And as an addendum to my post yesterday, THIS is why we live here:

I was at my kids’ Parent Teacher meeting the other day – you know the ones … where the teachers spend the whole time telling you how great your kids are but that they really should study harder. I was flicking through Nabihah’s folder of work when I came across a page that she had written for creative writing. The teacher said “yes, look at this!”, and I saw that they had to write “when I grow up I want to…..”

The very first point on my 9 year old daughter’s list was (and bear in mind she is a very normal child who spends far too much time playing computer games, hates to study and does not even like the daily half hour session with the Kari who teaches them Quran):

“When I grow up I want to be a good muslim, so that when I die I will be close to Allah”.

I had that flash of immense love that parents sometimes have, and asked what the other kids wrote, thinking perhaps that they were encouraged to write something religious. But no – Nabihah’s best friend wrote “I want to be the Queen of the World”, the boys wrote “I want to go to the moon”, “I want to be a doctor”, “I want to be a pilot” and suchlike.

I stood up with tears in my eyes and said to the teacher and the Principal “I dont care WHAT marks Nabihah gets in maths, social studies, science or whatever. This is what REALLY matters”.

And THAT’s why we live here. MASHALLAH!!!

 

 

 

Advertisement