May 11, 2008, yesterday, Mother's Day. It was a rainy Sunday, and I was quite disappointed not being able to have our usual Tennis Sunday. Hubby went back to sleep, and I bustled in the kitchen.
As hubby was doing the dishes after lunch, the tornado siren went off. I turned to look at the kids, and S's expression was that of bewilderment.
"But it's not Wednesday..." she said, referring to the weekly drill usually on Wednesday noons.
"Turn on the TV! Turn on the TV!"
We turned it on. Thinking back, it's pretty funny how we seem to have gotten out of touch with the television. I found myself fumbling with the remote, not remembering which button was for what.
We saw an area of dark red surrounded by yellow and then green. It was to the north of us though.
The kids huddled around the TV, and H exclaimed,
"Let's take cover!"
"No, we have to pray Zuhr first," I said, seeing that the storm was moving northeast, and we were safely to the southeast of it, alhamdulillah, though of course, a funnel cloud can easily form elsewhere with no warning.
"Make du'a," I said, as they chattered rather excitedly about the prospect of a tornado coming our way.
"We should take our wallets...you know, in case everything else is destroyed," H offered a slice of wisdom. As he said that, he looked around the living room.
"Where should we go?"
"In the office, under the stairs, since we don't have a basement," I said.
"You can go and nap under the stairs," suggested hubby, as after Zuhr is their naptime. We have taken to having them take naps because they wake up for Fajr and stay up till Isha, which are respectively becoming earlier and later as we approach summer.
N readily took her pillow, with an assortment of her cuddly toy cats, and headed for the storage room under the stairs we call the 'office', or what used to be my office.
Alhamdulillah though, even though they kept the siren on for a good while, the storm had moved northeast and away from us, and we napped the afternoon away, biiznillah. I remember saying the du'a for rain earlier in the morning as I nursed baby Z for his morning nap. Subhanallah, the kids had forgotten the du'a for when there is thunderstorm. That should be something we should work on next inshaallah.
Later on in the day, H said to me,
"S had a good dream about tornado. Maybe that means we're gonna die Muslims!"
I couldn't help smiling yet rendered speechless by this analysis of H's. He seemed to at ease with the issue of death, and his pleasure to die as a Muslim was rather refreshing. I'm not sure if he truly understood, but, well, maybe he does, in his own way. Maybe he does, mashaallah.
At night, S said, as she lay in bed, while I tidied up the computer table,
"Today was Mother's Day. Maybe the tornado was because Allah was angry at them."
"For what?" I asked, rummaging in the semi darkness for scattered pens and markers strewn across the table.
"For celebrating Mother's Day," she continued.
Again, I was speechless.
"Erm...I don't know about that," I replied.
This morning, I read this on the news. Allahu Akbar, Alhamdulillah for protecting us from such destruction. I remember the days in Iowa when we would be visited by potential funnel clouds, especially in the summer. I have witnessed hail, which completely left my small flower garden in a beautiful yet destructed state, and alhamdulillah not more.
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3 comments:
Oh, wow! I can imagine my kids being there - they'd be soooo excited experiencing that!! Alhamdulillah you're all A-okay.
mashaallah, you child even at that tender age understand that MOther's day is not to be celebrated. It's hard for me hereis trying to explain to some people especially my own mother who looks forward to this day only. Once my child grows up, I want him to have the same understanding... Amin ..
Kak d, alhamdulillah :D
When we were in iowa, we had a lot of tornado sirens going on and usu it's real serious..the sky was black..once i was pregnant with N and taking physics exam, and the siren went off the day outside seemse to turn to night all of a sudden we all went to the basement..alhamdulillah nothing happened. but another malay famili living acorss the street from us, when the siren went off, they went out the door and stood there looking at the sky LOL...i was busy panicking trying to hide in the closet with litte S who was a toddler at the time still with my telekung on lol..thinking back, that was really funny...i teased the family after that..they were S' babysitter :P
Ibu,
well i had told my kids about birthdays and what nots for quite a while now, and they understand that we are not to celebrate anything other than than the two eids as celebating any other things annually like that is not in accordance with the shariah...so yeah, they understand because I had to tell them to explain our surroundings :P in a way sometimes it's easier living among the non muslims as you can point out what we don't do as opposed to living among majority Muslims and having trouble explaining why some Muslims do things we're not supposed to do..but i have had to explain this to them too unfortunately and fortunately :)
ameen to the dua. actually i think when you explain it to them while they're still young, it's easier, because their fitrah is not that tainted yet, and their sense of tauheed is very strong and pure inshaallah.
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