Belittling the "little" one

During the weekends, my family- along with other relatives went "balik kampung" to visit our second cousins in Malaysia. Most of them are still residing in the old village in the south of Malaysia.

My father has always brought us there ever since we were young. Even though we didn't know whose house it was, who this person was, why we were there, we tagged along- no questions asked. We did enjoy the kampung environment: the fresh air, the clucking hens, the abounding cats. It was always a nice experience albeit the occasional (or rather frequent) mosquito attacks.

This time however, I wasn't one of the young children, running around breaking fresh-laid eggs (yes, that happened before much to my remorse). I was one of the "middle" generation. There are younger cousins who came along this time.

"Whose house is this? Who is this person?" 

"Oh, this is our grand-uncle" 

"Why are we here?"

"Well, just visiting... talk to them... catching up."

"But why must we be here? Can't they just Skype?"

At first my adult self scoffed at that last question. Ah, this young child is so unaware of things, I thought. But that's just it: he's merely a young person, who has been brought up in a modern, tech-savvy environment, and have not been exposed to the rural life. There's no point ridiculing a person for not knowing or understanding.

Belittling does not help anybody. You can either educate them, or just keep it to yourself.
Your scornful remarks will only hurt them, and shut them down from wanting to know more.
On the other hand, informing them of what they know now, will increase their thirst for knowledge, and their trust towards you. Perhaps in another time, when they don't understand something, they'll look for you for answers.




This, I need to remind myself.
May Allah increase us in knowledge, and make us among the knowledgable, insha Allah.

Allahua'laam.