According to findings released by the Director-General of the Indonesian Supreme Court’s Bureau of Religion in 2010, there were 285.184 divorces, which marks the highest number of divorces in the last five years. In 2015, the number increased to 344.237. This increase became the dissertation material for Moh. Toriqul Chaer in his doctorate promotion session from the Islamic Psychology Education of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (PPI UMY) at Kasman Singodimejo Building of UMY Central Campus on Tuesday (23/7/19).

In his dissertation, Toriqul discussed ‘Education for Children of Single Parents from the Perspective of the Qur’an’. A child’s education in the family is the responsibility of the parent. They are required to provide biological and psychological support, as well as take care and educate them. Because mothers have a larger part in family education, they sometimes will have to act like a single parent.

“Mothers have a large part in their child’s character education because they had been with the child since the child was born. The presence and influence of a mother to her child start from the womb. As per the study’s theme, this research aims to search and gather data regarding child education of single mothers in the Qur’an and analyzed in an Islamic Psychological Education perspective. In addition, the Qur’an and the al-Misbah Tasfir are used as references for the primary data,” Said Toriqul, which became the 72nd graduate of PPI UMY’s doctorate program.

Regarding the process of a child’s attitude adjustment, Toriqul referred to an Al-Misbah excerpt which implies that the adjustment of attitude, personality, and mannerisms are determined not only by the family but also by the environment and literature. The environmental factors in their schools and the public should be similar or at least not clash with what the child experiences in the family.

In addition, religious education is a basis for child education, especially in determining their personalities. “The key to education within the family is in the family’s religious education. This is because religion is important and plays a significant role in forming someone’s outlook in life,” Thoriq added.

Therefore, the building and determining of character contained in religious values should be taught early on by parents to their children. This especially applies to single parents. Those values should not be forgotten, because a single parent condition would make the child feel less affection. (Hbb)