Voice of British Muslim Women

Yusra Dahri, Tilford

“Paradise lies under the feet of mothers.”

 When I first learned this Hadith I jokingly picked up my mother’s foot and pretended to look for something under it.

There was no malice in this action though, and soon enough I grasped its message. Soon after, I learnt more Ahadith but the Arabic of this one (the first one I memorised) patiently lilted in the back of mind, never forceful, but always waiting.

Waiting for what? Perhaps waiting for me to look over my shoulder and to see the person who stood behind me, always silently supporting me: my mother. Not only did she try her best to raise me so I could walk my own path to Paradise in the future, but she worked tirelessly to sprout a paradise for me in between the cracks of concrete. I will never forget the sounds of my mother’s footsteps, and someday hope I can follow them.

I applaud every mother, every woman who has worked against all odds to achieve a career most men would envy. But my mother has never had a career, she is not ‘empowered’ in the eyes of society. Yet she is the mother, the woman I aspire to become.

My grades have given me grief, my exams have given me anxiety. But the quiet fortitude my mother has taught me has made me brave. It has made me brave enough to stare at whatever monster right in the eye, because I have the footsteps of strong women behind me.

I wonder when as a society we deem money and fame to be the most powerful forces on earth, superior to that of the love of a mother? What value does empowerment have, if it is no longer love that makes us strong?

I remember once I asked my mother the ethically sensitive question, “If you went back in time to when Hitler was a child, would you kill him?” Without a beat she said, “I would adopt him.” I was astounded, this answer had never once occurred to me. But maybe it would do to a mother.

It is through love and patience gardeners tend to plants. Likewise, my mother is a grower. She knows that she cannot force a crooked plant to grow straight, she can only guide it. Yet that is enough. Slowly, a Paradise is found.

Copyright Lajna UK