OUR MOTHERS

Hello everyone! I saw something today that I just wanted to quickly share with y'all. 

Humans are helpless when they are babies.

We completely depend on our mothers.

It was an exhausting day and I was on my way home from class. I was on the bus. A young woman came in with a stroller. She didn't look much older than I. She sat down on the seat beside me. I watched her lift the edge of the blanket covering her baby's stroller so she could look through the small corner at her baby. Inside the stroller, underneath the canopy of a blue blanket, was an adorable little baby. He looked about 2 months old.

The bus ride was rough and bumpy. Every now and then, the bus would be jolted and we'd all be jarred from our tired stupor. Each time, the young mother would lower her head to peek through the small corner. Checking on him. To see if he was okay. I'd look at the child each time his mother peeked in at him. He looked comfortable and kept staring at me. 

Our roles will inevitably one day reverse. 

Our mothers will need us to take care of them!

I thought about the future of this baby. Right now, this person was helpless and depended on his mother for everything. On the crowded bus filled with strangers, he was safe and comfortable in the dark recesses of his covered stroller. But one day, he would grow up to be a strong and capable grown man while his young mother would become weaker and older. Their roles would eventually switch. And I thought about my Mama and just mothers in general.

Do we stop to think about how helpless and weak we all were? And that we completely depended on our mothers especially to take care of us? Through extreme pain they had bore us and through unconditional love they fed us, bathed us, clothed us, and worried about us. They are there at every stage of our young lives guiding and encouraging us. Besides are own selves, they are the happiest and proudest for us when we accomplish something and are the most disappointed when we ourselves face disappointment.

As we start to grow older and enter adolescence, we begin to yearn for freedom and independence. To get away from our "nagging" mothers who are just looking out for us. Oh my God she's pissing me off! we think. Why won't she let me be? We get angry. Anyways, some of us even yell at our mothers. Worse, some people even abandon their mothers when they become adults. Leave them to fend for themselves or place them in nursery homes. Humble yourself! We have to remember that to them, we are still their babies. We came out of them for God's sake! They don't forget that and are just looking out for us as they had done the moment we were born. So whenever we get upset at our mothers, we should remember that they have our best interests at heart (even if they are in the wrong) and that we can never repay them for all that they had done for us. Speak kindly and respectfully. We owe a duty to our mothers. If our mothers are not happy with us, God is not happy with us. He has commanded:

"Thy Lord hath decreed that ye worship none but Him, and that ye be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in thy life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honour. And, out of kindness, lower to them the wing of humility, and say: "My Lord! bestow on them thy Mercy even as they cherished me in childhood"  (Holy Quran, 17:23-24).

"And We have enjoined on man (to be good) to his parents: in travail upon travail did his mother bear him, and in years twain was his weaning: (hear the command), "Show gratitude to Me and to thy parents: to Me is (thy final) Goal" (Holy Quran, 31:14).

"And remember We took a covenant from the Children of Israel (to this effect): Worship none but God; treat with kindness your parents and kindred, and orphans and those in need; speak fair to the people; be steadfast in prayer; and practice regular charity. Then did ye turn back, except a few among you, and ye backslide (even now)"  (Holy Quran, 2:83).

So remember, be kind to your mother (and your father), as you would want your children to be kind to you. Remember her (and your father) in your prayers. This is a reminder first and foremost to myself.