Recently, I saw this picture on Instagram. I took the time to read it, I’m glad i did, it wast an incredibly powerful and beautiful reminder. Naturally, I decided to repost it, but when I found the caption I was typing underneath just kept getting longer and longer, I decided to turn my thoughts on it into a blog post.

The picture itself, came at a really good time, I’d been struggling, feeling overwhelmed, and in need of support. I’ve really been feeling the test of parenting lately, and keep finding myself in need of some serious self care, and rest! (Rest, a mother’s dream, right? :D).
This post though, it was a jolting shock, and a much needed reminder, of the bigger picture. Reading it prompted reflection, and a chance to refocus.

One of my chief complaints in the early months of my own motherhood journey was that it seemed to be a twenty-four hour gig, with no breaks, no pit-stops, or days off. That I was on-call twenty four seven, and it was just too difficult. Subhanallah! As I continue on this journey I keep returning to the realisation that all of the hardships we face and feel, every single one of them are a ni’amah (a gift/blessing) especially when they increase you in awareness of your complete dependence on and reliance in Allah.

And then when you consider the ultimate grace, that it is all counted as ibadah (an act of worship); That in loving, nurturing, teaching, and caring for your child/ren you are earning good deed upon good deed; that in being a mother you are actively building your place in the hereafter, you cannot help but be humbled and filled with gratitude that this, the hardest task you’ve ever faced in your life is as immense in reward as it is in significance.

That mothering, is merely another manifestation of the sincere actions of a slave before her Lord, and amazingly not a single second of it goes unrecorded, unrecognised, or unaccounted for with Him.
May Allah keep us sincere, and cognisant of this.

I pray that  Allah keep us sincere in our intentions and ever conscious that each time we are tired, or stressed, or frustrated, or feel like we’re failing, or not doing as much spiritually as we had been, that as mothers our honour lies in our almost constant in a state of ibadah. Alhamdulillah! And we will, bi’ithni’llah (with Allah’s permission) find our reward for the struggle with our Lord.
Ameen.

 

 

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