Dear Allah – A Letter to our Teacher
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
All praise and thanks is for our Creator. The Source.
May peace, mercy and blessings be upon His Messenger.
Dear Teachers,
It appears that this is your time, after all of the time that you have given us.
O’ Teachers, this is your time to be spoilt with all that we can give you – barakats, gifts, du’as and ofcourse our words..
Words which we’d like to share with you now…
Dear Allah, Most High,
These words are for You, our dear Creator. Our first Teacher.
O’ Allah, You are the Source of every reason we have to be grateful.
Grateful for the gift of being here and of knowing You.
Dear Allah,
You have taken us from the furthest reaches away from here, whether in distance or circumstance, and You have brought us here and kept us here, despite the many obstacles, despite our little hearts and our great ignorance.
Dear Allah, we were searching for You and You lit the way to a place where we could find You.
Dear Allah, You pushed Love into our hearts, and it breaks at the thought that the time You have gifted us together with one another, in this setting, may be coming to an end.
Dear Allah,
Thank You for OPENING our hearts and minds.
With our teachers. Your Carriers of Light.
Thank You for all that they have put forward.
Thank You for the opportunity to have sat at their feet… what a view!
Dear Allah, thank You for Your Knowledge that they have passed onto us. Thank You for allowing our teachers to portray knowledge of Deen as anything but hard or serious!
Dear Allah, thank You for their modesty and their respect for us. Thank You for their beautiful intentions, their du’as and their intellect. And for their consideration and their generosity. O’ Allah, thank You for them overlooking our faults.
Dear Allah, thank You for the teacher that threw us into the deep end with that academic article so that we could grow. Whatever came after that was easier. Alhamdulillah.
Thank You for the teacher that always found a way to tap into our train of thought, challenging what we thought we knew – teaching us that we can never know everything and every opportunity is a learning experience.
Dear Allah, thank You for the teacher who gave us the most homework. O’ Allah, so much homework, so much reading, so generously given out.
Dear Allah, thank You for the teacher that reeled us in to answer his questions only for some brave soul to take the bait and be questioned on their answer given. Remember what it was like to answer a question, and our teacher would thoughtfully say, “OK… but no” 🙈😂? Dear Allah, we never did give the right answer, but thank You for giving us a taste of what critical thinking feels like. Ouch.
Dear Allah, thank You for the teacher who tried tirelessly to help us connect with Your Knowledge. O’ Allah it was so technical, but our teacher was driven to ensure that we could understand and appreciate the value of it.
Dear Allah, thank You for the occasional glimpses into our teacher’s personalities, for their shyness and awkwardness. We could relate!
Thank You for their bravery in taking on a class full of women. Even when talking about the subject of marriage, nogal.
Dear Allah, thank You for their unexpected sense of humour, for all of their jokes. At least we got those! Remember when our teacher reminded us about the word ‘Divine’? A word reserved solely for You, O’ Allah, and not for anything else, no matter how lekker!
Dear Allah, thank You for the teacher that was so unique in his thinking and teaching. Remember when our teacher would make up his own words, none of which we understood, so he would have to explain it to us?
And remember that rare moment when one of our teachers recited for us? Goosebumps. Dear Allah, thank You for gifting our teachers with the ability to speak their own speech and to so beautifully recite Yours!
Dear Allah, thank You for the teacher who would clap his hands, when we were dozing off. O’ Allah, please forgive us – story-time was just so good! We promise – we were paying attention! Afterall, we’ll always remember the “Stay with me Hajjas!’, the R5 jokes and the “Jaaaa Salaaaaaam” 😂
Dear Allah, thank You for those lessons that we didn’t really want to end. They were unreal.. Remember when our teacher spoke about angels, how they are unseen yet he saw one in real life.. his wife 😄 UITGESIT!
Dear Allah, thank You for those moments when we understood something we never did before. Remember how excited some of our teachers would get? Remember our one teacher’s animated ways, with arms flailing, eyes popping and glasses of water flying?! Missed it? Well, we have it on video.
Dear Allah, thank You for the way their faces lit up. They were always so amazed by what they were teaching, and they were always ready to answer any question. When they explained something to us, it seemed like it was the first time that they were sharing Your knowledge. O’ Allah, thank You for not allowing Your knowledge to become a norm for them.
Dear Allah, time is moving along.
Speaking of which, remember how some of our teachers had their own track of time? Time that was somehow never on-time and often went into overtime? Not that we mind, but O’ Allah, is there any chance that we could get in on the barakah that they had in time?
Dear Allah,
How will we remember?
When EVERYTHING is so memorable…
Dear Allah,
Thank You for FILLING our hearts and minds with Your Light.
Thank You for firming our belief in You, for reminding us of our everlasting contract with You,
Thank You for exposing us to Your perfect preservation of Hadith and Your. Divine. Speech.
Dear Allah,
Thank You for teaching us Your perfect ways of living Islam.
Thank You for sharing Your examples of the best lives of inspiration to learn from.
O’ Allah, bedtime stories will never be the same again in Cape Town. Listening to true stories from before time, through to the prophets of the Qur’an, Sahaabahs and finally the 4 Imams… The way our teacher narrated it as if he knew them, we felt as if we – were – there. Seeing the stories unfold. Transported to the victory of Makkah when Bilal (ra) climbed on the Ka’bah and gave the first athan in Makkah, we all felt the joy of that day.
Dear Allah,
Thank You for making us love Your Prophet (saw) even more. Alhamdulillah.
Dear Allah, thank You for every one of Your gems that were shared. May we always treasure them.
Dear Allah, thank You for placing sincere gratitude in our hearts for You and our teachers. Thank You for the sharing of their hearts and minds for our benefit. Feeling before thinking, thank You for the tears that fall on our cheeks and the du’as that escape our lips:
Dear Allah, accept from them and accept from us.
Dear Allah, reward them and reward us.
Dear Allah, please keep all of us grateful and increase us in it.
Dear Allah, thank You for loving us, for choosing us, for gifting us.
Being here, receiving this, is such a privilege. O’ Allah, it is now up to us, with Your help, to take it forward.
As Your Carriers of Light.
Dear Allah,
With You –
We are teachers. We are students.
But You, O’ Allah, You are the Best of Teachers.
All praise and thanks is for our Creator. The Source.
May peace, mercy and blessings be upon His Messenger.
Shared by Rifqah D. & Alia A. – 2nd Year students at Zahraa Institute at our #Graduation2018 Jalsah at REICT – Taronga Road Mosque on Wednesday, 28 November 2018.
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