Heart of a Muslim

Looking up at the sky, searching for Allah most High
He rejected the way of worshipping Gods of clay
Prophet Ibrahim knew that Allah was near
And that the heart of a Muslim is sincere

Under the hot burning sun, he declared God is one
Though with stones on his chest, his Imaan would not rest
The Muadhin knew that right would conquer wrong
And the heart of a Muslim must be strong

It's the heart of a Muslim through the guidance of Islam
That makes you fair and kind and helpful to your fellow man
So living as a Muslim means that you must play a part
Allah looks not at how you look, but what is in your heart

In our poor meager state, little food on our plate
Mother said she was glad, always sharing what we had
When I asked how can we share what's not enough
She said the heart of a Muslim's filled with love

He said its time you should know, you will learn as you grow
That some people around will do what's bad to bring you down
Father said to be a star that's shining bright
For the heart of a Muslim does what's right

It's the heart of a Muslim through the guidance of Islam
That makes you fair kind and helpful to your fellow man
So living as a Muslim means that you must play a part
Allah looks not at how you look, but what is in your heart

So whatever you do, make sure your words are true
Honesty is the best, because life is a test
Even if it hurts so much you want to cry
For the heart of a Muslim does not lie

Zain Bikha
Circa 2006

.. Growth & Development (cont'd)

And today I saw this.

Fun with Clay

So the kids got to make their own versions of strangely-shaped money inspired from the currency in the old days.. :-)

And extra play dough of various colors to bring home too.

Alhamdulillah.

Amazed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-skFgrV59A

Amazed
Lonestar 1999

Every time our eyes meet
This feeling inside me
Is almost more than I can take

Baby, when you touch me
I can feel how much you love me
And it just blows me away

I've never been this close to anyone or anything
I can hear your thoughts, I can see your dreams

I don't know how you do what you do
I'm so in love with you
It just keeps getting better

I wanna spend the rest of my life
With you by my side
Forever and ever

Every little thing that you do
Baby, I'm amazed by you

The smell of your skin
The taste of your kiss
The way you whisper in the dark

Your hair all around me
Baby, you surround me
You touch every place in my heart

Oh, it feels like the first time every time
I wanna spend the whole night in your eyes

Growth & Development

That's her learning to use AND in her short sentences.

I admit. One of the things that I take for granted is the speech and language development of my neurotypical children. For my special daughter, we have to make extra efforts by sending her to therapies. In my interactions with her, I have to also me mindful of her special needs. I try doing it by demonstrating, prodding, encouraging, repeating, in every chance I get. I have no idea how difficult it is for her to verbalize, or if she simply chooses the easy way (by giving up verbalizing). I do know, though, that she needs more than what she gets now. NEED, not WANT. I do hope the little therapy we can afford for her still does help her improve her speech and language development.

Lately I frequently catch her playing pretend with her dolls: Dora and Boots, Owl, Monyet, Tiger, and the gang. She seems contented spending her time playing like that by herself. Happy and Safe. I didn't know the importance of pretend plays in the growth and development of children. Alhamdulillah for the dolls, time, space and peace we enjoy.. Things we always forget to appreciate, until any one of them is gone :-)

And I also notice that she initiates conversations too sometimes. This is an important development of her social skills. More importantly, is that she can verbalize (in her own cute way) what she needs when she has to. But when she is panicking (and she gets panicky a lot now that she is more aware of the "structured views" of her surrounding), she forgets her words, and I need to calmly but quickly help her find them. She still has a long way, i think, to go in developing the skill to tell stories. This is important for parents to have the children being able to tell them what happened when the parents were not around. What/who/when/how. We are working on it. Slowly but surely inshaAllah.

May Allah Help us.
And may Allah Bless the people who help us near and far.
And may Allah Return their kindness with even greater goodness.
InshaAllah.