Elementary Education and Motivation in Islam: Perspectives of Med ...

that this particular age has been stipulated in Islam as the age to start teaching prayer and adab.⁸⁹

Taking all the opinions into consideration, it is safe to postulate that some form of irda exists in children during the stage of ta'db, regardless of whether it is fully developed or not. This finding is significant because it demonstrates how the nature of childhood development and psychology, including motivation, was at the forefront of the medieval Muslim jurists’ thinking. Indeed, many medieval Muslim scholars who wrote on elementary education were well-known jurists.

Classical Definitions of Childhood
and Elementary Education

Childhood Tamyz

This book focuses on the period of childhood that begins with tamyz and ends with taklf, wherein the medieval Muslim child would undergo some form of elementary education. Prior to tamyz, this child was neither sent to school nor offered any formal instruction. Upon the onset of puberty, adulthood began, and a student would leave the fold of the kuttb after having acquired proficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic. He would have also read and/or memorised the entire Qur'an and learnt the basics of Islamic faith and religious practice. Advanced students mainly finished their elementary studies before the onset of puberty. Only in rare cases did slow learners stay on or did the kuttb allow admission of an illiterate adult.

From the previous discussion on motivation, I have already quoted several meanings for tamyz. Linguistically, it implies ‘distinguishing one thing from another’; in Muslim juristic terminology, sinnul-tamyz (the age of tamyz) refers to ‘the age at which one knows the things that are beneficial and those that are harmful: or, according to some jurists, it is a faculty of the brain wherein meanings are elicited’.⁹⁰

The strongest opinion about tamyz is that it generally occurs by the age of seven, and in most cases, taklf begins with the onset of puberty (usually at the age of fifteen). However, there are exceptions that may