Leaving a Legacy

My daughter’s smile lightens up my day. Seeing her grin from cheek to cheek over a small thing makes me fall in love with her innocence. When she tries to imitate me, thinking that it’s the only way things are supposed to be done, I feel a burden of responsibility over my shoulders. When she eats nourishing food, a sense of complacency overcomes me. When she says “Ammi”, it sounds like the sweetest sound.

But that is just one side of the feelings I experience as a mother. She often pushes me to the brink of frustration as well, when she doesn’t give me a minute to myself. A wave of depression overcomes me when I have a few consecutive sleepless nights. I feel guilty when I have to resort to screen time for her, in order to maintain my sanity. I worry a lot when she is not feeling well or behaves in an impolite way. I constantly question my choices as a mum. Sometimes, there is an overwhelming confusion in my heart regarding certain parenting decisions.

However, most importantly, the most fulfilling feeling is a mother is when she tries to read the Book of Allah, and falls down in sajdah [prostration] on her prayer mat. A ray of hope shines from my heart when I see that. I hope Allah SWT would Enable me and all mothers to leave a legacy that would benefit us on the Day of Judgment.