A Child's Prayer

At sunset muslims perform the 4th of the 5 daily prayers. We always try to all pray together, but mostly Bilaal and his dad pray together. Gradually over time he has learned most of the recitations in that he now is able to 'lead' the prayer. The part he still needs to learn though is the prayer at the end which is harder because it is more 'impromptu' as it is the prayer that wraps up your thanks and requests to your creator. Tonight, Yaasier was not home for this prayer so Bilaal decided to perform the prayer on his own. I was just finished putting Sumayah to sleep when I saw him sitting on the prayer mat with his hands held high in preparation to make this final prayer... but he was stuck... 'mommy please help me I'm stuck'...

So I told him not to worry, that if he didn't know how to pray in Arabic he could make his prayer in English. I told him to think about what he would like to thank God for and if there was anything he would like to ask for... and this is what he prayed...

"Oh Allah... thank you... for this wonderful life... that I have. Um, thank you for... my wonderful sister and family... and... Allah... help all the poor children... um... help me to give the um poor children... to give them things they don't have..."

A long pause followed and after my heart finished melting I recollected myself and told him that if that was all he wanted to say then that was fine.

Now that's deductive logic!

Yaasier reminded me last night of another of Bilaal's funny quips. But this story needs some background to be understood. You see as Muslim parents, from an early age we taught Bilaal how to recite the 'Shahadah', a profession of belief in the Almighty. Of course with this came an explanation that we believe in only one God we call Allah and that Allah is our all powerful creator. Naturally he enquired where Allah is. We explained that we can't see Allah, but that He is everywhere.

This brings me to my story.... Awhile ago, I think Bilaal must have been 3? I'm not sure... well anyway we were driving along when Bilaal suddenly asked, "you know the man on K 'n C (thats what he calls KFC)?"
To which we replied, "Yes he's called Colonel Saunders..."
Bilaal: "Oh, isn't he Allah?"

Shock, horror! "No! why do you think that he's Allah?"

Bilaal: "Because you said Allah is everywhere, and I see the K'nC man eeeverywhere!"

Well I guess if a dog has four legs and a cat has four legs, then a dog must be a cat right? heehee

You say Tomaytoe, I say Tomartoe

The other day Bilaal and I had a classic case of miscommunication. He reminded me about it in the car and we had a good chuckle. You see I have one of those plastic London aprons with the guard in the red uniform and the tall black fur helmet standing the length of the apron. One day when I was wearing it, Bilaal came to me and without making reference to the apron, asked me, "Mommy, what is a guard?"

So I launched into a whole philosophical definition in as simple terms as a 4-yr old can handle about "God"! I started explaining to him that God is not human and is present everywhere and that as muslims we believe that there is only one God and we call him Allah and that nothing comes equal to God...etc...etc...

All the while Bilaal patiently listened to me until I asked him, "Do you understand? What made you ask?"
To which Bilaal replied, "Yes I understand, but what is the guard on your apron?"
I looked at him blankly and then burst out laughing. Of course he had no idea why I was laughing, but he happily chuckled along. Then I explained to him that I was laughing because I misunderstood his question and that I was a very silly mommy! LOL!