Islamic Faith and Child-Rearing Practices among Thai Muslim Families in Bangkok

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to study the Islamic Faith on the behavior of child breeding of Thai Muslim Family in Bangkok. The literature review had been done by studying documents on Islamic studies and other relevant books. In the survey research, the sampling group was chosen in a random form of the 384 Thai Muslim Families in Bangkok who have not less than 3 children, whose ages are between 0-6, 7-13, and 14-20 years old relatively, in the case of the families that have only one child, the age of their child should not be less than 14 years old. The data, collected through the questionnaires, were about the comprehension in Islamic Faith, and the behavior of a child breeding. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.89. The data was analyzed by SPSS for windows computer program and the result of the data analysis was presented in the form of the diagram by showing the percentage, mean and the Chi square test. The results of the research are that the complete faith is confirmed by heart, confessed by word, and physical practices. Considering that the confirmation by heart is the vital basis of faith. The true faith controls all behavioral acts of Muslim both worships and good performances. The good performance is the natural result of faith. Then the completed status of the faithful believer relies upon the individual acts in the frame of Islamic principles. The child upbringing in Islam is the social process based on the faith, co-participating between family (home), religious institution (mosque) and educational institution (school) in cleansing inner consciousness, implanting moral behavior and improving physical dimension of the development as well as others in order to create a good person in a perfect form and in a helpful shape. It was also found that most of Thai Muslim families in Bangkok took care of their children on the basis of Islamic faith whereas their upbringing had related to the level of comprehension of faith. It means that the Muslim families in Bangkok who observed high level of comprehension of faith, their behavior in child breeding is more complying with the Islamic principles than the Muslim families in Bangkok who had low level of comprehension of faith, and that the child breeding is influences to increasing of faith and religious performance.