Inspiring Children – Jesus and Mary

So near to the day when our Christian brothers celebrated the birth of Jesus (PBUH), I feel it is time to talk about his inspiring actions and those of His mother, Mary (PBUH).

The story we all know is how young Mary got pregnant and felt ashamed at how she would face her community, as she was a virgin. She was only an inexperienced young girl, but already felt the burden of the community’s responsibilities on her shoulders.


However, she gave birth to baby Jesus in harsh conditions and managed to prove that her mission was not an ordinary mission. Jesus Himself (PBUH) showed from a very young age that He would become a great man, because He is the Word of God and the truth was conveyed to Him by God to guide humanity.

Both Jesus and Mary have shown strength when they were very young and have inspired generations to come with their wisdom, community leadership and goodness of heart.

To be continued...

Inspiring Children – Joseph

It’s time to tell you about Joseph (PBUH) and his story. Like Abraham’s story, this one starts with the dream. After the dream, little Joseph went to his father Jacob (PBUH), telling him that he had seen the  Sun, Moon and stars kneeling in front of him.


Jacob, in his wisdom, realised the meaning of the dream and told the little Joseph to keep quiet about this as it might enrage his step-brothers. Joseph’s brothers were envious of the affection their father bestowed on him and plotted to kill him, by throwing him into a very deep well and leaving him to die or be enslaved.

However, little Joseph was resourceful. Unafraid in the well, he tried to escape, and when a caravan went past and let down a bucket to fill with water, he climbed into the bucket and they took him with them. He was sold to the house of a very important Egyptian and he showed strength and wit by thriving in the household.

As a teenager, he grew up very handsome and the first lady of the house fell in love with his beauty. One day when she knew they would be alone, the lady of the house locked all the doors, trapping Joseph in. Joseph showed again the strength of his character and his faith, while acknowledging the respect he owed the master of the house by avoiding her. Scorned, she tried to attack him and caught his shirt from behind, while he was trying to escape her clutches.

At that very moment, the door was unlocked and a big crowd entered the hall. It was the master of the house and his escort. Everybody was shocked at the scene unfolding before them.  The woman assessed the situation very quickly and started screaming: “Joseph tried to take advantage of me!” Joseph, in return, kept his cool and said he was innocent and that the lady of the house was the one attacking him.

Hearing the contradictory tales of his wife and the teenage boy whom he thought of as his son, the master of the house was bewildered. He didn’t know who to believe, until it was revealed to him that if Joseph’s shirt was torn at the front, his wife was telling the truth. However, if the shirt was torn at the back, it means the wife was a liar. The master checked Joseph’s shirt that was indeed torn at the back. Joseph had proved his steadfastness of character and the respect and love he had for his master by not betraying him.

Joseph had to withstand many trials as a child and teenager, including a stay in prison, but he made up for these years by becoming a great dignitary in Egypt later on in life and ruling fairly.

To be continued...

Inspiring Children - Moses and his sister

I am continuing my series of blogs on inspirational children with Moses and his older sister. In my opinion, Moses’ birth reflects the struggle between right and wrong, justice and oppression. 

In the year when Moses (PBUH) was born, the ruling Egyptian pharaoh decided to kill all baby boys born to Israelites.  The Security and Secret Service broke down all the doors in order to find and dispose of baby boys. However, Moses’ mother was guided by God who told her to wrap her son in a blanket and put him in a basket and put it into the river Nile. She was shocked, but obeyed God and after little Moses was in the basket, floating away on the river, she asked her daughter to look out from the river bank to see where the tide would take her brother.

Both the mother and the daughter were shocked to see that God, in His infinite wisdom, took Moses to the house of the enemy who wanted to kill him mercilessly, the pharaoh’s palace. Moses’s sister had the enormous courage to go to the palace to check on his welfare. Had she been discovered, it’s likely she would have been punished. She found out that little Moses refused to feed from the wet nurse and cried day and night due to hunger. She had the strength and courage to appear before Pharaoh and his wife and ask for the crying Moses to be given in her care, as she knew someone who could feed him. Pharaoh and his wife consented and Moses was taken back to his real mother, unbeknownst to them.

Moses’s sister is an example of a fearless child, trying to do the right thing and help her brother and her mother.

Moses himself (PBUH) showed tremendous strength as a child. When he was playing with Pharaoh, as a toddler, he pulled a hair from his beard. This angered Pharaoh very much, so much that he wanted to have Moses killed. His wife intervened and saved him, but Pharaoh swore revenge and put little Moses to the test. He ordered his guards to bring a sweet and a piece of burning coal. They were put on the table and Pharaoh told his wife: “if Moses touches the sweet, I will have his head cut off. If he touches the burning coal, I will pardon him”.

Little Moses was nearly touching the sweet, but then put the burning coal into his mouth. This brave act saved his life and he went on to become a great man, an inspiration to us all.


To be continued...

Inspiring Children – Abraham’s son

Abraham (PBUH) and son

Around this time last year I talked about the women who should be a source of inspiration for everyone. This year I will talk about the children and teenagers who made a difference.

Today I will tell you about one of Prophet Abraham’s sons (PBUH). We all know the story of how Abraham had children when he was very old and this was a miracle of God. We all know what happened afterwards:

One night, Prophet Abraham saw a vision in his dream, commanding him to slaughter his son. He woke up in fear and shock, thinking it was a whisper from the devil. For days and days, Prophet Abraham kept on having the same dream and realised it was a command from God.  He then took his son to the slaughter and at the last moment, God replaced the son with a sheep to be slaughtered.

What we don’t emphasise is the courage of Abraham’s son. He was a kind, obedient boy, helping his father in his work. When he was bound and prepared for slaughter, he was prepared to be sacrificed in the name of God, without questions. Abraham’s son showed from his childhood that he would become a great leader of nations.

Up to this day, in Islam, a sheep is slaughtered during Hajj to commemorate this event.

To be continued...

Sylvester and Tweety Part 3

It seems lately life has caught up with me and didn’t leave me enough time to catch up with cartoons. However, due to recent events, I find myself in cartoon land again. I’ve spoken about Bugs Bunny and his military tendencies, Daffy Duck and his quacking, but now I have Sylvester and Tweety in my sights.

Sylvester the cat is quite greedy, while Tweety bird is very sweet, but smart. Sylvester always tries to snatch Tweety and eat him, but never succeeds. I can draw some parallels to my country of birth, Egypt.

Sylvester and Tweety never get along and sometimes Tweety has to call on his friend the bulldog for help. In my view, they should sort out their own problems, without external help and an ounce of goodwill from both sides. The bulldog is like Ramses, the military king, a force to be reckoned with. Sylvester doesn’t need to get bitten by the bulldog to make peace with Tweety.

I believe we need to give everybody time and a neutral platform for discussion to have a peaceful transition from fight to engagement. If the Tunisians managed to have a peaceful transition, so must we, as Egyptians.

Let the example in the image of Sylvester and Tweety be no more!

Daffy Duck Part 2

Continuing my cartoon series, I have reached another favourite of mine: Daffy Duck. He’s a very smart duck, but maybe a bit bossy. He believes he is the head of operations, but Bugs Bunny always makes fun of him. When that happens, Daffy Duck gets angry, and when he gets angry his quacking doesn’t have an echo within all of us.

I understand Daffy’s anger and bossiness; after all everyone needs a head to guide, to plan, to drive and to protect, to invest and to invent. Daffy has to quack to be heard and get his message across, because he feels talking wouldn’t solve the issue.

In my view, Daffy Duck is wrong. He needs to calm down, sit down and discuss with everybody. What Daffy needs to remember is that sometimes the head is indeed the problem. For example, I met with someone recently who told me that in certain conflict zones, the heads of the military spent over the past few years hundreds of millions (!) on quacking.

This someone also said something very wise: “Headquarters exist so that headquarters can exist”.  Daffy Duck’s quacking exists because he doesn’t want to communicate in any other useful way. We need to stop quacking and start discussing rationally, being more transparent and less bossy.

After all, while Daffy Duck was quacking, Sylvester and Tweety... (to be continued).