Daadi Amman

Daadi Amman ['paternal grandmother'; (affectionately)] was so beautiful that her beauty had become proverbial within our entire family. She was so righteous that everyone spoke of her is acid purity. She had such skill and style in the domain of housekeeping that [all the] mothers considered it an honour to place their daughters under her supervision. I saw her for the first time when she hadn't a tooth left in her mouth. Her toothless mouth along with the wrinkles on her face gave the impression of a bouquet of flowers. She would eat her paan leaf wrapped around [‘betel leaf wrapped around betel nut and other condiments'] after grinding it in a paan mortar. When the colour of paan mortar. When the colour of paan set in it would redden all the wrinkles of her face. The red colour set against her honey white complexion created such an image that left the observer in awe, in praise of the most praiseworthy Lord.

As I reached the first stages of awareness, I saw myself in the lap of Daadi Amman, and saw Daadi Amman lost in the recitation Allah's Word. I also saw that at night, before going to sleep, it was asked that the Kalimah-e-Shahaadah ['declaration of faith] be recited and, upon waking up, it was a mandatory custom to recite Kalimah-e-Tayyibah ['pronouncement of God's unity and the prophet-hood of Hadhrat Muhammad (saw).

Daadi Amman also used to tell stories. All the stories had the same message that, 'Our king is God; our king is the Messenger (saw) of God’:

Allah sent His angel to His king Prophet(saw) and conveyed the message: "My dear Muhammad-, do not worry for you, We will turn into gold all the mountain of Makkah."

Allah's prophet, our Huzur(saw) ['his honour/holiness’] said: "No, I am happy with my poor brothers. I do wish for the world."

I asked, "Amman, what is an angel?"

"Son, angels are also a creation of Allah like we are, but they do good deeds and thus become angels."

"Amman, have you ever seen an angel?"

"No, 1 haven't seen one yet, but I've heard that they are made of lights that glitter and glow, and when they fly, their wings emit light like that of the moon, the sun and the stars."

"Amman, have you seen our Huzur(saw)?"

 "Yes son, I've seen him once."

"Amman, what does our Huzur(saw) look like?"

"Son, he is like the moon. So beautiful, so radiant, that Allah alone can encompass [his glory]."

All intellectuals agree that the first cradle of a child's training is his home. A child speaks what he hears, and what he sees becomes his knowledge. In today's world, we do not see grandmothers ever telling children that, "Our king is God, our king is the Prophet(saw) of God," Our nerves are barraged with the sounds of song and music, day and night. At night, before going to sleep, mothers do not tell their children that they should recite Kalamah-e-Shahadah before falling asleep, nor do fathers tell their children to recite Kalimah-e-Tayyibah upon waking up. No one warns that the worship of wealth is cancerous for the human race. History tells us that nations in which worship of wealth became widespread were wiped off, of the earth. Nations are not annihilated because of their sins, as sins can be forgiven. Shirk ['worshiping someone of something other than Allah’] is the one sin that will not be forgiven under any circumstance. And the worship of wealth is the biggest shirk. One of the most loathsome factors that incite this kind of shirk is the taking of interest. Interest makes one’s earnings haraam ['forbidden/impure'].

How come our maternal and paternal grandmothers no longer tell us that all good actions of those who consume haraam earnings are considered null and void [in Allah's sight]? Neither salaat nor hujj is accepted of those who consume harram earnings. Our elders complain and lament that the character of the young generation has deteriorated; that, it has lost moral values; that the young generation does not show the same respect for the elders as did the generation of 40 years ago. As elders, however, we do not look within ourselves; we do not see that we have trampled the moral values which our ancestors upheld, even at the cost of their lives. There was once a time when the raised eyebrow of a parent was warning enough for children, who always sought their parents' approval for their actions. And now, what we witness is that parents fear their own children.

All of this is because the parents do not raise their children along the lines which we ourselves were raised. When the mother of today becomes a daadi ['paternal grandmother'], she does not sing the lullabies that introduce to the conscious She child Allah and His Prophets. When today's mother becomes a naani ['maternal grandmother'], she does not fully contain the moral values that align with the teachings of the Holy Quran and the practice of the Holy Prophet(saw). Whereas we desire that our young generation walk on the footsteps of their ancestors to build their lives. Indeed, this way of thinking contains so much contradiction in it that it can result in nothing but,

["He loses both this world as well as the Hereafter."]

[(Holy Qur'an Ch22:v11)]

At the Day of Judgment, we will not be asked which clothes we provided for our children, or of the kinds of meals we fed them. Instead, we will at that time be asked how we trained our children. Those parents who have trained their children well will be the successful ones. And these are the people who will be rewarded.