My daughter always seemed to me to be the brave one, especially compared to my niece and nephew who are older than her. I would notice that she was quite ‘daring’ and wouldn’t be afraid to give something a try. In fact, something that would cause butterflies in her stomach actually made her laugh.

My nephew has always had this tendency to be alert and aware; much more now than he was when he was younger; whilst my niece is still willing to give things a try but really hates the butterfly feeling.

Though this may all seem random, it’s actually my thoughts gathered at our local park whilst I took the little ones there to enjoy themselves. I really notice the difference between this trip and the last one I made. The awareness of my nephew, who is the eldest, was far greater than I expected.

It made me realise that my daughter was not really the ‘brave one’ she was the one who was unaware of dangers, boundaries, hurt and pain. With age comes awareness and with awareness comes age. The older we get the more aware we should become; the more we should be able to understand, recognise and refrain from those things that could prove to be harmful to us in anyway.

Point

When we look at kids we should, to some extent, reflect upon ourselves. How ‘aware’ are we in regards to those things that can harm and hurt us? I believe at times we’re quite aware of things that could be dangerous to our bodies and health; yet we either take a risk or we don’t realise just how dangerous these things can prove to be, if not in the present time then in the near future.

Yet how many times have we pondered about how aware we are in regards to Allah? Have we become any closer to Him; to pleasing Him through our age? Were we more sensitive about Allah’s pleasure and displeasure when we were kids or are we becoming wiser with age?

I remember, when we were kids, our mother used to tell us that Allah will burn is in fire if we do something wrong and He will become upset. At that age we used to be constantly reminded or we would constantly question our actions; is Allah going to be displeased with this? Will He punish us?

Yet our awareness in relation to Allah is such that we become more aware of His mercy, or should I say more dependent; whilst we completely overlook His power and promise to punish. In reality, we, with age, have chosen to become more unaware of Allah.

May Allah give us awareness of His might and power as well as His mercy. May He make us understand that His pleasure is ultimate and that nothing should come before His pleasure. May He give us the strength, courage and understanding to that which pleases Him and refrain from that which displeases Him.

Aameen.