Finding Islam

56: Stress - Ali ibn Abi Talib RA

"Assalamu alaykum, miss A'ishah." One of the younger girls in my class greeted as I walked towards the front door. There were three other girls from my class who were also standing around and also greeted me with salaam.

"Wa alaykum salaam, akhawati." I smiled, giving all of them hugs one by one before I stepped forward to unlock the door and let them in.

I held the door open for the girls, seeing Beth awkwardly enter behind them. I smiled at her as we walked inside. "How big is the group you teach?" She asked me.

I furrowed my brows. "Uhm, 20-25 girls average. There's about 30 enrolled in the class, but I'm yet to see a day with all 30 of them here." I chuckled, making her laugh.

"What about ages?" She asked.

"They're 15-22." I told her. "My friend Hanifa teaches preschool children aged 3-5. Her class is boys and girls since they're little. My other friend Samira teaches 6-14." I told her as I walked into the kitchen area, while the other girls walked into the classroom. "Do you want a coffee?" I asked her, untying my niqab and placing it on the bench. She nodded.

"So who owns this place? How did you and all your friends get employed?" She laughed, taking a seat on one of the chairs around the round table in the corner while I put a coffee pod into the machine and placed one of the paper cups underneath.

"It was opened by my dad's friend as a form of charity in his father's name who had passed. Then he asked my father if I could work as one of the teachers. My dad asked me and I jumped at the opportunity. When we met with the owner, he asked me to take the reigns. I recruited all the students. It grew steadily over the past three years, alhamdulillah." I explained. "Eventually the age difference started varying too much and I couldn't take on the responsibility of taking all three classes."

"Why not?" She asked. "Clearly you must have a lot of knowledge if this man entrusted the whole facility to you." She spoke, taking the coffee out of my hands and thanking me as I set out to make my own.

Alhamdulillah I did have the knowledge. I was confident in my teaching abilities. I knew I could convey authentic knowledge to my students based on years of daily research. While some people were at university, studying hard for their future occupations, I spent my time studying Islam, part taking in courses, reading countless books, making notes, filling up pages and pages of revision in workbooks.

Alhamdulillahi rabb al alameen.

"I have the knowledge, but I didn't trust myself to dedicate the time. Taking over three classes meant three different topics that I had to come up with and plan for every week. Sometimes it takes me three or four days to prepare one lesson because I want it to be very enlightening. I'm a bit of a perfectionist in that sense." I chuckled.

"I'm the furthest thing from a perfectionist." She responded once I sat down. "As long as I get the job done."

"I could never do something half. I wish I could." I smiled.

"I'd imagine being a perfectionist would be tiresome." She nodded. "So what happened then? You brought your friends into the business too."

"I don't have many friends. It's always been Hanifa, Samira and I. Since we were little. I had a burden on my shoulders to find trustworthy people and I trusted them with everything I had. It's not only because they're my friends though. I trusted their knowledge as well. They also work and study at uni apart from being here so they're both amazing. Samira recently left though, she's been dealing with some things so that's why I've been here 5 days a week for a while." I frowned slightly, but shook my head and smiled up at her to see her listening to me intently with a warm grin.