9 minute read
The Children of Zayed Al-Khair
by Suhaila Abdelhaleem Mansour Mohamed
Our story starts on a happy Eid day in the United Arab Emirates, while families were gathering to enjoy the festivities and drawing closer to each other. Shaikha and her family celebrated the joyful occasion with special Emirati traditions such as preparing delicious food and desserts and getting new outfits ready for Eid.
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Shaikha is a young girl who lives in the United Arab Emirates with her parents and her two brothers, Hamdan and Hamad. On the day before Eid, Shaikha and her family started getting ready for the three blessed days ahead.
Emiratis make tasty, traditional dishes for Eid like sweet luqaimat pastry balls, wheat porridge with meat called harees, and nakhi, a dish of spicy chickpeas. The girls wear henna designs, which is a common custom in Gulf countries. Eid clothes are chosen and sweets are prepared to be given out to children after Eid prayers.
On the first day of Eid, the family woke up early. They washed for wudu, put on their new clothes and made their morning prayers at home. Then they joined the Eid prayers at the special prayer area in nearby Sharjah. Afterwards, people started to wish each other a happy Eid and Shaikha gave out sweets to the children there, who were having a wonderful time, delighted with their lovely sweets and clothes. From a distance, Shaikha noticed a little girl wearing shabby clothes who didn’t seem to be enjoying Eid like the rest of the children. Shaikha went up to her and gave her some sweets. She sat by the girl and asked her why she was sad and sitting alone, with no friends.
The girl burst out crying and said, ‘I’m an orphan and I live with my sick grandmother. We can’t afford new clothes or anything special to
celebrate Eid. But alhamdulillah, I’m thankful for
everything we have.’ Shaikha felt sorry for the little girl when she heard her story and decided to give her the eidiya money she’d received from her parents that morning. She convinced her brothers to chip in with their eidiyas too.
Shaikha gave the little girl more sweets and said, ‘this money is an eidiya from me to you.’ The
girl accepted the gift and thanked her. ‘What’s your name and where do you live?’ asked Shaikha.
Shaikha recognised the place where Afra lived and was happy it was near her house. ‘I’m going to visit Afra often and help her,’ she said to herself.
Shaikha and her family went home to finish their Eid celebrations, which included a visit to her grandparents. It was a lovely day for them all!
A few days later, Shaikha started dropping by to see Afra and helping out as much as she could. She met Afra’s sick grandmother, who was sweet and kind. When Shaikha told her brothers what she was doing, they were glad she was thinking of others and decided to join in. The three of them started bringing gifts of food, toys and clothes to Afra every day.
One day, they found her crying. ‘WHAT HAPPENED?’ they asked.
After some quick thinking, Shaikha and her brothers rushed home to get some of the money they’d saved up. They called the doctor in to examine Afra’s grandmother and went to the chemist’s for the medicine he said she should take. It made her feel better. Afra was delighted and thanked
them for their help. Her grandmother added her thanks too, along with prayers for them to find success and good fortune in their lives.
A month passed in this way and Shaikha’s parents noticed their children were behaving strangely and things seemed to be disappearing from their house. Their father decided to follow the children and find out what was going on. He was surprised to see them taking food from home and giving it to a little girl at a nearby house. After his children left, he knocked on the girl’s door. When she opened it, he noticed the house was humble and that she lived with an old woman. ‘Who are you?’ he asked the little girl.
‘I’m the father of the girl who just brought you food,’ he said.
The father was very proud of his children for their good deeds and felt he’d brought them up well. But he thought they were wrong not to have told him everything.
‘Do you go to school, my dear?’ he asked Afra.
‘No,’ she replied.
‘Do come in, sir,’ said Afra’s grandmother. ‘What wonderfully brought up children you have! Afra doesn’t go to school because we’re poor. We don’t have money for school — I’m ill and we have no source of income.’
‘Good things will come, dear lady, in sha Allah,’ he replied, then said goodbye to them.
When he got home, Shaikha and her brothers were in their room. He told his wife how they had been helping little Afra and her grandmother every day, by giving them food and money saved up from their own eidiyas. She was incredibly happy and proud of her young children. ‘We must tell the children we’ve found them out,’ said her husband, ‘and warn them to let us know before they do anything like this again. We’ll help them with their kindness to others, but they mustn’t have anything to do with strangers behind our backs, even if they’re doing good.’
He called his sons and daughter. ‘What have you been doing today, dear children?’ he asked.
They were good children and didn’t know how to
lie. ‘We were helping Afra and her grandmother.’
‘Who are Afra and her grandmother? And how were you helping them?’
‘That’s very kind of you. But you should have told me first. You must never talk to strangers without us knowing.’
‘Why would I stop you from doing good? Sheikh Zayed, the founding father of our nation, was a man of good deeds — a man of al khair — who helped everyone in the country and beyond. That’s why we call him Zayed Al-Khair. We all learn from him and I’m very happy with what you’ve done. But I would have preferred you to tell me. As long as you’re doing good, I’ll never say no to you. I want you to know that I followed you and met Afra and her grandmother. I’ve decided to help them too.’
‘How are you going to help them, dear father?’
‘By repairing their house and sending Afra to
school. And I’m going to bring the doctor in to check on her grandmother.’ This news made the children very happy.
A few days later, their father enrolled Afra in the same school as his children. Afra was in Hamdan’s class, in grade one. Shaikha was in grade five and Hamad in grade four. The children met Afra every day at school. She was so happy because their family had changed her life and her grandmother’s, lending a hand to help with their poverty and saving Afra from a missed education. Now, she was going to school and learning like all the other children. She would never forget what they’d done for her.
Afra went to school regularly now, but some children in class bullied her because her family was poor. Hamdan noticed and told them to stop, but they didn’t do as he said. He told Shaikha what happened and she said, ‘I must go and defend her MYSELF.’
The next day, Shaikha told the teacher about the bullying and what the children had said to Afra. The teacher was very angry to hear about such cruelty and mischief. In class, she said, ‘I
know you’ve been bullying Afra. This kind of behaviour is morally wrong and forbidden in Islam. God Almighty says in the Holy Quran:
Believers, no one group of men should jeer at another, who may after all be better than them; no one group of women should jeer at another, who may after all be better than them; do not speak ill of one another; do not use offensive nicknames for one another. How bad it is to be called a mischief-maker after accepting faith! Those who do not repent of this behaviour are evildoers.
(Surat Al Hujurat, Verse 11)1
The teacher continued, ‘Bullying is completely unacceptable in the United Arab Emirates, it is not in its people’s nature nor part of their values.’ After hearing their teacher’s words, the children felt guilty. Everyone apologised to Afra and promised the bullying would never happen again.
Afra continued her education. She loved to
1. The English translation of the Quranic verse (49:11) is from Abdel Haleem, M. A. S. The Qur’an, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
learn and did well at her studies, soon becoming one of the top students and often receiving honours from the school administration. Shaikha and her family were delighted they were able to transform Afra’s life by doing good. Now she was an outstanding student and her life was a success. Afra and her grandmother were full of happiness.
