Just dropped off wifey & the kids here. Honestly, I’m super happy that these sisters are organizing such an awesome event.
If you type in Google, “it takes a village”, google will automatically finish the sentence for you:
“to raise a child”
As Wikipedia will tell you, "it takes a village to raise a child" is a proverb that means that an entire community of people must provide for and interact positively with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment.
I love the subtle pretext behind how the organizers placed the big-picture intention of the event: “Let’s help each other raise our children together”. It’s not just a one-off gathering, but the long-term goals of building a future, together.
As parents concerned about raising righteous children, we always worry about their future: How can we raise our children in the context of this modern world with all the problematic modernisms fitan around us? How can we shield them from the negative influence of those nightmare -isms that pollute the minds of our youth, like secularism, aethism, and liberalism, in addition to abundant, easily accessible nightmares in society such as pornography, zina, and drugs? How can we effectively raise polite, kind, compassionate, generous, honest children amidst a society that is moving farther and farther away from these values? What options do we have to provide our children with entertainment that is halal, fun, exciting, and educationally, boosts their personal development, without having to depend on gadgets all the time? How can we provide religious education to our children without having to be forceful and overbearing?
The good news is, we don’t have to tackle these issues alone. Collectively, we can complement each other to be the solution our ummah needs.
We can leverage our strengths, unique talents and abilities to help others - just as they, too, might provide their niche skills to contribute to our families, and perhaps make up for our own personal individual shortcomings.
Through my wifey, I learned that this group of sisters did a lot of great stuff together. Through these little gatherings and simple activities, they stuck together. One of the mums there, started off as a casual participant and eventually became one of the speakers for the event.
In this group, they can provide homeschooling sessions for each other’s children (each leveraging from their own areas of expertise), share suggestions on fun places and activities to take the kids, recommendations on books, even ideas for the mommies on self-care and good courses for personal development. Even though we live in Miri, I still felt the “tempias” benefits of her associating themselves with them.
All of this culminates in one important objective: building a jamaah. A community of like-minded individuals, based on shared principles and values, actively collaborating to heed the call of Allah:
وَتَعَاوَنُوا۟ عَلَى ٱلْبِرِّ وَٱلتَّقْوَىٰ
“Cooperate with one another in goodness and righteousness” (Al-Maidah 5:2)
Personally, I have always believed that this is the solution for providing sustainable positive changes in the ummah: Building relationships and forming communities, and help provide solutions for each other for the common struggles we all face. This was our intent when we started off The Barakah Effect - and continues to be our long-term goal.
As you build this relationship over time, through those relationships, many great outcomes can come out of it.
We get to know each other. Develop. Learn from each other. Help keep each other on track, when one of our comrades slip off the rails. Feel a sense of belonging when we know others struggle just as we do; and simultaneously get inspiration and ideas from others who have found some solutions.
Not gonna lie, as a parent, I’m thinking long-term. I do often wonder: How are my children going to find a good person to marry and raise a family together? I feel that, as we build communities, friends we trust, those who we are confident that they put in the effort to raise their children in the best upbringing, this gives us peace of mind to help “nominate” good candidates for our little ones.
These days, with the advent of technology & modern transportation, we can revive the spirit of “neighborhood” without necessarily being physically close to each other.
I have witnessed firsthand how powerful these relationships are. Especially when organizers of ilm classes and courses put in the active effort for the students and volunteers to mingle - many of those relationships blossom into great things. On the other hand, just like corporate organizations, those that fail to foster collaborative relationships and only focus on individualism will suffer in the long run. As human beings, we are all fragile. We drift apart.
For context, our entire team at The Barakah Effect got to know each other purely through networking form Islamic classes. I didn’t know any of them through school, university, or work - we were total strangers who met through islamic circles of knowledge, courses and conferences. All of us bonded on the same premise: We were regular laypersons, each with our own personal history we aren’t proud of, but are now focusing on the common ground, purpose and values, to live by principles of the Qur’an and Sunnah and attain success in the Hereafter. By getting to know each other, by fostering that relationship and trust, we built a podcast together. It is through this, we develop a learning platform to force each other to learn, connect with other amazing like-minded individuals and organizations, while simultaneously add value and help others along the way.
APPLYING THIS WHERE YOU ARE
Generally, we can replicate this sort of jamaah initiative and constant work wherever we are. Start small. Just a few families - simple programs like storytelling, sharing what we learnt in class. Gather to to recite or memorize portions of the Qur’an. Potluck and bring your food. Spend time doing activities together.
We hear people talk about networking for business or career opportunities. How about we switch things up and instead, we set our intentions and goals to be actively networking in order to build communities for our future generations.
Here’s hoping events like these continue.
May Allah grant us the strength to play our roles to contribute to building communities of righteous believers who help each other attain success in dunya and akhirah
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