Winning Entry 1: Heba Kamran
Her gentle touch, sweet scent, soulful laugh and innocent silliness. Beneath my apparently ‘annoyed’ expressions, I love these things about my mother. A mother: someone Allah Himself compared His love with. How incredible is her status and how great is her sacrifice.
I’ll always remember the Iftar of the 20th of Ramadan. I was sitting on the familiar dining table of my Naani’s house. We broke our fast in unison with the sweet ajwa dates. Ammi got up, as usual and started filling everyone’s bowls with the ‘kaalay chanay’, and the ‘dahi barray’. She always does this.
And today, I observed her keenly as she picked up my bowl and filled it with ‘dahi barray’. I was mind blown by this woman’s selflessness. Hungry and exhausted from fasting herself, she was on her feet feeding others. Just like she fed, carried and bore me in her womb. I realised the sacrifices she has made throughout her life for me at that frivolous moment with the ‘dahi barray’ in my plate and silent thoughts in my heart.
Ammi – someone who’ll fill everyone else’s plate with the ‘dahi barray’ before her own. Now THAT’S love.
Winning Entry 2: Bakhtawar Qureshi
Hand In Hand Through Life With My Heroine – My Mother
I just hit my thirties recently, and reflected on the time and generation my respected mother belongs to. She spent her adulthood quite differently compared to the one her children are experiencing. Yet, surprisingly, she broke the spell of baseless norms of her time that seeped into our generation of the 90s. She has broken the stigma of openly addressing our concerns and she tries to understand our challenges of faith, career, pre and post marriage fears and psychosocial adjustments. She does this while guiding us in the light of Islamic knowledge and good examples from her life, warning us against the flaws of her era.
She has a humorous twist on society’s favorite fear of ‘What will people think? Instead, she asks us : “What will people think about you, if you think about what they will think about you?”
I thank Allah for making her exactly the kind of mother a young lady like me needed amidst the current challenges of an Asian society.
Winning Entry 3: Javeria Siraj
A mother-daughter relationship is not easy to describe in words. Mothers often see the potential of everything they could’ve been in their daughters and daughters often worry that they’ll end up just like their mothers, stuck serving their spouse and kids. My mother and I, too, have our own unique bond with a long history of ups and downs but there is never once a dull day in our house thanks to her. She’s always innovative with her cooking, coming up with quick but amazingly tasty food recipes, making us laugh with her weird sense of humor and it’s always fun to discuss the latest family drama with her.
However, there is one thing for which I will remain forever grateful to her. She never compromised on the quality of education for my brothers and myself. I genuinely believe that a good education plays a big part in building one’s character and my Amma ensured that I got the best . The first in her family to work overnight jobs, Amma has always encouraged and supported every endeavor I undertook and I sincerely hope to be able to make her proud someday.
I love you Batul Fatima❤️
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