CHILDREN'S CORNER

Once upon a time, far, far, far away in an Oakwood forest, on an island in the middle of Bingo Bay, lived Timpim, the Tom-Cat. Very charming, with a fluffy tail, glassy green eyes and a furry coat with a mixture of grey, white and black stripes on his back, Timpim was a runaway cat who had abandoned his home in the city as he found the mice there too snobbish. The city mice wore blue bow ribbons around their necks and carried baskets of fresh cheese and dainty white paper napkins. After every bite of the cheese, they would wipe their whiskers with the napkins. Timpim thought this was too prim and proper. To add to his dismay, on Saturday afternoons the lady mice had a “kitty party” where they gossiped for hours about Timpim’s tail and about how Christopher, the country cat, had eloped with Camelia, the city cat.

 Timpim’s attempts to make a meal of the city mice had failed as these cheesy mice swished their tails at him and made faces if he dared to even glance their way. It was then Timpim decided to bid goodbye to the city and live in the Oakwood forest.

 One summer afternoon, after a peaceful cat-nap (after all, he was a cat!), Timpim set off on a hunting prowl in the forest. Sharpening his claws against a tree trunk, Timpim settled himself on a tree branch, hoping that a fat wild mouse would land in his platter.

All of a sudden, there was a rustle of leaves. Peering through the branches, Timpim spotted something moving below the tree.

“Hey there, Who’s you? What you doing there?,” meowed Timpim.
“It’s me, Merlyn the merry mouse. Heee heee!,” said a tiny buck-toothed creature, giggling and proudly twisting his wispy moustache.

“Wow! A mousey! Here’s my fork and knife and what a lovely meal you will make, hmmmm,” chuckled Timpim.

“I don’t like you giggling. Stop it, will you?” said Timpim.

 “Timpim, don’t frown! I am a merry mouse”, Merlyn squeaked back. “I scamper around in the forest picking cherries and berries. I give rides to tired beetles on my back. Flavia, the fly, loves to swing on my tail. And old and frail Buckleboo, the ladybird, too. If you eat me up, what’s going to happen to all my little friends who depend on me?.”

“How cheeky you are Merlyn,” snapped Timpim. “You ought to be just eating cheese and sleeping. That’s your job and when you bump into catties like me, just say your prayers and make your last wish.”

“No, Timpim”, Merlyn replied bravely. “How very vain you are! Life is not all about eating, hunting, napping and frightening mice,” he added philosophically, putting on his spectacles that gave him an air of solemn authority. “In this forest, I get no cheese, yet I am happy because I make others happy. Flavia, the fly, is an orphan and I let her play with my tail and swish up and down on it like on a see-saw. Buckleboo, the ladybird, has grown old and she rides on my back to fetch fresh honey from Woody’s bakery down the hill. In my small way, I try to  make others happy.”

Timpim’s tail drooped and he put his tail between his paws. Tears dropped from his green eyes.
“Sorry Merlyn”, he sputtered. “You’ve taught me a good lesson. I’ll now stop chasing mice and will try to make others happy.”

 Timpim put his paws around Merlyn’s shoulders and they both skipped away into the forest. Everyday, they sat by a bubbling brook on a patch of green crunchy grass waving out at the birds and the bees and drinking fresh frothy milk that Coopooh the farm cow would give them. Flavia played happily with Timpim’s tail, while Buckleboo, the ladybird, nestled cosily inside Timpim’s ear, snoring without a care in the world.

And that is how Merlyn and Timpim became best friends for ever. And so, as the saying goes, All’s well that ends well!

Al-Zuman, a black belt in Tae Kwondo and professional swimmer, is an experienced mountain climber.

Thirty-year-old Farouk Saad Hamad Al-Zuman planted a Saudi flag on the summit of Mt. Everest on May 21, 2008, becoming the first Saudi to conquer the world’s highest peak. “Farouk has made all of us proud,” said Aasma Al-Yahya, Al-Zuman’s mother. “I thank Allah that my son’s purpose and the Saudi nation’s mission have been successfully completed.”

Three members of the 10-person expedition failed to reach the top, with one Japanese climber dying on the way. “But Al-Zuman made history and has now been fondly nicknamed the ‘Sir Edmund Hillary of Saudi Arabia,’” said Al-Zuman’s boss and sponsor, Sultan Al-Bazie, CEO of Attariq Communications.

“A total of seven members of our expedition team succeeded to reach the top,” said Al-Zuman, a PR strategist and graduate of Oregon State University in the US.

Al-Zuman’s mother said there were tense moments during the climb. “We were concerned about his safety and health as we lost contact for quite some time after Farouk’s satellite phone failed to work or got disrupted from time to time.”

Al-Zuman, a black belt in Tae Kwondo and professional swimmer, is an experienced mountain climber. Previously, he scaled Mt. Rainer in Washington, US, Mt. Halealala in Maui, Hawaii, and Mt. Shasta in California. Al-Zuman is the first Arab this year to climb the peak.

The climb was not easy however. Al-Zuman and his teammates encountered many other climbers on the route, leading to bottlenecks and hold-ups in many places. But they persevered and overcame the difficulties. It took the team about several hours to climb from the south to reach the summit.
Mount Everest, which is also called a mountain without mercy, defeats 70 percent of those trying to conquer it. In 1996, 15 people died trying to reach the summit. That year, a storm stranded several climbers between the summit and the Safety Camp IV. Since the first historic climb of New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Tenzig Norgay in 1953, a large number of people have died, while attempting to reach to the top.

A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside.

“Your son is here,” she said to the old man.

 She had to repeat the words several times before the patient’s eyes opened.

Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man’s limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.

The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed.All through the night, the young Marine sat there in the poorly lit ward, holding the old man’s hand and offering him words of love and strength.  Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile. He refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients.

Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.

Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited.

Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her.
“Who was that man?” he asked. The nurse was startled, “He was your father,” she answered. “No, he wasn’t,” the Marine replied. “I never saw him before in my life.”

“Then why didn’t you say something when I took you to him?”

“I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn’t here. When I realised that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed.”

The next time someone needs you....... be there... just stay!

Children can learn from the Prophet’s model of being grateful to all those who took care of them when they were young.

The first few years of the Prophet’s life saw him suffering repeated loss of his immediate relatives. His father died when he was on a journey, perhaps unaware that his wife was pregnant. He stayed most of the first four or five years of his life with his wet nurse, Haleemah, in a desert encampment. It was a tradition among the top families in Makkah that they gave their newborn children to be nursed by women in the desert, believing that, there the children would grow up stronger. Perhaps Makkah suffered attacks of infectious diseases, and keeping the children away gave them a better chance of survival. However, Haleemah and her family felt that Muhammad (Pbuh) brought them some subtle blessing. Therefore, she was keen to keep him with her as long as possible. Hence, she persuaded Aminah, his mother, to leave him with her. This was agreed, and Haleemah only returned the young Muhammad to his mother when he was five years of age. Only a year later, Muhammad lost his mother. He was then cared for by his grandfather, Abd Al-Muttalib, who was the most distinguished figure in Makkah and by now a very old man. Two years later Abd Al-Muttalib died and Muhammad moved home again, going now to his uncle, Abu Talib.

Abu Talib loved his orphan nephew, Muhammad, as one of his own children. Abu Talib and his family were the closest to his heart, because of the care he received in his uncle’s home. We see him, as he became a young man, talking to another uncle of his, Al-Abbas, during a time of hardship when all things were scarce in Makkah, saying: “You see how things are in the city, with people finding it hard to make ends meet. Your brother, Abu Talib is a poor man, and he has a large family. We better do something to help him. How about the two of us taking one of his children each to look after?” They went to Abu Talib with their proposal. Al-Abbas took Jaafar, and the Prophet took Ali. This was long before the start of Muhammad’s prophethood. The two young lads thus found good homes where they were welcome, and their father’s burden was significantly lightened.

His close relationship with his uncle, Abu Talib, continued for the rest of the latter’s life. The Prophet would have dearly loved that Abu Talib should accept Islam, but this was not to be. However, Abu Talib continued to extend his care and protection to his nephew against all opposition by his tribe, the Quraysh. Moreover, the Prophet continued to give Fatimah bint Asad, Abu Talib’s wife, a special position of favor in his heart. He acknowledged her favor and unwavering care when he was a child. As he grew up, he always showed her dutiful respect and often favored her with generous gifts, according to his means.

Abu Talib died three years before the Prophet’s emigration to Madinah. Fatimah bint Asad followed the Prophet to Madinah sometime after he had settled there. The Prophet was so delighted with her arrival, welcoming her as one of his closest relatives. It was with deep grief that he later received the news of her death. He prayed God to give her a high position in heaven. His companions saw him praying for her forgiveness, with his eyes tearful. He said to them: “Next to Abu Talib, she was the one who took best care of me when I was young.”

Another person who earned the Prophet’s gratitude was Thuwaybah, a slave woman owned by his uncle Abu Lahab. She breast-fed him in his early days of life, before he was given to Haleemah. Thus, she nursed him for a few weeks after his birth. The Prophet cared well for her, inquiring after her when he was in Makkah. When he got married, his wife Khadeejah was very hospitable to her. Then at one point, Khadeejah approached Abu Lahab, proposing to buy Thuwaybah so that she might set her free. Abu Lahab would hear nothing of the sort. Abu Lahab, who stubbornly opposed the Islamic message and took a hostile attitude to the Prophet, could not countenance the prospect of Muhammad being seen in Makkah in such a light, showing a great favor to the slave woman who nursed him in his early days. Yet, when the Prophet immigrated to Madinah, Abu Lahab himself set Thuwaybah free. Therefore, the Prophet used to send her money and clothes whenever he could. He learnt of her death in year seven after his settlement in Madinah. When the news was brought to him, he asked about her son, Masrooh. He was informed that he died earlier, and that she had no other relatives.

While those we have mentioned had special positions with the Prophet because they looked after him when he was young, the Prophet was very kind to all his relatives. He respected his uncles, loved his aunts and was kind and friendly with all. He would visit anyone of them who was ill, praying for their recovery. Needless to say, that was the best thing such an ill person could hope for, because the Prophet’s prayers were always answered.