As Ramadan 2025 approached, I had a plan for my kids. I realized I was doing it all wrong.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. “Muslim parents want their kids to feel like Islam has just as much joy and celebration.” I told her about my own experience reading the book to my children, how I worried that oversimplifying concepts like God might do more harm than good. They pick up the vocabulary, and as they grow older, it opens up conversations that help them relate to Islamic teachings in a way that makes sense to them.” Justin Barrett, a cognitive scientist and Christian author who studies how children develop beliefs in God, told me that the first real signs of religious thinking appear at around 3 years old, right around the age of my son. “If they can grasp that grandma still has thoughts and feelings even when she’s not physically present, they can extend that kind of thinking to God.” I’m not sure I quite saw that happened behind my chidren’s eyes as I read to them that first night. “If they think that their parents are trustworthy, if their parents love them, if they feel that sort of emotional security—in psychological speak, we say that they’ve got a secure attachment—they are much more likely to adopt the faith their parents are modeling.” “That’s not a cognitive thing.