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Fatwa CenterHitting a pupil to discipline him/her
Question
I used to teach Qur'an at a madrassah. One day I had to substitute for a teacher. Her students are 5-year olds. The students got so out of control, that I could not even start teaching one ayah of the Holy Qur'an without them calling me bad names and yelling at me in front of grown men who started laughing. I was so humiliated! I lost patience and pressed the face of one of my students against the floor and would not let her go until I calmed down and threatend to severely punish the next one who interrupted me while I talked. Was what I did justified or was it Haram? I'm only 18, and my intentions were just to teach some Qur'an and control the class, but I guess because of my age the kids didn't take me seriously. Jazakum Allahu Khairan
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
The scholars
are of the view that it is permissible for a teacher to hit a pupil in order to discipline him but they put some conditions and restrictions so that the objective would be achieved without exceeding the limits. Among these conditions are:
1- Hitting should not exceed ten slaps, as the Prophet 
said: "One should not be slashed more than 10 slashes except in one of the corporal punishments determined by Islamic law." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
2- One should not hit the face, as the Prophet said: "If one hits [had no other alternative but to hit], he should not hit the face and he should not disparage the (looks of the) face." [Ahmad].
3- One should not hit in sensible parts of the body, like the private parts, the stomach and the like.
4- One should not discipline when he is angry because anger may take the person out of control; the teacher should avoid what causes anger, and he should seek refuge in Allaah from the devil when he is angry, as advised by the Prophet .
5- Hitting should be with the consent of the guardian of the child because leaving the child with the teacher is not sufficient to be permission for him to hit him, unless it is known in the customs by everybody, then in this case it is as giving him permission.
Therefore, it becomes clear from the above that you should not have done what you did, as you hit the child when you were angry, and you hit her on the face, and without the consent of her guardian. A teacher or educator should avoid hitting as much as possible especially the young pupils like those you are asking about in the question. Imaam Ahmad
was asked about a teacher hitting young pupils and he said: 'He should hit them only according to their sins (misbehaviour) but he should endeavour not to hit them, and if the pupil is young and not of sound reasoning, then he should not hit him at all.'
Allaah Knows best.
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