The importance of friendship

Did you have a best friend when you were a child? well, I'm sure most of us did, my bestest friend before high school was a girl called Heidi, she lived next door but one, we would have sleepovers and all sorts, we had some good times.

Well, now it's nice to see my eldest daughter who is 8 becoming rather fond of a close friends daughter, Masha'Allaah. Up until recently she always preferred playing with the boys, before we left Cardiff her best friend was Abdul-Hakim, and she just found boys more exciting than the girls, more energetic like her masha'Allaah.

But now, as you can probably understand, I'd prefer her to develop friendships more with girls around her age, she's growing up masha'Allaah, and I think it's important that she can have friends who are being raised in the same way she is, learning the morals and manners she is insha Allaah.

Companionship is very important for us as adults, and who we choose to keep as our companion, and likewise for our children too. We want them to be influenced in a positive way, and feel proud of their islamic identity insha Allaah.

So tonight my daughter wrote out a beautiful poem from one of her books for her friend, and on Thursday she gave her a gift of a book she had copied out herself, which took a bit of time to complete. Alhamdulillaah, it's nice to see children eager to give one another gifts, and to feel the joy out of 'giving' not just when 'recieving'.