That’s how it generally is in the courtroom: Trying to play catch up with someone who is just not in the mood to even look at me, much less talk.
I know where he gets his ideas from and I know how disgustingly broken he thinks his childhood was. But wouldn’t all this negativity affect his personality and create a powerful trust deficit with someone he gets really close with? Maybe even 20 years from now.
His recent name change that he admitted, from Ibrahim Hassan to Muhammad Ibrahim, was not even surprising. Now how can someone explain to a 9 year old that blood is eventually thicker than useless legal battles. And what’s in a name anyway? It’s the blood that links us eventually. And who can dare take that ONE thing away from him?
How do you respond to accusations, whatever their authenticity, to a kid, who barely knows any better? You don’t. You smile and you try to talk about other subjects. But is that always easy?
I tried explaining that Allah can flip hearts in an instant and all is still not lost. I explained how, when Hazrar Umer RA, wielding a sword seeking to inflict damage to Prophet Muhammad SAW, instead became Islam’s biggest champions. I tried to explain that Allah can work miracles and whatever HE gives us should be happily welcomed by us, however unfortunate the circumstances.
Things change. They always do. For someone who has now spent more than half of his life hating his father with the slow poisoning at home from one of the most educated households anyone can get here, who knows what future has in store.
The Slow Poisoning of a child after Divorce His heart that was once drenched with love for his baba is now dry like a forgotten bone. His arms that would open wide with affection as he would run to welcome his baba now remain tightly crossed across his chest trying to protect him from the same man. His heart flipped. It may flip again. Who knows. After all, it’s the same blood that runs through it. And that’s how Allah tests us. That’s how we are taught patience.
All this will come to him eventually when the time is ripe.
