My Mother, My Paradise, A Reminder of God

As an ambassador of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Mother’s day for me isn’t limited to one day a year nor is it just a sensational phrase, it’s a daily honor practiced in true Islam.

In the beginning years of my existence, and developmentally the most meaningful years, my mother, Talhaht Mannan, was the love of my life. Before I knew and fell in love with God, I knew and fell in love with my mother first. She along with my father were the earliest manifestation of God for me, as my wife and I now are for our children. The Holy Quran beautifully encapsulates this reality through a moving prayer; “O my Divine Nourisher (Rabbi), shower your compassion upon them (parents), even as they were my nourishers (Rabbayani) when I was helpless” (17:25). My mother selflessly enriched me, facilitating at least ninety percent of my cognitive growth. Even before my birth when she sacrificed herself for me to be, and is unconditionally here for me and even my children now. Beyond that, she is there for countless others in the peaceloving community of Muslims who believe the Messiah has come again in Ahmad of Qadian, and as an expert in Early Childhood Education and a successful Preschool Director at CCSU. She was my home, biologically and emotionally. Her spiritual and material sustenance was my sustenance, and her mood was my mood, I was created and evolved in her.

She taught me how to live and unveiled the other side of God to me, illustrating how the Lord is not only the majestic Heavenly Father in true Islam but also the most beautiful Heavenly Mother. The Arabic root "rhm" of Allah's most oft repeated attributes, the Gracious (Al Rahman) and the Merciful (Al Raheem), also means a womb, and relationship from the female side. Perhaps this is why Prophet Muhammad exclusively teaches; “paradise lies under the feet of your mother”.

Prophet Muhammad also taught me that I fulfilled half of my faith only when I married my wife, my better half and that I would be the best among all men only if I treated my wife the best among all husbands. It was through my wife. Syeda Sana Shah, that the Divine Bestower perfected me as a Muslim, and blessed me to be a father. A co-parent of three perfect children all dedicated to Divine Beloved while still fashioning in the womb of their celestial mother. A spiritual offering to our Divine Parent and Creator emulating the righteous, ancient paradigm of the Irsealite Jesus’ only grandmother through Mary, who's notably a single mother in Islam, preserved in the Holy Quran (3:36). Through the virtue of one of my children being a daughter, my firstborn princess Khadijah Sadiya, a door of paradise was opened to me, as Prophet Muhammad promised, not only in the hereafter but also in this very life.

Allah also reminds me that I have spiritual mothers, whose righteous paradigms empower all women, and men, in every age: “The Prophet is nearer to the believers than their own selves, and his wives are as mothers to them” (33:7). The progressive wife of the Prophet Muhammad, Khadijah, the pure, of Quraish, for example, always comes to mind and heart. Fourteen centuries ago, she lived up to her name by being well ahead of her time. My spiritual mother Khadijah was a noble widow and wealthy businesswoman who employed my spiritual father, the Prophet Muhammad, and recognized him decades before his Divine ministry. When she was 40, now twice widowed, she proposed to a 25-year-old Muhammad, wedded him, and remained his professional supervisor, contrary to prevailing customs. When the Prophet Muhammad had been chosen and commissioned by God she was his first believer and supporter in every way. It’s no coincidence that both were descendants of the faithful Hagar, the matriarch of the Arabs who, when left in Paran, modern day Arabia, by our Patriarch Abraham, transformed the barren deserts of Arabia into a thriving metropolis by trading blessed water from the famous Zamzam well for goods with bedouins and nomads.

Motherhood is a sacred empowerment in Islam, a revolutionary gift that ought to be cherished and appreciated daily by us all, especially the males. While we are all mirrors of the Divine, God has inevitably made some excel others via manifestation; mothers are annointed to perform miracles that fathers simply cannot. Our mothers will always be the first taste of God we ever have the delight to behold.

Miyan Zahir Muhammad Mannan

Serving as Secretary of Outreach, Holy Quran Education & Devotion, Press & Media, Spokesman, and leading member of the Muslim Writers Guild of America

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Baitul Aman "House of Peace" Mosque, 410 Main Street, Meriden, CT 06451

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Professionally: Head Teacher & Internship Director for the ELP at Central Connecticut State University. Previously a Research Scientist at Yale School of Medicine