Understanding Religion

[NOTE: The following piece is primarily based on my personal experiences from working as a volunteer at “Deaf & Blind School & College - IDA RIEU WELFARE” and discusses the problem ‘understanding of/conceptualising religion’ by a ‘child with hearing impairment’ and does not deal with religion itself. The area of concern is mostly limited to Muslim children living in Pakistan, but I hope it to be of service to anyone anywhere. I am thankful to Madam Bilquis Bano, a senior teacher and a section in-charge of secondary school at IDA RIEU, and her fellow teacher Madam Afshan Alia,  for all their help, support and guidance.]  

I was speechless, when a hearing impaired child asked me, “is it true what they say about God?” I couldn’t answer him then, but discovered a problem which is faced by these children, whose parents and teachers are not well equipped to deal with. The understanding of a hearing impaired child should be in accordance, or as close as possible, with the normally accepted version of religion by the society which that the child belongs to, especially in a country like Pakistan where religion is a matter of grave importance. Otherwise, the child with hearing impairment might not fit in and face difficulty functioning in the society.

This piece does not discuss the concept of religion itself but the problems of its understanding which are faced by a hearing impaired child. When it comes to forming one’s perception and opinion about reality, five senses play a profound role. However, a hearing impaired child falls short of one of these senses. Although such a child is able to develop listening—with the help of cochlear implant or hearing aid—and speech—with the help of speech therapy—but this is not the case with the majority of such children with respect to Pakistan who are rarely offered such an opportunity. This piece, firstly, aims at measures which can prove helpful enabling a child with hearing impairment to develop the understanding of religion along the lines of a normal hearing person. Secondly, it tries to answer the question, “why it is important for parents and teachers to address the issue of understanding of/conceptualising religion?”

Helpful Measures in Children’s Understanding 

In some cases, only the level of understanding may differ, while in other cases, the basic understanding of religion might be in question. To understand this, let us divide these religious concepts into two categories:

(a)    Simple concepts

(b)   Complex concepts

Simple concepts are those which do not raise any conflicts in mind because there is no ‘why’ involved. On the other hand, complex concepts will raise questions and can possibly result in conflicts within one’s mind, and ‘why’ can be a possible reason behind it. “What is your religion?” is a question of simple concept which is going to receive a simple answer. But when asked, “Why is religion?” or “What is religion” can create conflicts in anyone’s mind. The understanding of complex concepts is often vague for a child with hearing impairment or even of normal hearing.

For a child with hearing impairment, limited options are available for learning these concepts. They learn through:

(a)    Exposure—which allows understanding.

(b)   Pictures—which allows imagining.

(c)    Practices—which allows reasoning.

All these three methods will not only enable a child with hearing impairment to learn about religion and its significance but also allow them to resolve the conflicts caused by the complex concepts.

 

Exposure

A child can learn about complex concepts with the help of direct exposure from the outside world. It might be difficult to explain to a child, let alone a child with hearing impairment, a complex concept such as corruption or charity. But a hearing impaired child will learn a great deal about corruption and other social norms by the end of the day, if he is extroverted and participates in daily dealings related to varied situations. The exposure will teach the hearing impaired child a lot about what goes on outside his house. Most of such learned things are tempting and prohibited like drugs, arms and guns, alcohol etc. In these situations, religion will guide the child in face of any temptation of doing something which is either bad or which the child is going to regret afterwards. For this reason, the primary purpose of religion is counted upon; to establish morality and ethics in a society by influencing and shaping the values and belief system of an individual.

Pictures

The pictorial display of religious beliefs in a house is a most efficient tool to teach a child about religion. However, this practice is more prevalent in religions like Hinduism and Christianity and not among Muslims. In fact, the use of pictures is greatly discouraged in Islam, especially the interpretation of Islam as practiced in the sub-continent. Just like exposure allows a child to ‘understand’, pictures enable a child to ‘imagine’ when it comes to complex concepts. Religious artworks distinctively portray vile and the forces of good, tells stories and myths, and drawn faces of gods and deities are presented with a divine glow. Islamic artwork is mostly limited to calligraphy which offers very little imagination to a Muslim child with hearing impairment.

From left to right: (a) painting depicting Hindu religious story where Lord Rama is killing Ravana; (b) Mosaic depicting Christian belief of Christ’s birth; (c) Islamic artwork of Arabic Calligraphy at Wazir Khan Mosque

 

Children with hearing impairment can also use pictures to convey their own understanding of complex ideas to the world. They are fond of painting and their work of art is the best mode of their expression.

Artwork by a hearing impaired child at IDA RIEU School for deaf depicting Rumi’s Sufism  and mysticism.

Artwork by a hearing impaired child at IDA RIEU School for deaf depicting the method and practice of Muslim praying.

Artwork by a hearing impaired child at IDA RIEU School for deaf depicting a complex concept of corruption with a snake made out of Pakistani coins/currency and a small child in a cage with only Quran in her hands for protection.

Practices

Religious practices by the members of a family also help children with hearing impairment to comprehend the complex concepts as it is followed by a reason. We can consider the example of the practice of offering Salat in a Muslim household:

a)      Practice: Offering Salat

b)      Reason: To please Allah, who is our Lord

This sort of reasoning allows understanding complex ideas in order to resolve conflicts that exist within the child’s mind. This reasoning can act as a transaction from understanding a simple concept of offering Salat to a complex concept like doing charity with the ultimate goal of pleasing Allah. Of course, parents and rest of the family members have a great role to play when it comes to reasoning.  

Crossing Over the Dark Side

Although religion may allow a child with hearing impairment to function properly in a society, especially in countries like Pakistan, children with their frail minds may be detracted from following ethics and morals towards its destructive tendencies. Instead of encouraging, such tendencies should be addressed by parents, teachers and people living in the neighbourhood through resolving the conflicts within the minds of the children from a very early age. Such tendencies can be:

 

a)      considering one superior over others on the basis of religion rather than noble actions and deeds done by a person of a different religion or sect.

b)      looking with contempt at others belonging to minority groups.

c)      limiting the scope of the definition of education only to religious studies and ignoring the entire system and purpose of education altogether, especially by demeaning scientific endeavours.

d)      abusing one’s fundamental rights, such as the right to vote, association and freedom of speech to further a particular group’s political agenda under the pretext of religion.

In case of an inability of parents and teachers to resolve such conflicts relating to religion, the understanding of religion will become a gap which will remain and emerge later in life, especially during the late teen years. This allows the extremist forces of the society to penetrate in the mind of the child, only to be used in terrorist activities. In such a case, a child with hearing impairment is equally at risk as a normal hearing child in crossing over the dark side of religion.

            Conclusion  

While working with children with disabilities, the aim should be to enable them to function independently in a society which awaits them outside. Understanding of/ conceptualizing religion is among many factors and variables which they have to overcome in order to have acceptability, which should be assisted with the availability of opportunities. However, role of parents and teacher should never be undermined since only they can insure that the child will grow up to be a responsible adult, a model citizen and a functioning member of a society. Otherwise, there is a possibility of that child falling into the wrong hands.