitoring examples is the one refering to the hadith narrated by Umar bin Abu Salamah r.a. with the following meaning:

During the old days when I was a child under the care of Rasulullah s.a.w., and as my hand used to wander around in the dish during the meal time. Rasulullah s.a.w. said to me, "Mention Allah's Name (i.e., say Bismillah), eat with your right hand, and eat from what is in front of you”. (Muslim, no date, no. 2022, p.1599)

The above hadith clearly points out that Rasulullah s.a.w. always monitor the demeanor of Umar bin Abu Salamah while eating when he was a small child. Rasulullah s.a.w. also taught him other appropriate manners while eating. When delving into this hadith, (al-Nawawi, 2016) states that Rasulullah s.a.w. taught us three eating manners which are mentioning Bismillah, eating with right hand, and eating from what is nearest to you (for example when eating with others in a tray). This hadith proves that Rasulullah s.a.w. has used the monitoring method in educating young children.

In this study, the findings regarding the application level of the monitoring method among the UUM woman staff are depicted in Table 03 .

Table 03 presents the application level of the Rasulullah s.a.w. monitoring method. This method consists of five items. The first item, which is to keep an eye on the way a child eats and drinks, is agreed by all respondents. This indicates that all respondents trained their children the proper manners and good conducts during meal time. This hour is identified as the best time to shape children’s moral. According to (Yahaya, Ma’alip, & Ismail, 2013), eating together during meal is the most appropriate time to educate and train children on being polite and courteous. In addition, (Jamaludin, 2007) emphasizes that at this time, a child will reveal his or her original character, which will then lose control against the desire to eat that sometimes he or she turn to behave badly. If both parents do not accompany their children during meal time and correct their eating misconducts, the children will be carried away with the bad manners until becomes part of their habits.

Furthermore, the findings also indicate that the fifth item, knowing the children’s friends, gets the highest consent by majority of 179 respondents. This number suggests that most of the respondents are very concern about whom their children are mingling with. This is supported by (Velayutham, 1997) by stating that parents must keep an eye on their children’s peers especially those who are becoming teenagers. He further explained that if a child mixed around and be friend with those having good behaviour, they will also be influenced to pick up the good habits. On the other hand, a child will have negative personality if the friendships are not monitored.

The remaining items, which are monitoring the television programs watched by a child, monitoring the types of game played by a child through the internet/mobile phone, and inspecting the books/magazines read by a child, are also agreed by majority of the respondents. The findings reveal that most respondents are aware with the influence of the mass media such as print and electronic media towards the development of the children’s behaviour. The UUM woman staff are found to always monitor their children who are exposed to these two types of media. Such practice should be praised because a lot of studies has shown that the mass media have strong influence in shaping children’s morals. For example, in their studies, (Stapa, Ismail, & Yusuf, 2012)discover that the mass media is one of the social environment factors that gives a significant impact to the formation of individual’s identity. According to them, exposure to healthy technology sources will increase the cognitive, emotional, and social developmental levels of the children. On the contrary, children who are exposed to a source of violence, yellow or tyrannical technology will develop a negative attitude and undesirable personality.