Our Children and the Masjid

The Statement of the Messenger - صلى الله عليه وسلم:

Order your children to pray at the age of seven, and hit them [lightly if they dont] when they are ten and separate them from one another in their beds.

These are Islamic etiquettes that must be adhered to; ordering the children to pray at the age of seven. Ordering them does not mean that you say; ‘Pray’ to them and that’s it, the Messenger - عليه الصلاة والسلام - ordering us to order our children to pray necessitates that we teach them how to pray. Otherwise, ordering your child to go the Masjid to pray while you haven’t taught him how to purify himself or how to pray is not fulfilling your responsibility. You fulfill your responsibility when you teach him how to purify himself, teach him how to pray, then order him to pray, it is then that you have acted out the order [of the Messenger].

As for the negligence of a lot of people, those who bring their child to the Masjid at the age of seven or younger, without being in a state of purity, without knowing how to pray, and then place them in the row – then this row is considered to be disconnected because of this child standing there. This is because this child is not praying, and this Hadeeth is enacted on the parent:

Whoever connects the line will be connected by Allah [to His reward], and whoever disconnects the line will be disconnected by Allah [from His reward].

You carry a child that does not understand how to pray, and you place him in the front row with you behind the Imam? The people are only being silent out of courtesy, because this child is not in prayer, he may not even be upon purity, maybe not even in his physical body. This is because you just took him from your home without teaching him how to purify himself and how to pray to begin with.

This is erroneous, what you should be doing is teaching him how to purify himself and how to pray in your home firstly, then you teach him where and how to stand in the row [in the Masjid].