A Swensen Ice Cream Incident

We were enjoying our occasional Swensen treat at Central Bangna. Inside, there was an unusually obese Thai man gobbling up on his ice cream. He was truly huge and difficult not to notice.

Unfortunately, he finished eating his ice cream earlier than we did. He slowly waddled out of Swensen, passing by us in very slow motion.

Our son sat up staring at him and said, "Mommy, look! He is so fat!"

My husband burst out laughing. I darted a glance at the fat man and sighed a relief to realise that he did not hear. But the folks next to us heard and was guffawing away.

Like they say, out of the babes mouth!

I don't want mommy and far to die.

My son one day by the shoe rack was feeling rather tearful. He said to me, "I don't want mommy and far to die. I will be so sad and miss you so much. I will be so lonely."

Heart wrenching. My heart broke into a million pieces to hear those words from my darling's little mouth.

My response?

"Darling, we will all be together in Jannah. You know why? Because we are all going back to Allah. Some go earlier, others later. But we will all be in Jannah together. So don't worry and dont be sad."

"And you know sweetheart, you are a good Muslim boy, sometimes you are naughty but you are never bad. And a good Muslim boy like you will be in Jannah with Mommy and Far."

It was the best I could do to reassure my worried little one.

He has white hair.

Today at school I bumped into Mimin and her husband Raoul. Mimin is an Indonesian lady who is also a mom to a student in Taufik's school. She is probably about my age, and her husband looks like he is in his sixties - if I had to estimate.

As I was chatting with Raoul, Taufik was on my hips studying him. He turned to me and said rather loudly, "Mommy, this man has white hair. He is old. He is going to die soon and go back to Allah." Oh my gosh, how I wish the earth would swallow me up. Fortunately, Raoul did not hear what he said, but he did hear the part where Taufik said he had white hair. He jokingly said, "I put flour in my hair when I am baking." and chuckled quite happily to himself.

How on earth did this come about you wonder?

Well, once I was telling Taufik that so and so is old and so she is not so strong. Taufik asked me, "Mommy, what is old." For the life of me I couldnt think of an explanation better than the one I came up with. I told him that old people have white hair, and old people are people who have lived here on earth for a long time. Meaning that their white hair might mean that they will meet Allah soon. They will die and not return back to earth but be in Jannah.

And so just about everyone he meets who has white hair will be going back to Allah soon.

MashaAllah!

Nabi Nuh - Taufik's version

We've started exchanging stories my son and I. Where before I used to make up all the stories, this time around he has started making up stories to tell me. Our story telling sessions takes place on those long and daily drives to and from his school. A good time for quiet chats and composing exciting little stories to share with each other.

One of the first complicated Islamic stories I have told him without a single illustration to help me, only words at my disposal to help him paint a picture in his mind, was the story of Nabi Nuh (peace be upon him) and his ark. Thus began the introduction of his very first prophet.

Keep in mind that about this time too I had started explaining to him the idea of death. He is absolutely fascinated with it. F us Muslims, death is as natural as life and is very much an accepted fact of life that we do not hide from. And I wanted him to take death as naturally as possible and be prepared for the idea in stages.

Recently, he decided to tell me a story. He began with the traditional "once upon a time" line. "Once upon a time there was Nabi Nuh. Nabi Nuh hit mommy, and mommy died. Mommy died and went back to Allah and never coming back. And that's the end of the story."

Morbid perhaps? But it had me chuckling too.