Fatima Barkatulla – How to achieve what seems IMPOSSIBLE

			Salam Alaikum This is Fatima barkatullah. And this is my story about how to achieve what seems
impossible. 16 years ago when my son was born, my dream was for him to memorize the Quran. The
problem was that we lived in northwest London in an area with no grand teachers, no have classes,
and I myself was not the half of the Quran. We also couldn't move to an area where there were, the
prospects of achieving my goal looked very bleak. Maybe I was being too ambitious, maybe the goal
was too difficult or even impossible to achieve. In my situation, I dreamt of moving to a Muslim
country with a perfect environment and a perfect teacher and a perfect last year and a perfect class
		

			that would Usher my son to have success. But then I realized nothing was too difficult for Allah
subhanho wa Taala to somehow make it happen, right? So I made the law, Oh Allah, you know, my dream,
my intention to make my son the carrier of grant, I can't see how I will achieve this. But nothing
is too difficult for you. So somehow let us be able to achieve our goal. I mean, once I had made the
law, I took action and decided to take my son as far as I could take him with the knowledge and
resources that I had at my fingertips. So by the age of six, he had memorized the last Jews of
Quran, and he had read the Quran from cover to cover by reading with me at home. So I built the
		

			foundations. Now he was ready to go to the next stage, but they didn't seem to be any way to take
him to the next level. So I got resourceful, and I made a list of every possible resource or person
I could call upon for information or help to help us achieve our goal. I phoned and emailed every
contact, I thought might know some current teachers will have some leads, and I spoke to each of
them passionately about my dream. Then I contacted every mosque in our vicinity to ask them,
everyone was supportive of my goal, but no one had any real solution they could offer. Eventually,
one person did get back to me and say that they knew and experienced his teacher, but that he lived
		

			an hour's drive from our house, and we'd have to take our son to him for tuition, taking my son
there after school each day, and then bringing him back would be no mean feat. It was utterly
exhausting for us, and our son fall asleep on the way there only to have to wake up to the second
shift of his education that day. But we pushed through that tough time. We spent money, we spent
time, energy and effort and showed a lot how serious we were about achieving our goal. Our son began
to thrive in his memorization, but the whole process began to take its toll on our family. One day,
my husband had had enough, it was all too much. Our day was being spent in hours of traffic, trying
		

			to manage all of our roles and care for our other children's needs as well. And things began to look
bleak. Giving up looks like a very attractive option. Maybe we should just let him memorize when he
grows up. He's done enough for now. But we decided failure was not an option. And maybe it was just
a case of having to change our strategy to achieve our goal. My husband went into the local mosque
and convinced them to start up for an HIV class. The musky man said they had been thinking of
starting one but had been waiting for the right time, seeing how far my son had already come and
that he would be their first student motivated them to take the plunge and start a small HIV class
		

			and hamdulillah after the hardship came the ease. My son has since completed his HIV and
hamdulillah. And the mosque has asked him to lead some of the tarawih prayers during Ramadan.
Through achieving our goal, I learned that I could use the same eight key processes to achieve
anything else I really wanted to and you can do so to number one, make sincere law number two, take
positive action. Number three, build the foundations as far as you can with the knowledge that you
have. Number four, be resourceful. Number five, push through the tough times. Number six, show Allah
how serious you really are. Number seven, make failure not an option. And number eight, be willing
		

			to change your strategy along the way in sha Allah after the hardship will come the ease and you
will achieve what seems impossible.