Who should I please?

THE teacher of a little girl studying at a public school in a Muslim country was not practicing Islam. The little girl, following the blessed example of her mother, would go to school with her Hijab on. The Hijab, however, was something displeasing to her teacher, so she told the girl to take it off and not dare come back to school with it on the next day or she would suffer the consequences.

However this girl went and told her mother of how the teacher did not want her to wear Hijab in school and how she did not want to upset her teacher. Her mother calmly said, "Who do you want to please then, your teacher or Allah?" The little girl looked her mother in the eye and said, "Allah!"

The next day, the little girl returned with her Hijab on, defiant. When the teacher saw her, she exploded in chastisement, "How dare you disobey me?" The painful words kept coming and coming until the little girl lowered her head, sobbing. Then she shouted back, "I don't understand who I am supposed to please – you or Him?" "Who's Him?" asked the teacher.

"Allah!"

Her eyes widened and a chill ran through her. The teacher stopped talking. From behind her tears, the little girl said, "No, I shall please Allah and Allah alone." That day the teacher sent a letter home to the little girl's mother with the words, "Today your child taught me who I was and truly who is Allah. Thank you for raising such a blessed daughter."

Note: Wearing Hijab is compulsory only on females who have reached the age of puberty.

 – Excerpt from the article "Islamic Schools: Who's responsible?" by Muhammad Al-Shareef-is a graduate from the Islamic University of Madina and is the founder-director of Al-Maghrib Institute in Canada.