Habiba, Abdullahi, and Asha Ali at MAC Canadian Family Day in February. Chelby Daigle

27
Feb

2015

What Does Family Mean To You? Habiba, Abdullahi, and Asha

Written by Muslims of Ottawa

Published in Stories

Muslim Link attended MAC’s Canadian Family Day event on February 16 and asked people: What Does Family Mean To You? Here is the response from poet and playwright Habiba Ali along with her siblings Asha and Abdullahi Ali.

Abdullahi: Family to me means support.

Habiba: Patience, and not judging a person for what they’ve gone through. It’s a safe space.

Asha: To me family are people who are always there no matter what. In my family, there are a lot of us. Ten kids, two parents, three grandchildren-it’s a lot to take in. But because there are so many of us, there are so many different personalities; everybody brings something to the table.

Habiba: Being around so many different people in your life helps you learn how to deal with other people. Because if you never knew people like this existed, you wouldn’t know how to co-exist with them.

Abdullahi: My sisters help me a lot.

Asha: And having older siblings is good because you get to see how they deal with life, and learn from their mistakes so that’s a bonus.

Habiba: That’s true. That’s how it works. Family is a blessing. It is something that only Allah can give you. And even though they might be different, and you might have your ups and downs it’s a blessing that can only come from Allah so you have to be grateful. And your family doesn’t necessarily have to be your siblings or your immediate family; it could be whoever it is who has your best interest at heart, unconditionally.

Abdullahi: And remember they do it because they care.

This article was produced exclusively for Muslim Link and should not be copied without prior permission from the site. For permission, please write to info@muslimlink.ca.

Muslims of Ottawa

Muslims of Ottawa is a photographic representation of the diversity and humanity of our community. The project is two-fold: (1) We want to share and document the broad array of cultures, lifestyles, professions and other defining features of Muslims in Ottawa and (2) we want to hear from members of the community in their own words. This project originally began as a partnership between Muslim Link and abcreatives, who took 20 photos of Muslims in Ottawa. Muslim Link is now continuing the project which takes its inspiration primarily from Humans of New York, but is also influenced by loveOttawa and Somali Sideways.