One never knows the time of acceptance of a prayer!

I

"You never know the time of acceptance of your prayers" My mother always says whenever advising us to wish and utter good words and wishes for others and ourselves. I sincerely believe in it as my childhood is a living proof!

I was a young child and my younger sibling just an infant when my mother started worrying about the situation in Pakistan. At that time, the Pakistani society was quite unrestricted with open lewdness. There was freedom but unfortunately people were abusing that freedom to promote debauchery everywhere. Media was flaunting amoral images and the press was printing and distributing licentious  literature.

Keep in mind that modesty is a deep rooted tradition in Indian Subcontinent, regardless of religious beliefs. Bring in religion and the picture gets even more sacred. Raising children with high moral values used to be number one priority for parents and still is for a small striving minority.

Going back to the time period, my mother was extremely apprehensive about raising her children under such circumstances. She was quite aware of the influence a society and media has on the impressionable minds of young children. She did not know what to do except to pray. She constantly prayed for God's help in raising her children away from any debauchery. She wanted her kids to live and learn piety. She did not want her children to be exposed to anything that would destroy their innocence. She wanted to save their childhood!

And that's when it happened....

My father had not even applied for a job in Saudi Arabia. They had never thought about moving over there. In fact they had tried for an opportunity in Libya where their friends were going and were disappointed when denied. Saudi Arabia just happened out of the blue when an acquaintance called them and offered the opportunity for which he was recruiting.

My parents accepted the great opportunity to be closer to the holiest of all places for Muslims. Mecca and Madina.  God fulfilled my mother's prayer. Our childhood was the most innocent of all. Although I do not condone Saudi's way of Police State or extreme censorship. The truth is that it was one of the most pious childhoods with no exposure to any kind of violence, lewdness or obscenity. Religion was learned by practice. Shopkeepers used to leave their shops open in their hurry to join rows forming in the mosques at the call to prayer. I remember, many times leaving our car unlocked because there was no threat of theft. We lived with security and peace within a bubble (about which I'll blog some other time). Going to Mecca was our picnics and spending days praying in Madina was vacation time.

It was much later in life that I learnt about the evils that lurk in this world but by then, thank God, I was mature enough to handle it (with much shock, needless to say). I do think we were blessed by my mom's praying. I believe in saving childhood innocence and it distresses me that we are depriving our children of it in the current need to prepare them against all the media exposure that is snatching away their innocence way too early. I wish I could save the innocence of all the children in the world!