When I was just beginning university, my parents gave me an Apple computer. It was a generous and – oh so modern – gift. Right around the time that internet was becoming possible in the USA, I moved to Syria to raise my children and myself and it would be many, many more years before the internet would follow me.
The world has changed much since I moved to Syria twenty years ago – and it changed suddenly for me; one day I thought I was up to date because I had a Facebook page, and the next I was having difficulty following a conversation about this website and its ‘forums’ and ‘sections’ and gobbledygook.
Thus it was that the words ‘write a blog’ drew some questions and more than that, contemplation. What is a blog, anyway?
I have often been impressed by the artistry of the hand-written letter of days gone by, but it is the message in those letters that was the real treasure. Mothers wrote to distant children reminding them of the course that had been drawn out for them at her knee; wives wrote to far-off husbands encouraging them to continue in courage; siblings wrote to one another with memories and news that held within a gentle prodding to hold up the ‘family name’; friends wrote to friends, advising and sharing, and teachers wrote to students. The hand-written letter was thought out, heartfelt and content rich.
I see this blog as today’s version of that letter. It differs in that it is addressed to many, but it is the same in that it holds within it great emotion, care, and concern.
Our topics will vary, and like the letters will sometimes be about the mundane, and other times about unique events in our lives. I will tell you stories I find significant, or perhaps funny, share ideas and thoughts, and muse about happenings in my life and your lives. Most importantly I will attempt to ‘serve our teachers’, for without our teacher, I shudder to think where my faith, my state of mind, and my state of heart would be.
I am thinking that I will blog on the seerah of the Prophet (s) since it is on my mind and heart every day, and probably about education since that is what I do professionally. Mostly I hope to blog about those things that affect us every day. In this way I view the blog as sort of a modern ‘w3iz’. The difficulty being of course that I can’t see my audience. Nonetheless, I ask Allah to grant me the light to see my way into what we need to talk about, and I ask you to send me your issues, thoughts, comments, etc…
So I take up my quill, the keyboard, and upon the linen stationery of my screen, I begin… to blog.
