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Chocolate For The Quran: My Family's Blog

by HijabMan :: posted 6 March 07

At the age of 11, my father enrolled me in an Islamic Sunday School. Usually kids attend Sunday school from an early age, but an incident with my sister in the mosque and the subsequent drama associated with it* delayed [thank God] my entrance.

As a result of my delayed entrance, I was the only 11 year old in the Kindergarten (5-year-old) class. I kind of felt like Robin Williams in the movie Jack, where his character grows/ages at four times the rate of normal kids.

As the eldest and tallest, I quickly became the class clown. I even developed a crush on the teacher’s assistant, Sohah. Convinced that the art of paper folding was the way to her heart, I folded more origami balls and flowers in the span of 45 minutes than ever thought possible. My classmates were amazed. Why did he gives all those cool toys to the teacher?!

Ahh, but the potential for origami love was squashed. I was skipped to second grade for two weeks, and then skipped to fourth where my nickname was TwentyEightPercent. That percentage just happened to be my average score on tests.

Creativity points, anyone?

The great thing about being thrown into the Islamic Sunday school system late was the immediate realization that grades didn’t matter! BWAHAHAHAHA!

And so my creativity blossomed. What I never dared to do in normal school, I made a point to experiment with in Islamic School. My greatest feat [of evil] came when I erased two points from the blackboard during a game of boys vs. girls Islamic Jeopardy while the teacher was in the classroom and the whole class watching. As a result, the girls lost despite their protests, and I became an instant rockstar among the other boys in class.

Eventually a group of administrators (read: South Asian uncles) took me out into the hall and surrounded me. They collectively asserted that if I acted out like this in private school, they’d beat me.

Fast forward a month or two, and I was skipped ahead, again. That’s right, I became a teacher for an alternative Saturday school program…. the Promised Land!**

What I experienced back then is exactly what my father described a few weeks ago. Since retiring, he has taken on a teaching position for Sunday School. He focuses on the meaning of the Qur’an. Very few students pay attention, and so he was in a bit of a quandary. Only one girl had memorized the meaning of the first surah or chapter.

So, one day, he called on her to present the meaning of that first chapter, and when she was finished, rewarded her with a massive chocolate bar.

Needless to say, within three weeks, four kids had memorized the English translation.

My father’s story got me thinking…. my family has a lot to say about life, religion, God, and even crocheting techniques, so why not give them a place where they can?

I present to you, dear readers, a family section of this blog, where you will find all the posts from my family members.

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1. flukycoda at 7 March 07 :: #

   yay, this is brilliant that you’ve got your family to start a blog! the minute i finish posting this, i’m off to read it.

2. Aaisha Shaikh at 7 March 07 :: #

   The Sindhi Ranger :) I love it.

   PS – The last link on the post that points to your family’s blog is missing an ‘i’ in the word family so it is erroring out.

   I’d also appreciate it if you’d all link it on your blogs: http://www.americanfamilyblog.com

   Not a huge deal, but thought you might want to know.

   Hope all is well!

3. sammerai at 8 March 07 :: #

   sindhi…seriously? they are few and far between…like rangers…

4. yaser at 9 March 07 :: #

   wow, you certainly were a handful.

5. katiktuni at 9 March 07 :: #

   I love the family blog. I’m going to send the link to my sister-she’ll enjoy the post about the bees.

6. The Jolly Bengali at 17 March 07 :: #

   I’m a Sunday school dropout. I hated being the only 9 year old in a class of kindergarteners. I wasn’t very good at Arabic, so I had a hard time… advancing. It was so humiliating to be in a class of little kids. Eventually my parents gave into my whining and let me drop out when I was in 4th grade.

7. Unique at 19 March 07 :: #

   Family is so important. But for many Muslim women they suffer alone in silence without family support because they have been victimised by the patriarchal system. I hope you can support our cause by visiting the blog that raises awarness of these issues because we can’t hide them in the dark forever. Thank you!