At homeFrom the archive
“Where Allah?”: notes on our three-year-olds
We kept a small notebook of the things our two eldest, Syauqi and Nurin, said and asked when they were about three. One night in 2007 Syauqi asked, "Ummiy, where Allah?"
Before there was an IqraSaurus, there was a lined notebook. In it we wrote down the things our two eldest said and did when each of them was about three: Syauqi in 2007 and 2008, and Nurin after him. The pages are torn at the edges now, and some have pen scribbles across them.
Ummi wrote these notes.
Each entry follows a little pattern: the date, the place, the time, the scene and who was there. Then come the words, as close as we could catch them.
"I don't think so"
One Thursday in August 2007, the note reads like a short play. Ummiy says Syauqi is a leader. Daddy says there are certain things that you must share. Syauqi, brushing his teeth, pauses and says: "I don't think so." The note ends: "Ummiy & Daddy paused & laughed."
"Where Allah?"
On 12 December 2007 the morning scene is the market at Bukit Batok, in the drizzle, buying bananas. Syauqi said: "Alhamdulillah No more rain already." That night, at home, he asked the question that gives this story its name: "Ummiy, where Allah?"
The notebook does not say how we answered. What we notice now is the shape of that day. In the morning he thanked Allah that the rain had stopped. At night he wanted to know where Allah is. Neither moment was planned, and both came from him.
Jelly bean, jumping, jiim
Another entry happened in the living room, in front of the TV, at 11.25 at night. Daddy asked, "How about jet?" Syauqi answered, "Jelly bean jumping j j j." Ummiy asked, "So whats the beginning sound?" and Syauqi said, "Jiim!", with the Arabic letter drawn beside it on the page.
Underneath is a note that he was mixing up the English J and the Arabic jiim, "Just like Ummiy on some occasion when teaching Iqra!" It is a small, honest moment. He was muddling two alphabets, and sometimes so were we.
Why the notebook matters to us
This notebook is the oldest record we have of a habit that runs through everything IqraSaurus does: noticing what a child says, writing it down, and taking their questions seriously.
Ummi started writing them to catch these moments before we forgot them. This was before social media became part of everyday life, and a notebook was where we kept them.
If you would like to try it, you do not need anything special. A cheap notebook will do. Write the date, where you were and what your child said, word for word. Questions like "Where Allah?" are easy to forget by the next day.
