ALHAMDULILAH – I’m glad I became a muslim because………

by Karimah bint Dawoud, muslim chaplain and well being writer

karimahscuisina@live.co.uk

I’m glad I became a muslim because….now I have a wonderful and every day more wonderful relationship with my mum, maashallah. Westernised society sets women up against each other in the media, in soap operas and films and adverts. I remember seeing one advert for reading glasses and the girl’s boyfriend said her mum looked nice in her new glasses and the mum was happy for the compliment and the girl was upset……..hmmmmmm.This is just one example.

In the past my mum and my relationship has been strained, even as a Muslim, the shatan still tries to get in between us but using her words I just ” RISE ABOVE IT” , becasue my relationship with mum is worth more than a few provocative words she may say.

In Islam we say” Heaven is at the feet of the mother!”. A man asked prophet muhaamd, salah la alahi wa salem, who is more deserveing of our respoect and trhe prophet said “the mother!” he twice more and twice more he said the mother.

the womb is mentioned often in the QURAN, references to the womb that bore you, the relationship with the mother is very important, but something that most men do not realise is that every woman is a potential mother, every woman has a womb, so every woman is deserving of respect even if she doesnt respect herself.

If you think as a muslim man or any man that you are better than a woman , then be better than her in the decent way you treat her to show her a better way of behaving, rather than taking advantage of her.

She has never said anything bad about Islam, though I think quietly  and aside from me, has her own thoughts which are largely influenced by the media and the terrible behaviour of muslim men towards non muslim women and some of the things she has seen happen to me. Over the years she has also seen the difference between Islam as the pure religion , what the good book says and the behaviour of people who say they are muslim or muslim from birth and are not really practicing.

Alot of mums are influenced by their daughters take on fashion, make-up etc and this has also happened in our case.My mum used to be like Dorian in Birds of a Feather,an English  TV comedy, not in behaviour I must clarify, but in her dress sense, very short dresses and high heels.Now she is an advocate of long dresses and flat boots, “I like long dresses “she says and she looks good in them too mashallah.

Some muslims say you should keep away from your non muslim family just becasue they are non muslims but this is incorrect. There is a difference between “a kuffar” and a non muslim. A kuffar is someone who would turn you out of the house becasue you are muslim and you would fight against your relgion with their mouth or hand, etc.Prasie God this is not the majority of non muslims in the UK.

I love my non muslim family and I love sharing with them my Islam.When they heard I was going to Saudia Arabia, my auntie said “Don’t forget to take your swimming costume!”. I told her it was a pilgrimage that they happily saw me return from with arms full of intesting and exotic presents and perhaps a better attitude inshallah. This subtle dow’ah, spreading the message of Islam through everyday activities nutures the bond between people who are lost and those who have a purpose, to worship the creator of us all in everything we do ameen.