Ten manners to teach a child first — each one taken from a narration, each one small enough to teach in the moment it belongs to rather than in a lesson.
Published 2026-09-06 · 8 min read · By the Maktab Quran Team
Adab is outward conduct — how a child greets, eats, asks permission and speaks — and akhlaq is the character underneath it. The manners to teach first are salam, saying Bismillah and eating with the right hand, asking permission before entering, and truthfulness, because they recur many times a day. The method that works is teaching each one at the moment it belongs to rather than in a lesson.
Key takeaways
Adab is taught at the moment, not in a lesson. The table is where table manners are learned.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم corrected a boy's eating in a single short sentence, with no lecture attached — that is the model.
Start with salam. It is the most repeated, most visible manner a child has, and it opens every other one.
Adab and akhlaq are related but not identical: adab is outward conduct, akhlaq is the character underneath it. Adab is the door in.
Every item below is given with the collection it is narrated in.
Adab is usually translated as manners or etiquette, which undersells it slightly. In the Islamic tradition adab is the outward shape of character — how a person enters a room, eats, speaks to someone older, treats an animal. Akhlaq is the character underneath. The two are connected in the obvious direction: practising the conduct tends, over years, to form the character.
That is why adab is taught to children early and in small pieces, and why nearly every item on this list is something that takes four seconds to do. What follows is ten of them, each with the narration it comes from.
How did the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم teach manners to children?
Teach it at the moment it belongs to. There is a narration in which a young boy eating beside the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was reaching around the dish, and the Prophet said to him: say Bismillah, eat with your right hand, and eat from what is in front of you. Three instructions, one sentence, delivered at the table while the boy was eating — not in a lesson afterwards, and with no reprimand attached.
That is the whole method, and it is worth copying exactly. Manners taught in the abstract are forgotten. Manners taught in the moment attach to the moment, and the moment recurs every day.
Which ten manners should I teach first?
1. Give salam first
Say As-salamu 'alaykum when you arrive and when you leave. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم taught that the one who greets first is closest to Allah, and he gave salam to children when he passed them.
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, Abu Dawud
2. Say Bismillah, eat with your right hand, eat what is near you
Three instructions given in one sentence to a boy eating beside the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. It is the clearest example in the Sunnah of teaching a child table manners gently and in the moment.
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim
3. Ask permission before entering
Knock, greet, and wait to be invited in — including at home, and including your parents' room. Permission is asked three times; if there is no answer, you leave.
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim
4. Speak the truth, even when it costs you
Truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise; a person keeps telling the truth until they are recorded with Allah as truthful.
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim
5. Be gentle with those younger, respectful to those older
"He is not one of us who does not show mercy to our young, nor honour our elders."
Source: Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud
6. Answer a sneeze
The one who sneezes says Alhamdulillah; the one who hears says Yarhamukallah; the first replies Yahdikumullahu wa yuslihu balakum.
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari
7. Do not waste — not even water
Moderation is commanded even in wudu, and even when performing it beside a flowing river. Waste is not a small matter in Islam.
Source: Ibn Majah
8. Keep your promise
Breaking a promise is named among the signs of hypocrisy in a well-known hadith — which is why a promise made to a child should be kept as carefully as one made to an adult.
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim
9. Be kind to animals
A woman entered the Fire over a cat she confined and did not feed; a man was forgiven for giving water to a thirsty dog. Mercy to animals is not sentimentality — it carries weight.
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim
10. Serve your parents before anyone else
Asked who deserves the best treatment, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said "your mother" three times, then "your father".
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim
About the sources on this page
Every dua below is given with the collection it comes from — Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah — or, where it is from the Quran, with its exact surah and verse. We cite collections rather than hadith numbers on purpose: numbering differs between printings, and a wrong number helps nobody. If you want to trace a narration to its exact place, ask your teacher or an imam you trust, and check it in a printed collection you have to hand. This page is a learning aid for families, not a substitute for a scholar.
Free printable: 10 Islamic manners for children
One A4 sheet, ten manners, each with its source and a line on when to teach it. Made for the fridge door, the classroom wall or a weekend-school folder.
They will, constantly, and how that is handled decides whether adab becomes character or becomes a source of friction. Two things are worth holding onto.
First, correct the action, not the child. "We eat with the right hand" lands very differently from "why can you never remember." The narration above corrects a behaviour in a single clause and attaches no verdict about the boy to it.
Second, keep the ratio sane. A child who hears ten corrections and no encouragement in a day learns that religion is a stream of corrections. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was described by the servant who spent ten years with him as never once having said uff to him, nor asked why he had done something or failed to do it. Ten years.
Does a maktab or weekend class actually help with adab?
Adab is a home subject, and no class replaces what a child sees at home. What an outside teacher adds is a second voice saying the same thing, and the ordinary social proof of other children doing it too — which for children between roughly seven and twelve carries more weight than a parent's instruction does.
That is the honest case for a maktab, and it is also the honest limit of one. If you are weighing it up, we wrote about what a maktab actually is in what is a maktab, and about the age question in the best age to start.
A teacher who models adab, not just recitation
One-to-one Quran classes for children with teachers who have taught children for years. Female teachers available as standard. First class free.
Adab is outward conduct and etiquette — how a person eats, greets, enters, speaks and treats others. It is closely tied to akhlaq, which is the inward character that such conduct both expresses and shapes.
What is the difference between adab and akhlaq?
Adab is the outward behaviour; akhlaq is the inner character. Practising adab consistently is the traditional route to forming akhlaq, which is why children are taught the conduct first.
What Islamic manners should I teach my child first?
Salam, saying Bismillah and eating with the right hand, asking permission before entering, and truthfulness. They recur many times a day, which is what makes them stick.
At what age should I start teaching adab?
As soon as a child can copy an action, which is around two or three for things like salam and Bismillah. Teach at the moment the manner belongs to rather than in a formal lesson.
How did the Prophet ﷺ teach manners to children?
In the moment, briefly, and without reprimand. The best-known example is his instruction to a boy at a meal: say Bismillah, eat with your right hand, and eat from what is in front of you.
What should I do when my child forgets a manner?
Correct the action rather than the child, and keep corrections in proportion to encouragement. Anas ibn Malik, who served the Prophet ﷺ for ten years, reported that he was never once rebuked by him.
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