Islamic Ways To Discipline Children
20-8-2001 | IslamWeb
Question:
What are the proper ways according to the Qur'an and Sunnah to discipline children?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Raising children is a great and important task. One should raise his/her children according to the guidelines set by the Sharee’ah. There are many obligations and manners one should teach his children. We abridge some main points here.
1. Children should have the knowledge of the fundamental matters of the religion such as to know the perfect answer for the following questions: a) Who is their Lord? b) What is their religion? c) Who is their Prophet?
2. They should be taught the correct meaning of believing in Allah, His attributes, and His Prophet Muhammad . They should be familiar of the meaning of fearing Allah Alone, loving Allah and His Prophet, and the religion that Allah demands to be adopted. They should know that a Muslim follows Allah and His Prophet only, etc.
3. They should be taught the obligation of the Sharee’ah upon them such as the five prayers, Zakaah, fasting the month of Ramadan, etc. The Prophet said: “Command your children to perform the prayer when they are seven years old, and beat them for (not offering) it when they are ten.” [Ahmad and Abu Dawood]
4. Teaching them the manners of purity, ablution, ritual purity, etc. is also compulsory.
5. One should warn them of the big sins in Islam such as Shirk, magic, stealing, killing, fornication, usury, not being kind and dutiful to one's parents, etc.
Teaching and having them memorize at least a portion of the Quran, some Ahadeeth, and the matters they need in their everyday life. For instance, they should be educated that Allah's Name should be mentioned before every act, after eating or drinking, etc. Always we should praise Allah, should keep uttering all those supplications, which are supplicated at morning, evening, when entering and leaving the toilet, etc. These supplications are for Allah's protection from Satan.
Allah knows best.