بِسْــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِالرَّحْمَنِ اارَّحِيم

Alhamdulillah.

I hope our children had progressed and enjoyed the learning activities at CIC and it will be a wonderful experience of a lifetime.

And Alhamdulilah we are now in the month of Hajj, the month of blessings. Last week, children at CIC started performing the play on wukuf, setting the tents in the classroom, reading khutbah and doa. Last year they performed the play “Safari to Makkah”. These were among the many exciting things we did at CIC. To the children, it is the excitement that they will not forget, but to us, it is the knowledge and values that we want to instill in them.

Education in early childhood is more than teaching to read but to develop the innate belief. My son once told me, “Mummy, do you know that the scariest month is October?” I asked why. He said because of Halloween! So Halloween is one of the examples on how the English culture has become part of my son’s belief which I cannot control. In this 21st century, the knowledge are unlimited, the global influences to some extent are good but can be harmful if we do not balance it with the religious beliefs.

Dear parents, our children are like the empty glass, their childhood experience and belief will characterize themselves. Therefore as parents and educators we must pay close attention to the daily experience of a child so that we are able to intervene before it is too late.

It is important for a Muslim child to be upbringing in good environment but for developing a strong character, the kid should be toughened up. This is normally happened to many great leaders of the world who were sent away from families to make them tough.

The Hajj itself is the training camp of Allah that He has made it compulsory to all Muslims. We see that Allah has placed His sacred house, Kaabah in the most rugged stony part of the earth and commanded the people to turn our attention towards it. Allah had not placed His Sacred house in the lush gardens with streams because of the lightness of the trial. As a matter of great test, extreme trial, Allah has made us throw away our good dress, with only pieces of cloth, uncut hair, dusted faces in order to approach Him. Allah tries us by means of different troubles and He wants us to render worship through hardships to extract arrogance and to settle humbleness in our spirits. When people remain humble before Allah only then they will accept His obedience with sincerity.

Certainly, we should take a lesson from this training camp of Allah. If we want our children to be selected individuals, sometimes we have to engage them in tough situations so that they will grow with strong leadership capabilities but remain humble in front of God.

Lastly, I really hope if we can continuously work hands in hands to develop our young leaders. In February 2011, in celebration of Maulidur Rasul, CIC will have an education conference which we will discuss few important issues in children’s education. I like to invite all of you to join us. We are playing a very important role in human history, what we do today, helps to shape the future. Therefore, hope to see you in that conference. Insya Allah.

With that, I thank you.