Fatima Barkatulla – Did I Take a Break From Studies to Focus on My Kids & Their Education? – Q&A

			First question from sister or mama. She says, uh, Salam aleykum, did you take a break from pursuing
your own studies to just focus on your kids and their Islamic education? So that's a very good
question. And I guess what she's alluding to is the fact that, you know, I, myself before I had
children, I was a student in Egypt and lots of other subjects that allows her to her college of
Allah's, her university, and at various centers in Cairo. And then I basically got married and,
		

			you know, I had a child about a year or so afterwards or two years afterwards, actually. And then,
you know, since then Al Hamdulillah, I've had four, four children, and Hamdulillah. Most of them
are, well, all of them are actually Islamically adults now. So, time has flown. But as system I'm
asked, Did I take a break from pursuing my own studies to focus on the kids and their Islamic
education, because I had begun studying before I had children. And because I see studying the deen
as a lifelong thing, you know, it's an ongoing, lifelong process, I actually didn't stop because
actually, at the time, when I got married, Cetera, I will, when I had children, I mean, I wasn't in
		

			a formal institution or anything like that, at that time. And so what I did is when it became
possible, and when you know, things settled down, et cetera, first of all, even even while I was
like nursing, my children, you know, my first child, the learning never stopped, I was still
listening to a lot of lectures, and these were like, lectures in Arabic. In those days, it was
cassettes, okay, or CDs, right that I had. So I was still still listening to those lectures in
Arabic and continuously improving my Arabic My Islamic knowledge, right, even while I was
breastfeeding, believe it or not, okay, so I wouldn't be up at night, obviously, nursing a newborn
		

			child, you know, those of you who are mothers, and that will know exactly what that's like, one of
the ways I kind of got through it, you know, got through the sleepless nights and the, and the
toughness of like, the early years was by keeping my mind busy with positive messages, you know, and
seeking knowledge, whether it was knowledge of Arabic, or, you know, any aspect of Islam, any of the
Islamic sciences, I was keeping myself busy by listening, right, because obviously, you can
breastfeed, and you can listen to something at the same time. So that's what I was doing whenever I
could. And then as my children got a little bit older, you know, I enrolled into Islamic programs,
		

			courses, sometimes ones that were intensive, sometimes those that were online, because that's what
fitted around my children's lives better. But you know, I never actually stopped. And that's because
what I saw my Islamic education is actually beneficial to my children. So for example, if I was
attending a course about the Sierra, right, and if I had, the more I was learning about the Sierra,
for example, and I'm talking about like, an advanced level, then I could bring that home, and I
would bring that home, and I would be telling my children those stories at night, right? Bedtime
Stories for me, if I was excited about knowledge. And if I was absorbing that knowledge, my children
		

			could only benefit from that they were getting to soak that up as well. Right? Even when my son was
a baby, I was memorizing Surah Baqarah. At that time, I remember and you see, I saw that as
immensely beneficial for my son, because as I was reciting, and repeating, you know, he was on my
lap, he would be absorbing that, no doubt. In fact, even in pregnancy, I think, you know, children
absorbed something of their mother, whatever the mother is doing. Right? So, yeah, it never really
stopped. But it did change in its in its mode, you know, the mode of study changed. And then as they
got older, and they went into school, or you know, sometimes I even hired a sister to like a
		

			childminder, sister to come with me to courses, okay, so sometimes they were like, these intensive
weekend courses, and the sister would come with me, and because there was like a break room, she
would be in the break room with my daughter, and I would in the breaks, I would breastfeed.
		

			Also, I would spend as much time as I could with my daughter in between, but during the actual class
times, the sister would look after my daughter right next to me in a row, right. So yeah, it was
interesting, like the way I guess I tried to manage things. I didn't do that when they weren't
absolutely newborns. You know, this is like when they're a bit older.
		

			Because I do think that you know motherhood requires a lot of focus and it does deserve our
attention, right undivided attention, but I didn't see seeking knowledge as something that would
have anything but a positive impact on my family and on my children especially