Story of Creation

Today we continued our sessions with the Lives of the Prophets beginning with Adam. Even I scrambled to get my notebook and take notes. Logically Anwar Awlaki begins with, why do we have to learn the stories of the prophets in the first place. Hmm, good questioin. The answers, though I can't really state the direct sources from the Quran because he doesn't give the surah or ayah number when they recite the exact ayah:

1. Because Allah commanded Rasulullah SAW to do so.

2. So we can learn lessons from those stories. Those stories are not for mere entertainment. We are supposed to reflect and derive lessons from them.

3. Role models. Our kids need role models. All human beings need role models. If they don't have good role models, they are bound to take bad role models. Who are the best role models other than the people whom Allah had chosen to deliver His message and guide the people? This point really struck me, and when I explained it to the kids, I talked about how people take celebrities as their role models. Gave them some clear examples from the culture of the American society, going ga ga over teen rock stars and what nots. Their PBS cartoons are already portraying those kinds of stuff, much to my dismay. I had relied on PBS and only PBS. Sigh.

4. So we can love them. You can't love someone when you don't know them. This point gave me the opportunity to talk to them about not making quick judgments, because I noticed them always saying,

"I don't like that boy because he has spiky hair," or

"I don't like her because she has short hair."

It bothers me a lot even though they are just talking about fictional characters on TV or in books, because if they keep it up, nauzubillah they might even bring it out into the real world. So I make sure I drove the point home,

"How would you feel is someone said, I don't like her because she's too tall?"

S giggled at the remark because she realized it was directed at her.

"How would you feel if someone just said, I don't like her because she draws too much!"

N giggled.

"How would you like it if someone said, I don't like that boy because his skin is brown?"

H grinned, exposing his solitary dimple.

I think and truly hope they get the point because who would want children who make quick judments like that. I don't. That would defeat the purpose of raising them to be good Muslims. We even touched on the point of not hating non Muslims and declaring that they will go to hell, simply because we don't have the right to make that judgment.

In my second year at PPP, my atheist lecturer asked me and my friend,

"So will I go to hell?"

We responded witb sheepish grins and no words, while trying as hard as we could to excuse ourselves from his office, which wasn't easy because we had just come to discuss our research paper on suicide. I can never forget his toothy grin while he waited for us to answer. What was he expecting anyway? Yes? No? We were too green to answer with wisdom at the time. I wish I can answer him now.

"I don't know. Only God can make that judgment. I guess it's a wait and see situation. We don't even know if we are going to heaven for sure."

We learned the ropes of answering atheists in our Aqeedah class from Al Maghrib. It did help put a little bit of perspective in me, at least.

Today, we learned about how when Allah created Adam, He blew soul into him and the first thing Adam did was sneeze and Allah said Yarhamkallah. And after that Allah told Adam to go to the group of angels sitting, and greet them with assalamualaikum.

Here the point is that, Allah has decided the kind of greeting Adam should use andnot only Adam, but his descendants as well, so that means us. Brings the point home really, and it's beautiful because when we greet that way, we are in fact spreading peace all over, rather than wishing someone a mere good morning or what's up. We can wish someone good morning, but only after uttering salam to them if they're Muslims.

One important thing also was about the meethaq, or covenant that we all had with Allah.

Surah al-A'raaf (7/172)
And (remember) when your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed (or from Adam's loin his offspring) and made them testify as to themselves (saying): "Am I not your Lord?" They said: "Yes! We testify," lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: "Verily, we have been unaware of this."
Includes a summarized version of At-Tabari, Al-Qurtubi and Ibn Kathir with comments from Sahih Al-Bukhari. by Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali & Muhammad Muhsin Khan

This implies that we were all Muslims before and had testified to Allah as to his Lordship, but when we are born, we are only left with fitrah which is the remnant of that covenant.

The Prophet salallaahu alayhi wa sallam said, "Every child is born upon the fitrah, but his parents turn him into a Jew, a Christian, or a Zoroastrian." (Agreed upon)

"I created My servants upright, then the shayaateen took hold of them." (Ahmad and Muslim) (hadith qudsi)

So when a non Muslim converts or reverts (which is more correct), he is aligning himself with his fitrah, in the sense that he found his original state after being changed.

It's a mind boggling concept to accept when you put it in a way that all their friends, especially their non Muslim friends were upright before they were even born. Probably left imprints in their young minds.