Childhood, school, job, marriage and … children. Practically everyone goes through these cycles of life. The most important job of a family does is help guide our future generation through these milestones in life. Each child is different; each family and it s challenges are different. But there is a lot which we share in common.

The book addresses the joys and pains of parenting. The family is still a strong part of our identity as Muslims, but it is under pressure in a society where gender competition seems to be more important that co-operation between genders. The challenges that Muslim parents face in the West are unique. We can help each other by sharing issues, questions, and answers. With this in mind Dr Abdul Bari shares his valuable insight with the readers. Apart from the overwhelming pull of amoral secular culture, the main problem seems to lie in our general ignorance, apathy and poor parenting'.

This book attempts to address the issue in a holistic way from an Islamic perspective. It is the result of a thrice-run online course on Parenting offered by the virtual school of an internet-based organisation, Witness Pioneer, in 2000-02. The same course was run separately on Salaam web page of London.

Parenting education is becoming fashionable. Britain's biggest children's charity, Barnardos, launched a campaign to highlight the need for parenting education to be available for all. Labour is working on a whole variety of policy initiatives aimed at supporting the family unit, including a National Family and Parenting Institute and a 24-hour parenting Helpline.

Parents have always needed to learn how to bring up their children, but in the past this was achieved fairly effortlessly through the extended family or close community. However, while all these parenting programmes are to encourage parents to understand their children, improve their children behaviour and enhance the well-being of the entire family, they do not attempt to provide a sound moral basis to help achieve these aims. This is where Islamic Parenting Education can help.