What is your opinion of those who say that there is no harm in allowing children to engage in dancing, singing, and other violations until they reach puberty?

The questioner : And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and from the badness of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, there is no one who can misguide him, and whomsoever He leaves to misguide, there is no one who can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). We welcome, my sisters and brothers, the Shaykh, the hadith scholar, Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, in this meeting. Shaykh Nasir is a scholar of the Salaf, well-known and in need of no introduction. It is our pleasure, if Allah wills, in this meeting for the Shaykh to answer the questions of the sisters, if you permit, which were written down a little while ago.
The student : ... .

The questioner : ... No, no, the first one, no, on the left, please go ahead.
Before we examine these questions and select the important ones from them, we turn to the Shaykh with a question regarding some matters of upbringing, the upbringing of children in Islam. It is well known that there is more than one opinion on this subject. Some opinions say that there is no harm in teaching or allowing children in the homes to engage in strange types of things they receive from outside the Islamic home, such as the dancing they receive in schools, listening to songs, and other things, until they reach puberty. At that point, we inform them and teach them some of the etiquettes of Islam, or Islam in its completeness. This opinion cites the action of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), who used to play with dolls. The dolls are, of course, forbidden for adults, but for children, they are permissible. The other opinion says that it is obligatory to accustom the child from his youth not to listen to any song and not to engage in any type of song or dance in the school, nursery, or daycare, so that when he grows up, this will be rebellious in his nature. This opinion cites the action of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) when he "removed a date from the mouth of al-Hasan, a date of charity," or al-Husayn; I do not remember which one of them it was. It is a statement that we must not let the child become accustomed to forbidden things from his youth. So, which of the two opinions is the stronger after detailing this subject? May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh: Praise is to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own selves and from the badness of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide, and whomsoever He leaves to misguide, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger, , , . As for what follows:
Indeed, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), and the worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. And after that:
The strangest thing I have been surprised by in this period I have spent in your land is that I have heard in it what I have not heard in other lands, where the deviation is more eloquent, more severe, and more abundant than the deviation occurring in some of these countries. That is because I understood from the opening words of this session that there is a group of Muslims, that there is a group of Muslims, who see that there is no harm in raising the child on the European, disbelieving, sinful customs, and that the beginning of reform only starts after the boy reaches the age of maturity. And it is amazing that some of them argue with the play of Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) with her daughters, which she made from rags, cotton, and wool, knowing that these images are not among the images that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade with a general prohibition. So, arguing with the play of Lady Aisha, it is not permissible to argue with it to permit other forbidden things that some young girls engage in, on the pretext that Lady Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) had something of the forbidden due to her young age. This is a reversal of the truth on one hand, and a reversal of a principle of Islamic upbringing on the other hand, that principle which the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) established and founded by his saying: . This authentic hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) contains the foundation of an educational principle for young children who have not yet reached the age of accountability. That is because it is known in Islam that the pen is lifted from the child until he reaches puberty, as came in the authentic hadith. And yet, we find that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered in the previous hadith the guardian of the child, whether male or female, to order him clearly to pray and to maintain it. He said: ; even though this prayer is not obligatory on that child of seven years old, but the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered his guardian to order him to do so for a clear reason; which is that he should grow up recognizing the prayer in practice, not just in words. Then, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered in this hadith to beat the child for leaving the prayer if he reaches the age of ten; . This is another upbringing that progresses in severity from the first method of only ordering the prayer. So, the care of the Messenger (peace be upon him) for children reached the point of ordering his guardian to order his child to pray while he is seven, and if he does not become accustomed and practice the prayer in ... being seven until he continues to the age of ten, at that time it is obligatory on the one in authority to adopt another method with him, which is to beat him, but a beating that is not severe. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) mentioned a method in another matter, and he said (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him): . When the boy and the girl, who are siblings or brothers and sisters, reach this age, the age of ten, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) orders to separate them when they reach this age. And that is only because the sexual instinct usually moves at this age in the male and the female, and so that Satan the accursed does not exploit this movement in the boy and the girl, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered to separate them, and that is by each of them sleeping on a separate bed from the other, and not combining them on one bed and one cover. And this is in reality what draws our attention to another issue, which is what the zealous among Muslims complain of in this time, which the young men and young women are afflicted with in some universities, the mixing that is still complained of, as I said, by the zealous among Muslims. So, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) established this principle in upbringing by ordering to keep one of the genders away from the other in the case of lying down for sleep, to block the path of Satan to that. So, it is more necessary to block the other paths between the adults of the young men and young women, as is the case in many universities where mixing occurs, and may be accompanied by something of seclusion. And we hear that some great scandals occur in some countries that live a life of mixing between the young women and young men.
So, this hadith must be considered by us as a principle in training young children in Islam, of what was an obligatory order. And at that time, the statement of that other party, which permits dancing and permits the amusement whose origin is forbidden in Islam, on the pretext that the pen has been lifted from them and they are not held accountable, is invalidated clearly. And in my opinion, they know that the time of upbringing for young children is this time. If their branch dries up in uprightness, they will be upright, and the opposite is the opposite. For that reason, we see that the opinion which says the permissibility of raising young children with that upbringing that is contrary to the Shari'ah for adults, there is no difference then between adults and children except in terms of reward and punishment in the Hereafter. But in terms of upbringing, we should raise our young ones as we raise our adults. This is what I have as an answer to that question.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.