in Islām. The method will be shown by the following longer translation, also from al-Ghazzālī (vii, 362 ff.):

"An exposition of the method of training boys at their earliest age and the manner of educating them and beautifying their characters.

"Know that the method of training boys is one of the most important and urgent of things. A boy is a trust with his parents and his clean heart is a precious jewel, plain and free from all engraving or form. He is prepared to receive whatever is engraved and to incline to whatever is inclined to him. Then if he is accustomed to and taught good, he grows up according to it, and is happy in this world and the next, and his parents and each of his teachers and educators share with him in his reward. But if he is accustomed to evil and neglected, as cattle are neglected, he is unhappy and perishes and the burden of the sin is on the neck of his guardians and supervisors. God, whose characteristics are Might and Majesty, has said, 'O ye who believe, protect yourselves and your families from the Fire' (Qur. lxvi, 6). And often a father guards his son from the fire of this world, when guarding him from the fire of the next were more fitting. Such guarding is by educating him and admonishing him and teaching him the beauties of character and keeping him from partnership with evil; not by accustoming him to ease and making adornment and the causes of luxuriousness beloved by him, that so he may squander his life in the search for them when he has grown up, and perish eternally. But it behooves that he watch him from the first, and that he do not use in rearing him and suckling him any but an excellent and pious woman who eats lawful food. For the milk which comes from unlawful food has no blessing in it. So, whenever the growth of a boy comes from it, his clay is kneaded with uncleanness and his nature inclines to what is kin to uncleanness.

"And whenever a father sees in a boy signs of discrimination, it behooves him to increase his watchfulness. The first of that is the appearance of beginnings of shame; for when he is abashed or ashamed and abandons some action, that is nothing

but the shining in of the light of reason upon him so that he sees that some things are vile and opposed to others; then he becomes ashamed at one thing rather than another. This is a gift of God Most High to him and a piece of good tidings which points to poise of character and purity of heart and gives promise of completeness of reason when he attains maturity. So it is not fitting that the boy who has reached the point of educating him in his sense of shame and discrimination.

"The first quality which will gain control of him will be greediness in eating. So it is necessary that he should be taught as to it that he should take food with the right hand only, that he should say over it, 'In the Name of Allah!' when he takes it; that he should eat of what is next him and not grasp at the food before another; that he should not stare at it nor at those who eat; that he should not hurry in eating, but chew well; that he should not take several bites at once, nor soil his hands or clothes; that he should be accustomed to dry bread at times so that he should not come to regard seasoning as necessary; that much eating should be vilified to him by comparing all those who eat much to cattle, and by blaming before him the boy who eats much and praising before him the boy who is well brought up; that he should be taught to like choice food for another and to pay little attention to it himself, and to be patient as to coarse food.

"Also he should be taught to like white clothes instead of colored and brocade; and it should be fixed in him that such are the affairs of women and the effeminate, and that men despise them. That should be repeated to him. And whenever he sees upon a boy a garment of brocade or colored, then he ought to blame it. And a boy should be protected from boys who accustom themselves to an easy life and luxury and the wearing of splendid clothes, and from mixing with anyone who will cause him to hear what will make him desire that. For a boy, whenever he is neglected at the beginning of his growth, ends, for the most part, of evil character, a liar, an envier, a thief, a tale-bearer, a wrangler, overmuch of speech and laughter and guile and impudence; he can only be guarded against all that by being well trained.

"Then, it is incumbent that he should be occupied in school and should learn the Qur'ān and the traditions and the stories of the saints and their manner of life, that the love of the pious may be planted in him; and he should be guarded against poems in which there is mention of love and of lovers; and he should be guarded from intercourse with such scholars as maintain that these belong to culture and polish, for they plant in the hearts of youth a corrupt seed.

"Then, when there appears in the boy good disposition and a praiseworthy action, honor ought to be showed to him therefor, and he should be rewarded with what will rejoice him and be praised in the presence of others. Then, if he at sometime does anything different once, no attention should be paid to it, and his veil should not be rent, and he should not be uncovered, and it should not be suggested to him that anyone would dare to do the like, especially if the boy veil it and strive to hide it. For the bringing to light of what he has done will sometimes increase his daring, until he will not pay attention to the uncovering of it. Then, if he do it again, he should be rebuked in secret, and the thing should be magnified to him, and it should be said to him, 'See that you do not return again to the like of this; if you are known to do the like of this you will be put to shame before men.' But let not rebuke of him be frequent on every occasion, for the hearing of reproach and the committing of vile things will come to be a slight matter to him, and the effect of speech upon his heart will cease; but let the awfulness of speech from his father be preserved; let him not rebuke him except upon an occasion; and let his mother terrify him with his father and forbid him from vile actions.

"And he ought to be hindered from sleeping by day, for that produces laziness; but he should not be prevented at night; only he should not be allowed a soft bed, that so his limbs may be hardened and his body may not grow fat, so that he may not be able to endure anything but pleasantness; rather let him practice hardness in bedding and clothing and food; and he ought to be hindered from anything which he does in secrecy, for he would not conceal it if he did not believe that it was vile; then if he is let alone in that he becomes accustomed to the

doing of what is vile. And he should practice, part of the day, walking and motion and exercise, so that laziness may not get control of him; and he should practice not to leave his extremities uncovered, and not to hurry in walking, and not to let his hands drop loosely, but to hold them firmly to his breast; and he should be prevented from boasting himself over his fellows as to anything which his parents possess or as to anything of his food or dress or tablet or ink-bottle; rather, he should be practiced in humility and the rendering of honor to all with whom he comes in contact, and in gentleness of speech with them; and he should be prevented from taking anything from boys; if he be of the children of the respected, rather let him know that loftiness consists in giving, not in taking, and that taking is blameworthy and ignoble and low; and if he is of the children of the poor, that seeking and taking are disgrace and meanness, and that such actions are of the nature of a dog, for it glares in expectation of a morsel and in desire for it. In general, the love of gold and silver and the desire for them are vile in boys, and a boy should be guarded against them more than he is guarded against snakes and scorpions, for the bane of the love of gold and silver and the desire for them work more ill in boys than the bane of the simoom, and even upon older people also.

"And he ought to practice not to spit in an assembly, nor to blow the nose, nor to yawn in the presence of others, nor to turn his back upon another, nor to put one foot upon another, nor to put the palm of his hand under his chin, nor to prop his head with his arm-these things are signs of laziness. And he should know how to sit; and he should restrain much speech; and it should be made plain to him that much speech shows shamelessness, and is the action of the sons of the blameworthy; and he should restrain himself from oaths, absolutely, whether they are true or false, so that he may not become accustomed to them in youth; and he should restrain himself from beginning to speak first; and he should practice not to talk except by way of answer and only as much as the question requires; and that he should listen attentively whenever another talks to him of those who are older than he; and that he should rise up for

him who is above him and give him place, and sit before him, and should restrain himself from vain and immoderate speech, and from cursing and abusing, and from intercourse with him upon those tongue anything of that kind runs. For that necessarily comes from comradeship with evil and the root of the education of boys is guarding from comradeship with evil.

"And whenever his teacher strikes him, he ought not to cry out much, nor seek the intercession of anyone, but he should be patient and remember that such is the nature of the brave and of men, and that much crying out is the nature of slaves and women; and his teacher should permit him, after he has turned from his books, to play with such a pleasant play as I will rest him from the weariness of school, so that he shall not be wearied in play. For keeping the boy from play and keeping him at learning continually destroys the mind and blunts sharpness and embitters life so that he will seek out some strategem to be free of it absolutely.

"And he ought to learn to obey his parents and his teacher and his educator and everyone that is older than he, both relations and not, and that he should look upon them, honoring them and magnifying them, and should not play before them; and when he has reached years of discernment, he ought not to be spared observing the laws of purification and prayer, and he should be commanded to fast on some days of Ramadan, and to leave off wearing silk and brocade and gold; and he should learn all that behooves him of the restrictive ordinances of the law; and he should be made to fear theft and eating of what is unlawful and lying and shamelessness and everything that prevails among boys.

"Then, if he has grown up in this way in youth, it will be possible, when he has arrived at maturity, to instruct him in the secret meanings of those things, and he may be told that foods are but remedies, and that their only object is to strengthen man for the obedience of God; and that the world as a whole has no root since it has no abiding and death cuts off its pleasures, and that it is an abode which passes away, not an abode which abides, while the other world is an abode which abides, that passes not away; and that death should be looked