Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies

Abstract

This article deals with a historical hadith (the prophetic saying) which allegedly
orders parents as follows: “when a child is seven years old, teach (or order)
your child to perform the ritual prayer (which is called “salât”); when he/she
is ten years old (and if he/she does not perform it), beat up him/her. ” Over fourteen
centuries, in all over the Muslim countries, most of the Muslim scholars have
practiced this saying as a prophetic hadith or His Sunnah in their Islamic education,
especially teaching the prayer. In fact, when we investigate this saying in all
the documentary books and compare the Prophet Muhammad’s behaviors to children
and other Muslims, firstly we can see clearly that this hadith is definitely in
contradiction to the Prophet Muhammad’s deeds (Sunnah). Secondly, in terms of
the verification of its isnads, the so-called hadith is not a sound one (sahih); but it
is weak (da’îf) unlike the claim of certain scholars.