BaKhabar, February 2012, Page-7

better light a candle than curse the darkness

2 year old Fayeza Noor starts saving for Indian University for Muslim Women [http://university.biharanjuman.org/]

Fayeza starts saving for women's university

On the 3rd day of discussions on Indian University for Muslim Women, two-year-old Fayeza decides that enough is enough; she must start saving for the university being proposed for her. While the elders wonder whether this project will remain a day-dream or see the light of the day, this little girl shows a way to the world, a road-map which most of us do not have. Act now, if you are really sincere, she challenges the entire Indian Muslim community by taking her own first baby step towards the university. Come on, she says, have faith in the Almighty Lord. It is Allah Who not only kept me alive but provided me with sustenance in the air-tight and water-tight womb of my mother, full of filth, lacking even the basic provisions necessary for a living to endure. Hello, can you imagine of passing even a second in there!
Right graciously did her Lord accept her (Mary, mother of Jesus): He made her grow in purity and beauty: To the care of Zakariya was she assigned. Every time that he entered (her) chamber to see her, He found her supplied with sustenance. He said: "O Mary! Whence (comes) this to you?" She said: "From Allah. for Allah Provides sustenance to whom He pleases without measure." (Quran, 3:37)

Fayeza is a symbol of hope for the Indian Muslims, particularly for the Indian muslim women. While most of us do not even dare to dream of a residential women’s university, she is already looking forward to studying in one. The hope has already lit her eyes up, as if with Allah’s noor. She seems to be brimming with confidence, radiating positive, pure energy, perhaps as a result of her unflinching trust in Allah who sends every child to this world pure, as a sahih hadith tells us, “Every new-born child is born in a state of fitrah (purity)”. Her desire is free of any contamination, her expectations are unadulterated; she does not waver for a moment to think that her dream is too big to actualise.

Fayeza has just saved a paltry Rs. 505 (Five hundred five) to fulfil her dream, and possibly the dream of millions of Indian girls who need to be educated to contribute their bit to the country’s economy, their bit to moral sphere of the society, their bit to the cultural landscape of the future generation. She knows she would need to be educated enough to compete with men around her, complement their efforts in research, technological development, and inventions, to make this world a better place to live in.

Will her 505 rupee that she inserted today into her penny-bank be enough to get her a university? Is her ambition realistic to any extent? She might say, “Ambition is believing in yourself even when no one else in the world does”. She can possibly aspire for something that coming from any adult would be considered no less than insane. She knows Allah gives her what she needs, even when she does not ask for it. She did not ask to get out of her mother’s womb, but she did. She did not ask to be taught how to breathe, but Allah opened her nostrils to the air and taught her nostrils to filter in Oxygen for her lungs and exhale Carbon Dioxide out. She possibly knows far better than the adults that there is no scarcity of Allah’s resources, like there is no limit on the supply of Oxygen for the trillions of living beings of her era, nor has there been any for the trillions gone by or the trillions who would come after her. She may not understand the challenges ahead for transforming her dream into reality; however she least cares. Being closest to her Creator during her infancy, she does not have to worry about the hurdles – these are being removed by the Lord every moment. If we ask her the secret of her conviction, she might say, "When you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true".
Fayeza’s father, Jawed Ahmad, is a faculty in Hamdard University – an institution which is itself a reflection of will-power, an embodiment of foresight, vision, hard-work, determination; all blended into one. However, Fayeza is probably looking for her own exclusive space in a world “where the mind is without fear and the head is held high”. In conversation with her Lord, she chants, “This is my prayer to thee, my lord---strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart.”

Website for proposed RAHBAR university for muslim women: http://university.biharanjuman.org/