The Rights of Children in Islam

A look at rights of children in islam in Islamic teaching, drawn from the Quran and authentic hadith.

Islamic teaching places specific, enumerated obligations on parents toward their children, treating a child’s upbringing as a trust for which a parent will be held accountable – a framework scholars point to as distinguishing Islamic teaching on childhood from a view of children as simply belonging to their parents to raise however they see fit.

Rights of children in Islam: A Shepherd Responsible for the Flock

A hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim describes the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ teaching that every one of you is a shepherd, and every one of you is responsible for his flock – and specifically names a man as a shepherd over his household, responsible for them. Scholars point to the deliberate use of shepherding language to describe the parental role as evidence that raising children was framed in Islamic teaching as active stewardship, carrying accountability rather than unrestricted authority.

The Right to a Good Name

A hadith recorded by Abu Dawud describes the Prophet ﷺ teaching that among a father’s obligations to his child is giving him a good name – a point classical scholarship expanded into detailed guidance on choosing names with positive meaning, and on the Prophet’s ﷺ own recorded practice of renaming individuals whose given names carried negative or inappropriate connotations.

Equal Treatment Between Children

A hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim describes a companion, Nu’man ibn Bashir (RA), asking the Prophet ﷺ to witness a gift he had given to one of his sons. The Prophet ﷺ asked whether he had given an equivalent gift to all his other children. Told no, he refused to serve as a witness, stating plainly that he should fear Allah and treat his children equally, and that he himself would not bear witness to an act of injustice. Scholars cite this episode as establishing fairness among siblings as a specific, enforceable expectation rather than a vague ideal left to parental discretion.

Compassion, Not Harshness

A hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim describes a Bedouin telling the Prophet ﷺ that he had ten children and had never kissed a single one of them. The Prophet ﷺ replied that he could do nothing for someone in whose heart Allah had removed mercy – a rebuke scholars treat as rejecting cold, purely disciplinary parenting in favor of visible affection, at a time and in a culture where open physical tenderness toward children was not universally practiced.

The Right to Education and to Play

Classical scholarship, drawing on the broader Islamic emphasis on seeking knowledge, treats religious and practical education as a right owed to every child by their parents, alongside an acknowledged place for ordinary childhood play. A hadith recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari describes the Prophet ﷺ personally engaging in play with his own grandsons, Hasan and Husain, carrying them on his shoulders and racing with them – accounts scholars cite as evidence that Islamic teaching did not treat childhood play as a distraction from proper upbringing, but as a normal and even encouraged part of a child’s development, modeled directly by the Prophet ﷺ himself.

Guidance in Stages, Not All at Once

A hadith recorded by Abu Dawud describes the Prophet ﷺ instructing that children be commanded to pray from the age of seven, and, if they still neglect it, be gently disciplined over it by the age of ten, with sleeping arrangements separated between them from that same age – a staged approach classical scholars have read as reflecting a broader principle running through Islamic teaching on raising children: expectations introduced gradually, matched to a child’s developing capacity, rather than imposed all at once as though a young child could be held to the same standard as an adult. Scholars have connected this staged approach to the general legal principle that full religious obligation, taklif, does not begin until puberty, meaning the years before that point are treated in classical teaching as a period of deliberate preparation rather than strict accountability, with parents responsible for building habits gradually so that by the time obligation does begin in full, prayer and other core practices are already familiar rather than entirely new. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, writing specifically on the upbringing of children in his work “Tuhfat al-Mawdud,” extended this same principle of graduated responsibility into other areas of a child’s upbringing, arguing that habits formed gently and consistently in childhood proved far more durable than obligations suddenly imposed on an unprepared adult.

This theme connects directly to our article on An Islamic Guide on Naming Children. The verses and hadith cited above can be cross-referenced in full at Sunnah.com.