The masjid is a place where Muslims gather to not only pray but also to learn.
During Prophet Muhammad’s time, peace and blessing be upon him, it was the busy centre of a Muslim’s life. Nowadays, most Muslims turn up only weekly for the Friday Juma prayers, or worst only twice for the Eid prayers (if it was offered at the masjid).
Make it a daily habit of praying at the masjid for your children especially for the boys. When their father goes to the masjid for the daily Fajr, Maghrib or Isha prayers then encourage your children to come along.
When there are lectures or lessons at your local masjid, be sure to attend and take your children along. Enrol them into the weekend or evening classes. Find out what your local masjid has to offer and join when you can.
Teach your children the etiquette of attending the masjid but don’t scold them so hard when they’ve made a mistake that it makes them hate going. A kind reminder and encouragement to follow etiquette should suffice.
You can read books about the masjid to your children. There are a few good books about the masjid for children. One of them is titled ‘Hassan and Aneesa Goes to the Masjid’ by Yasmeen Rahim. (If you would like to read a review of this book along with some masjid activities then click here.
You could also play games about the masjid. Smart Ark has a game called ‘Build a Masjid’. It’s a fun counting game that gets children to collect and count golden coins to build the masjid.
Here is another way to encourage your children to love the masjid. I have designed a masjid colouring sheet for your children (and you!) to colour in. You can download it for free here.
I used this colouring sheet at a parenting seminar that I was asked to run the children's program. Here are the children hard at work. Don't be mislead by these photos, the boys were keen to colour this in as well (I just forgot to take their photos).
For more colouring sheets, you can view them on my etsy shop.
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