God & Kids! The Tragedy

God has placed within every human being the natural ability and importance of seeking and questioning. This is why the skills of asking questions and reflecting deeply are inherently given to everyone from birth. When it comes to the existence of God, many questions naturally arise in the mind. In a nurturing environment, these questions find their way to the surface, and parents, along with other elders, thoughtfully respond in a way that guides the child.

But this practice has almost disappeared now. Children rarely ask questions, and the adults at home are not troubled by this lack of curiosity. Instead, they feel relieved, thinking their valuable time has been saved.

Even today, my mind is full of countless questions about God and His existence, but I have no answers—and no idea where to find them. Perhaps, in the beginning, I felt restless about not having answers, but I learned to settle into ignorance over time. Life went on like that. The real tragedy was that my elders didn’t find this to be a problem. They worried about my lack of understanding in school subjects—why I didn’t know a certain math method—but my lack of understanding about why God exists or where He is was met with silence.

I don’t blame anyone, nor am I seeking accountability for the 35 years of unanswered questions in my life. I understand now that this isn’t just a problem for my family, my city, or my nation. This is an issue the entire Muslim community has been struggling with for the past 100–200 years.

By God’s grace, I’ve realised before my death that being unaware of the Creator’s existence only leads to failure. I’ve understood that without truly knowing God, it’s impossible to understand His creation. And this creation includes my children, whose upbringing concerns me deeply and has led me here to ERDC.