I’ve decided to join a Behind The Screen for one of my poems with a post from my Ramadan blog. I think this one goes hand in hand so I’m hoping it works. For those who haven’t read my poem Moses, here’s the link to it (might help understand this post a little better): https://jadamee.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/moses/
I’ve based this poem on the Islamic story of Moses. Just before Moses was born, the ruling Pharaoh had a dream which he had interpreted. He understood from this dream that a male is going to try and overtake his throne. So, what he did is that he ordered all new born males to be killed. However, his court had brought up that there won’t be any manpower if he kills all the males. So they agreed that one year he will kill all males and the next year he will spare them all. In the year which Moses was born, this was the year that the Pharaoh was going to kill. In the Quran, it states that God had inspired the mother of Moses, whom till this date was secretly suckling him, to put the baby in a basket and let him drift along the river Nile. Moses’ sister was instructed to follow the basket. The basket drifted down the river Nile all the way into the hands of Asiya, the Pharaoh’s wife. She had persuaded him to adopt this child and the Pharaoh agreed. Moses was sitting in the Pharaoh’s lap and he had tugged at the Pharaoh’s beard. This action made the Pharaoh believe that Moses will be the one to overthrow his power. So he had ordered his servants to kill Moses. However, Asiya had interceded and begged the Pharaoh not to kill her baby and to just understand that he is just an infant.
I had wanted to write about childbirth for a while and it’s quite a big subject. So I decided on doing it on the anticipation a woman feels knowing that she is pregnant after wanting a child for such a long time. The first half of the poem takes us through the elated emotions of Asiya because after being told she can’t have any children, she is blessed with one. She wants everything to be perfect for the arrival of her baby, so she decorates the river Nile and gets the whole village to work on a huge celebratory feast. Mount Sinai, known to be the mountain which Moses led the Israelites to, was also waiting for his arrival. When a woman is expecting, her family are also expecting too. The ones nearest and dearest to her are waiting with her. The family home and a woman’s natural state is waiting changes for the baby. The milk bottles are bought, the bibs are washed and the cot is wrapped up in new sheets just waiting for this beautiful baby to make use of them.
But, the King, or in this case, nature or God has decided that this baby is not right for the expecting mother. It is not in this mother’s destiny to have a child. So this mother bleeds when she should not be. She loses her baby. She does not know what she has done wrong to expect this punishment. I can only imagine the draining emotion a mother feels when she finds out that she has had a miscarriage. Her faith in God shakes as she questions Him in the poem. She then comes to realise that we can never be certain of our future. Miscarriage is a topic which I get all teary eyed about because if I put myself in the shoes of a mother I can only begin to feel that feeling of missing something that was never actually mine.
I am a firm believer of ‘everything happens for a reason’. My religion teaches this all the time. Whatever happens, God has not done it in haste. It could sound like I’m downplaying the issue of miscarriage with that line. But if you think about it, ‘everything happens for a reason’ is one of those lines that comes and bites you in the bum when you don’t realise. When things have turned out okay after a rough patch, you realise how worse things could have been. Well, I know I do this anyway. “He knows what is before them and what is behind them and to Allah are all affairs turned back”. (Qur’an, Surah Al Hajj (22:76)) This verse just sums it all up. However, Allah knows that we have emotions. I’m not saying that we should not mourn or be sad over things which may happen to us. We are humans and we have emotions. But God is there to reinforce us that things WILL look up and not to give up on your faith in Him.
There are plenty of verses that explains that God is there in times of sadness.
“…Bear with patience whatever befalls you….” (Qur’an 31:17)
“Be not sad, surely Allah is with us.” (Qur’an 9:40)
“Verily, with hardship there is relief” (Qur’an 94:6). This verse in particular speaks out to me because I find that in my little world it has been 100% true. There has not been one time (yet) where I have been going through a rough patch and I have not come out of it with better things coming my way.
“..Be mindful of Allah, you will find Him before you. Get to know Allah in prosperity and He will know you in adversity… And know that victory comes with patience, relief with affliction, and ease with hardship.” < This verse is what I think people expect from a really good friend. If your mate is going through a really tough time, you know them a lot better because this is when their personality emphasises it's best and worse traits. With the help of a good friend you can come out of that situation a much stronger person. If you are patient, kind and mindful of your close friend (and they know of your effort) they will be there for you in times of need. There is no doubt in my mind about God being there for me. I tend to make the mistake of asking for God's help when I'm going through a tough time. If a friend always called whenever they needed something from me, that would be pretty annoying. If I really mean it when I say I love my God, then I got to remember that I can't just go to Him when things aren't going my way.
It’s a two way relationship. Be mindful of God, God will be mindful of you. He will not burden you with more than you can deal with. You realise this when you deal with the situation at hand. At first things may seem daunting and scary to deal with but a majority of the times.. we just get on with it. It’s not a burden when you’re capable to deal with it. We’re stronger than we think.
Everything happens for a reason.
J. Adamee 