This is a beautiful post that shows the love of a mother for her special needs son. Other than the Arabic words peppered throughout the article Christians will immediately feel that this mother is like any mother of a special needs child. She knows that life is harder. And she knows that it can be sweeter.
In the two years since his diagnosis, I’ve learned more about patience and trust in Allah than I had in my entire life before that, and having a child with autism has been a blessing that I cannot imagine living without.
Update: Azez, the author of this post, graciously translated the “peppered Arabic” in the comments.
Related Post:
Just the Way I Am
Hi Dustin- thanks for your lovely comment and prayers on MM. If I had known the article would have reached such a wide audience, I would definitely have stuck to one language! So, if you feel it is helpful, here is a very brief translation of all that peppered Arabic.
Alhamdulillah: All Praise is for God (Alhamdulillah, his autism is moderate.)
Sabr: Patience, Steadfastness, Perseverance, all rolled into one. (And then, Allah gave me sabr, and then a diagnosis, and then the understanding that Khalid wasn’t disobeying, he just had no idea what was going on.)
Dhikr: Remembering God through prayer of recitation of His Names, like prayer beads or a rosary. (I just sit in the dark and do dhikr)
Jannah: Heaven- The Garden of Paradise (We have been told that a child’s Jannah is beneath his or her mother’s feet, but in some cases, a mother’s Jannah may be beneath the feet of her special needs child. )
AllahuAalim: God Knows Best/All (And perhaps the father’s too, Allahu Aalim)
Shaitaan: Satan/The Devil (When we look at our children, and Shaitaan whispers “Why you? Why your child? How could God do this to you? It’s not fair,” we can bravely answer back. Allah chose me for this because He knew I could handle it, and He never gives anyone more than they can bear.)
Rabb: Creator/Provider/Caretaker, sometimes translated as Guardian Lord (I am not Khalid’s Rabb, Allah is, and when I die, He will look after Khalid with a love seventy times greater than my own.)
Rizq: Provision for this world- food, drink, shelter, etc. (His rizq is with his Lord. )
Taqwa: Trust in God (Is your taqwa greater than your fear?)
Iman: Faith ( it has definitely saved me from living in the unreal world – one where I care more about my child’s postgraduate degree than his iman.)
Al-Kauthar: A stream from which the righteous will drink on the Day of Judgment (If that means waiting until the resurrection to see my son as a normal young man, then so be it. Khalid and I will meet again at Al-Kauthar,)
Ameen: Amen
Abez,
Thank you so much for taking the time to write out the translations. It is helpful!
You’re welcome Dustin. And this is a great blog! As the daughter of a practicing Mormon, I’m a big fan of finding common ground, and Muslims and Christians have a lot of differences, but one thing we can agree upon is God.
Thanks again Abez. I like the way you put this. We do have differences and we do have common ground.
Too many people think we are only all the same (logically impossible and practically not all that helpful) or we are completely different (practically unhelpful and relationally damaging).
I prefer to honestly and graciously acknowledge our differences while at the same time pursuing common ground in relationship with one another.