Hitting children upon not praying

Research and Translation: Muhammad Hasan Ilyas;

(Rendered into English by Shah Aayan Zuberi)

In certain books of hadith, a narration attributed to The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) has been recorded, that, if by the age of 10, children do not begin to offer their prayers they are to be beaten until they begin doing so.

The text of these narration is such:

“عن عمرو بن شعيب، عن أبيه، عن جده، قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: ’’مروا أولادكم بالصلاة وهم أبناء سبع سنين، واضربوهم عليها وهم أبناء عشر سنين، وفرقوا بينهم في المضاجع”

“Amru ibn Shuayb narrates from his father and grandfather that The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) when your children reach the age of 7 then you should command them to offer their prayers, and when they reach the age of 10 then you should beat them upon them not offering their prayers, and separate their beds.”

In this context, we will attempt to understand this narration in light of the principles of authenticity regarding the chain of narration, as established by the scholars of hadith.

In the entire corpus of hadith literature, this narration has only been narrated by 2 companions:

1. Sabrah bin Ma’bad al Juhni

2. Abdullah bin Amr

All the narrations attributed to the first companion, Sabrah bin Ma’bad al Juhni, are weak according to the scholars of hadith. The primary reason for the weakness of these narratives is the narrator “al-Rabi’ al Juhni”. The verdict that the scholars of hadith place upon this narration is,

’إسناد ضعيف، فيه عبد الملك بن الربيع الجهني وهو ضعيف الحديث‘.

Narrations of this nature have been recorded in books such as, Musnad Ahmad, Sunan Abu Dawud and Sunan Tirmidhi etc.

After this, the second companion (as mentioned earlier) is Abdullah bin Amr. The narration attributed to him was first recorded in Al Mudawwana al Kubra of Imam Malik. The narration reads,

“وقال مالك: تؤمر الصبيان بالصلاة إذا أثغر و. قال سحنون، عن ابن وهب، عن عبد الله بن عمرو بن العاص، سبرة الجهني أن رسول الله ﷺ قال: ’’مروا الصبيان بالصلاة لسبع سنين، واضربوهم عليها لعشر سنين، وفرقوا بينهم في المضاجع.”(۱/ ۱۳۲)

“Malik said, “Command children to pray when their milk teeth fall out, it was narrated by Sahnoon ibn wahab from Abdullah bin Amr al Aas and he from Sabrah al Juhni, that The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “when your children reach the age of 7 then you should command them to offer their prayers, and when they reach the age of 10 then you should beat them upon them not offering their prayers, and separate their beds.”

In this narration, the names of both companions have been mentioned together as if the event is one. However the fault in this narration is that it is being narrated by a narrator ‘ibn wahab’ whose date of birth is 125 AH, whereas the companions he is narrating from, both of them have been reported to have passed away before 25 AH.

Thus this narrative too is broken and is therefore unacceptable. This is why Imam Malik, despite being aware of this narration, chose not to narrate it in his Muwatta.

After this, the attribution of this narrative to Abdullah bin Amr al Aas first appears in the book ‘Musannaf ibn Abi Shaybah’. The words of the narration recorded there are,

“عن داود بن سوار، عن عمرو بن شعيب، عن أبيه، عن جده، قال: قال نبي الله ﷺ: ’’مروا صبيانكم بالصلاة إذا بلغوا سبعا واضربوهم عليها إذا بلغوا عشرا وفرقوا بينهم في المضاجع.”

“From Dawud bin Sawaar from Amru bin Shuyab who narrates from his father and his grandfather that The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “when your children reach the age of 7 then you should command them to offer their prayers, and when they reach the age of 10 then you should beat them upon them not offering their prayers, and separate their beds.”

This in fact is the chain of narration that has been accepted and recorded by later books and several scholars even awarded it the status of ‘hasan lighairihi’ and thus accepted the narration, this is how this narration became popular and was regarded as a sound narration attributed to The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). The usual verdict of scholars regarding this hadith is,

“إسناده حسن في المتابعات والشواهد رجاله ثقات والصدوقيين عدا سوار بن داود المزني.”

However our opinion is that if one critically analyses the narrations of this category, then in light of the requirements of authenticity in a chain, certain questions arise:

The first is that several scholars of jarh o ta’deel are not convinced regarding the narrator Daud bin Sawar found in all chains of this hadith. Hafiz Dhahabi regards him as ‘weak’. Similarly the author of ‘Taqreeb at Tamheez’ is of the opinion that ibn Sawar is not reliable, he says about him,

’ضعيف يعتبر به ، ولم يحسن الرأي فيه سوى أحمد‘.

Thus, on the basis of this one narrator alone, all the narrations attributed to Abdullah bin Amr can be regarded as weak. This is why many contemporary scholars do not regard this hadith to be authentic in context of its chain.

The second question which arises is whether Amr bin Shuyab is narrating from his grandfather through his father or is his father narrating from his grandfather? No certainty regarding this can be found in the narration. Therefore, if the case is of the former condition then the narration would be expedient and if it is the latter then there would be discontinuity in the chain.

Thirdly this narration in the Musannaf of ibn Abi Shaybah where it was formally recorded for the first time, is separately narrated by Ibn Abi Shaybah as the statement of Tabi’. From this we can ascertain that this narration isn’t a hadith to begin with, rather it was the statement of a tabi’. Thus,

“حدثنا وكيع، عن سفيان، عن أبي رجاء، عن مكحول، قال: ’’يؤمر الصبي بها إذا بلغ السبع ويضرب عليها إذا بلغ عشرا”.

“Waki says that Sufyan narrated from Abi Rajaa and he heard from Mak-hool who said, “when your children reach the age of 7 then you should command them to offer their prayers, and when they reach the age of 10 then you should beat them upon them not offering their prayers.”

Therefore on the basis of the weaknesses in the chain (of the marfu narration) and the aforementioned flaws, on the basis of both, this narration is unacceptable.

This (narration) was likely the athar of some companion or the ijtihaad of some tabi’ which was later transmitted in this manner. This is further affirmed by a narration in Musnad al Bazzar, a great scholar of hadith Imam ash Shawkani in his book ‘Neel al Aotar’ points towards this and says that another narration, with certainty shows that this entire narration was found after the passing of The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), written on piece of paper, without being attributed to The Messenger (ﷺ), rather they were the words of some random person whose identity is not known, who said that in all probability that a child could be hit for not praying when they turned 9.

The narration reads,

“عن عبيد الله بن أبي رافع، عن أبيه رضي الله عنه، قال: وجدنا صحيفة في قراب سيف رسول الله ﷺ بعد وفاته فيها مكتوب: ’’بسم الله الرحمٰن الرحيم، فرقوا بين مضاجع الإخوة والأخوات لسبعِ سنين، واضربوا أبناءكم على الصلاة إذا بلغوا أظنه تسعا”.

“Abdullah bin Abi Raafi’ narrates from his father who says that, “After the passing of The messenger of Allah, we found a written piece of paper near a sword, upon which was written, ‘In The name of God; The Most Gracious; The Ever Merciful, separate the beds of the brothers and sisters when they turn 7 and I think you can hit them for not praying at the age of 9.’”

Summary:

Upon accepting this narration some scholars interpreted this beating as being a form of educationary discipling, however in our humble opinion the attribution of this narration to The Prophet (ﷺ) can not be proven and thus this narration is weak.

Thus this is why Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim did not recrord this narration as a part of their collections.

Furthermore, in light of the discrepancies in the chain of this narration, this narration also seems to contradict established reason and the collective message of Islam. Since the age at which one is bound to pray after one reaches puberty, it does not make sense to punish a child for not praying when they aren’t even bound to do so. Along with this, experts of psychology also tell us how such harshness during one’s childhood (negatively) impacts one’s emotions and connection with religion, whereas, on the other hand being the generous person The Prophet (ﷺ) was, who throughout his life taught religion with softness, gentleness and reason, how can such a person suddenly give a direction which results in scourging, mental bondage, and a conscious (and sacred) act such as worship being reduced to something which one must be physically forced to do.

And Allah knows best.