Role Models

**Mom**

My mom was born in Faisalabad, Pakistan to a middle-class family. She
was the eighth child of eleven children in total. She only had two sisters who
were married when she was very young and therefore, she grew up as a tomboy
from the direct influence her eight brothers. She grew up with love and care
from both her parents and her siblings. She never had any petty fights or
arguments with any of her siblings and treated her parents with the utmost
respect. While growing up, her parents gave her the simplest yet most
meaningful present: how to live one’s life with simplicity, modestly and honesty.
During her teenage years, she experienced a very unfortunate event; the murder
of her elder brother who was also her best friend. It left her with a huge
impact of loss and sadness. As time passed, the wounds slowly healed but she
never forgot him and wished to never experience anything similar again. As she
grew older, her parents arranged a marriage with my dad and respecting her
parents’ wishes, gave her consent without ever glancing at his picture once.
The one thing she remembers the most during the time of her marriage was the
advice her parents had given her. She believes the advice her parents gave her
was the best present any one could ever give their daughter and is the key to
her everlasting successful marriage. The advice that she still remembers
vividly is: “Treat your husband with the utmost respect and love him only,
treat his parents as your parents. Take care of them as you would of us and
treat his siblings as yours. That is now your home, it is where you will live
and will also die. If you ever come to our house and backbite about them, the
doors of our house are closed to you forever. Take care of yourself and be
happy.” She did just that and has been married to my dad for the last
twenty-one years with four healthy children. She has had her ups and down but
nothing that she could not overcome, especially with the thought of her
parent’s advice in mind.

She is one of the persons I respect the most in the world and look up
to. Many of my friends have told me their need and desire for a female role
model but I have never felt that need as I already have one right beside me and
guiding me. Growing up observing my mom, the way she acts, behaves and her
habits, I must say that she is one of the best person anyone can have the
honour of knowing. She is very kind, encouraging, responsible, caring and
respectful of others. She has always treated my grandparents with respect and
took care of their needs without complaining about it. This earned her a high
level of respect from not only my grandparents but also from my dad. She became
best friends with my dad’s siblings and this can be seen just from the
interactions between them. She has always spent time with us (her children) and
has always been patient with us. She always encourages us to do our best and
live an honest life. She always encourages us to do the right things without
burdening or pressuring us. Out of the various things I admire and respect
about her, one thing that always makes me emotional is the fact that she does
everything and anything for us children, to make us happy and to take care of
our needs. She makes me want to be a better person, makes me want to work
harder and do good things in life. In all honesty, she is one of the main
reasons of who and what I am today and who I want to be in the future. Looking
at her, I feel very proud to have her as my role model and if she was not in my
life, I feel I would have been living a very reckless and meaningless life.

**Holy Prophet Muhammad**
saw

Holy Prophet Muhammad saw was born 570 AD in Makkah. He was
given the name Muhammad which means the most praiseworthy. His father passed away
before his birth. After his birth, as accordance with the customs, Prophet
Muhammad saw was taken in by a wet nurse to spend some of his
childhood in the countryside where fresh and open air was available for healthy
and fit growth. Five years later he returned to live with his mother and a year
later, his mother passed away. He was then taken in by the care of his
grandfather who also passed away after two years and was then taken in by his
uncle. He was raised with tremendous amount of love by his uncle and was taken
well care of. His uncle was more than glad to take care of him and was amazed
at Prophet Muhammad saw’s noble and chaste habits. As he grew older, his habits and
character of piety and forbearance also progressed and was admired by many and
eventually his reputation which had spread throughout Makkah had earned
him the titles of “Sadiq” (the truthful) and “Amin” (the trustworthy). Soon
this news reached the ears of a prosperous lady who was also honorable and
pure. She proposed a marriage proposal to Prophet Muhammad saw which
he accepted and therefore she had the honour of becoming the first wife of
Prophet Muhammad saw. Soon after her marriage she gave all of her
wealth to Prophet Muhammad saw to do so whatever he pleased and he
spent all that wealth in aiding orphans, helping the poor and taking care of
the sick and looking after widows. He spent his whole life helping people and
trying to guide them to the path of righteousness. He was a man worthy of
utmost respect by everyone on this planet.

I have always looked up to Prophet Muhammad saw. I really
admire him with all my heart and he undoubtedly has all my respect, all that I
can offer. There are no words that can describe just how much I look up to him
and respect him. His simple, modest yet honest life is very commendable and I
want to live a similar life to him. I feel as if I can even be just one percent
of what he was, my spiritual life will be full and complete. There are many
things that I admire about him such as the fact that he never in his entire
life, not even once, lied and he always put the needs of others before him and
treated everyone with the utmost respect, whether they were older than him or
younger. However, amongst all these things, one thing that I respect the most
about him is that he was the first person during those times that encouraged
others to respect women. During the time, he was alive, women were treated as
objects and property of men. They were given no rights and had to follow all
commands of men. Baby girls were buried alive and killed. However, he was the
first man that gave respect to women. He encouraged others to do the same and
helped women obtain the rights and respect they deserved. He was also the first
person that helped women get the right to a divorce if needed and the right to
part of inheritance of their father’s property. As a woman, I do not know how
to express just how much I appreciate and respect him for this. The fact that
he did not look down upon women and helped them out when they were treated
unjustly, he is my hero. He is someone I have always looked up to, still do and
will always do. That is why I am thanking him in the best way I can; by
following his teachings and encouraging others to do the same. The way I see
it, he was a precious and the best gift that God gave the mankind and I hope to
become just like him.