Touched by an Angel

“Touched by an Angel”

“There is too much noise in here” I think to myself and begin to complain to Allah. A thousand other questions begin to blur my mind and echo once again in my heart. Yasmine and Asiya are giggling and don’t seem to care too much about the noise level. They recommend to me that we should go to our hiding place by the office. In reality, the office space is a modest size corner with a desk attached to a wall unit and two chairs. We “hide” by the office to escape everyone in the center and begin our lesson about the Roman builders and Roman civilization. The girls are really excited as their eyes widen even more because of what they are hearing, “As the Roman empire grew and they controlled the Italian Peninsula, they wanted to travel easily from one end to the other so they build strong roads; strong enough that some  continue to be used today like The Appian Way…”

The audio recording continues to talk about the high story buildings in Rome, and the aqueducts that brought clean fresh water to the remote cities. Their young and enthusiastic minds grasp all this information like sponges and as the audio comes to an end, we begin to talk about the lesson. Asiya jumps up and says,  “were the aqueducts used like these pipes underneath the wudu station, that bring clean water and take away our dirty used water…” They ask me if Sanad can have a filed trip to Rome one day, so they can walk on the Appian way, and see what aqueducts look like, and other Roman structures. I am amazed by their curiosity and thrilled by their imagination and want to feel like a 2nd grader again. Our center is not very large but this has not stopped Yasmine and Asiya from dreaming about visiting Rome one day.

I feel a deep sense of regret in my heart for wanting to complain earlier about the noise level and small space. I want to be grateful for this space because of these two 8 years old, and 17 other kids who have made my dream of having an Islamic full time education center for grades 1-12 a reality for this community. I want to thank Allah for this big opening… where kids can have a safe Islamic environment learning about the world, and themselves…where they begin and end their day and everything in between in the name of Allah…A place where their love, curiosity, and motivation for life, and the world He created  is fulfilled through teaching them to know and love Allah. And for that, I cannot be grateful enough to Him, Most Merciful and Generous is He.

Attiqa Syeda, Sanad Learning Coach