大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Yousra Samir Imran, a British Egyptian writer and author

Good morning.

Today I asked my father if the next time he visits from Qatar whether he would collaborate with me on a small project for my twenty-month-old-son.
Together we would produce a series of digital life lectures that my son can listen to as he grows up.

At 66 years old you may say my father is 鈥渘ot that old,鈥� but recently his closest friends have started to pass away from illness or old age.

These friends were pillars in our community and it really brought home to me that I just don鈥檛 know how much time my father has left in this world.

I worry that he won鈥檛 be around to see my son grow up and deliver him the valuable life lessons that I missed out on when his own father passed away when I was a baby.

As a teenager I loathed the lectures that my father would give me spanning hours on a weekday evening or Sunday afternoon when I鈥檇 rather be watching TV or listening to music.

But now I regret mocking them and can only hope God will grant me many more opportunities to sit with my father, listen to his advice, his stories about his childhood in Egypt, and to his retellings of momentous moments in Islamic history, etching everything he says permanently onto my brain.

My Lord, as I enter into this new day, I recall the prayer mentioned in the Holy Qur鈥檃n and ask you to have mercy upon my parents as they brought me up when I was small.

Oh Lord, allow us to appreciate the wisdom of our elders and be present in the moment with them.

Ameen.

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