Summer holidays has started! Hope all mommies here keep stay strong and sane within this long school break. This year we decided to join the board membership of Parent and Teacher Association of the elementary school. Actually we could join this club since last year but we did not because of busy schedule of our family (remember that we went to Aussie for a full three months, right?). This time, I would like to share about one of many scheduled events during the school holidays, i.e. movie night for kids and parents.

This time they chose a movie entitled : Kuro ga Ita Natsu [クロ が いた 夏], means summer with Kuro. This movie tells the story of a family living in Hiroshima near the end of the war: a father, a mother, and two children, an elementary school student Nobuko and her younger brother Makoto. Kuro is the name of a black kitten which Nobuko brought home to keep as a pet. The story goes to the tragedy of the war ending on August 6, 1945. Watching this movie leads us to think about the misery of the war and the importance of peace.

I myself learnt something about Japanese culture. In the elementary school, there was a small building called ho-an-den which housed a family portrait of the Japan Emperor. All students were required to show high salutation to this small shrine every morning at school. They regarded them as god.

Arabic term for associating others with Allah in worship is called shirk. If someone associates anyone or anything with his Creator in worship, he becomes a mushrik. The opposite of shirk is Tawheed, the most important belief in Islam. It means that God is One, Supreme and there is nothing like Him (review Surah Al-Ikhlas can be seen in our previous post here).  He was not born, and He has no father or mother. He is not in need of children to live after Him or help Him. He has no wife. He is One and without a partner. The people with this belief will be admitted into Paradise because Tawheed is the key to it. Therefore, we should not worship and also teach our children and surrounding people to not worship any of the following because it is shirk to do so.
1)  Any created being such as men, angels, animals, or the dead in their graves
2)  Any created objects such as mountains, stones, trees, rivers, statues, idols or pictures
3)  Human-made gods and goddesses

[Movie night for kids and parents in log house near our apartment]

[Two teachers also came as a voluntary work, they provide all necessary equipment for this event]