Naira for your thoughts

‘Wa alaikumussalam and barka da Sallah to you too, Baba.’ They echoed in response. ‘Yesterday I told you there will be a conditional goron sallah gift from me to you today. Who can tell me what it means to give a conditional gift?’ He asked. There was a brief silence before Ummi, the eldest, replied […]

‘Wa alaikumussalam and barka da Sallah to you too, Baba.’ They echoed in response.

‘Yesterday I told you there will be a conditional goron sallah gift from me to you today. Who can tell me what it means to give a conditional gift?’ He asked.

There was a brief silence before Ummi, the eldest, replied ‘It means there is something we have to do or say before we get the goron Sallah, unlike before when it was automatic on Eid day.’

‘Very good, now each of you must answer my question satisfactorily, then he or she will get his goron Sallah’ Tahir explained. ‘Let’s begin with Little Bint’ he said calling our youngest child to him. ‘Tell me why we had to fast this last month.’

Looking up at him as she weighed her response, the six year old simply said ‘Because Allah said we should fast.’

‘MashaAllah LB, it’s because Almighty Allah said we should fast. So here is your grand prize of N500’ and with that he counted 10 fresh mint notes of N50 each and handed them to her. Little Bint collected her prize, grabbed his neck in a hug and then thanked him before walking back to her seat.

Turning back to the other children, Tahir asked her immediate elder brother Mahmud, ‘Why did Almighty God say we should fast?’

‘So that we can feel the hunger that poor people feel when there is no food in their homes’ Mahmud replied, rising to his feet.

‘That’s very good Mahmud. You can come for your prize too’ he said, counting 20 mint notes of N50 and handing them over to the ten year old.

‘Ahmad what have you learnt from the events of the last one month?’ Tahir asked our older son.

‘That it is a very holy season when we should fast and pray and read the holy Qur’an lot and that we should be kind and generous to others.’ The thirteen year old replied also standing up.

‘That’s great Ahmad you can come for your prize too.’ And counting 30 mint notes of N50 naira he shook the teenager’s hand before giving him.

‘Ok Big Lady’ he said addressing our first born Ummi, ‘why did we insist on less TV watching during Ramadan?’

‘Because it is a holy season during which we are expected to do more worship, to help the needy among us, to strengthen the ties of kinship by sharing gifts to our relatives. And we cannot do all that if we are glued to the TV screens. There are three divine awards in Ramadan, the first 10 days offer us Almighty Allah’s mercy. The second 10 days offer us His forgiveness and in the last 10 or 9 days we must try to win His promised liberation from Hell-fire. All the three prizes are achievable only when we fast, pray, read the Holy Qur’an and are generous to one another.’ She explained.

‘MashaAllah, barakallah, that was a professorial response. You know you can’t achieve much on any given day when you are rushing between Hannah Montana and Kim Possible just because the schools are closed. You now know that TV entertainment is a distraction which should be regulated. Now ask yourselves what you really missed though you couldn’t watch so many of your favourite programmes, virtually nothing. But consider all that you have gained by using that time to revise the Holy Qur’an with Malam in the day time and with Mummy at dawn, you’ll see that you’ve gained a lot. Well done Ummi and here is your prize money.’ With that he counted 40 mint notes of N50 and handed over to the 16 year old. ‘Well one last question before I release you to start spending your goron Sallah. When are we expected to again practice all that we have learnt during this Ramadan?’

‘In Ramadan next year’ they all echoed.

‘What? Ok bring back ten percent of your money because you’ve all failed this one.’ He ordered jokingly, but when he noticed them trying to count the money, he quickly added. ’Keep all your money but for the record, you are expected to practice whatever you learnt or practiced during Ramadan the whole year round. This is not to say that you are to fast the whole year but that you should continue with the other virtues of generosity, kindness, Qur’an reading and honesty everyday of your lives. Then you can fast occasionally if you wish. It brings extra rewards and cleanses your system of excess food.’ He concluded. As the children filed out of the room, Tahir turned to me and said.

‘Well Big Bint, or should I call you BB?’ he asked his enchanting smile at its very best.

‘No please, I wouldn’t want to be a Blackberry namesake, just good old Bint will do.’ I replied.

‘Perhaps we should settle for DB then, you know short for Darling Bint.’ he joked.

‘Oh yes DB is welcome any day.’ I concurred, smiling back.

‘Ok DB, what is the spiritual dimension of the fast?’ he asked.

’What? You mean you will subject me to this test too? I thought it’s for the children only. Surely you don’t expect me not to know, do you?’ I protested.

‘Take it or leave it DB, I have fresh mint notes of N5000 as the prize, and the question I asked as bait.’ He replied, obviously enjoying my dilemma.

Looking hungrily at the mint notes that will come in really handy when giving goron Sallah to my young Eid Mubarak visitors, I had no choice but to conform. ‘Well the spiritual dimension of it is to observe this fast with more than just the abstention from food, drink and some unmentionable action, but to also abstain from all acts capable of eroding its perfection. That is we must abstain from backbiting, slandering, gossiping, quarrelling, spying on others and depriving people of their rights in any way. In short the spiritual dimension takes cognisance of the fact that the physical aspect is only a minor percentage of fasting, the major one being to guard the heart and the tongue from all evil thoughts and actions. It also means to engage in all those positive virtues Ummi and Ahmad mentioned, sincerely not seeking praise or fame.’ I replied.

‘Well done Darling Bint and here’s your N5000 prize,‘ he said rising to hand the wad of notes to me and offer me a brief hug.

‘Next time you said conditional Sallah gift, I will read up my IRK books before coming here’ I said collecting the money from him.

‘But you didn’t do too badly for an impromptu response, indeed you did excellently well DB. Let’s just hope you did as well when cooking the Sallah meal. Saying that, he held my hand and walked me over to the dining table.