Building family culture

As Muslim families, we strive to build a home with a solid foundation of the Qur'an and Sunnah. We work to raise our children to know why we were created and what our purpose is bi'ithnillah. We work to nurture them to love their Creator and to love to fulfil His commands with both sincerity to please Him Alone, and in truth upon the legislated ways the Prophet taught us.

In this, Muslim households across the globe share the same basic morals and values no matter whether we come from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Somalia or little old England. The core of our cultures and traditions are similar if not the same. The biggest differences being perhaps we speak different languages or enjoy different foods, or find beauty and adornment in different clothing styles. But the essence of our morals, our principles, our beliefs, are shared when we apply the Qur'an and the Sunnah with the same methodology that the Salaf us Salih understood and adhered to.

Yet with this being said, each family is different. Each of us, have our own unique family culture, special to only us, and meaningful to only those in our households.

Some of us might start every weekend with a special breakfast, so that the family wakes up to the smell of something nice on a Saturday morning which makes everyone remember there's no work or school today!

Others might have a dedicated family night once a week where everyone will congregate and spend the evening together laughing, playing, sharing stories and games besides a warm glowing fire.

Some of us might take a summer vacation every year to connect with one another and the creation of Allah, cooking on barbeques and camp stoves eating toasted marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate.

Some might have story time and tickles, eat chocolate brownies whilst doing homework around the kitchen table, home-schooling in the garden under the shade of a play-forte, cooking together as a family, weekend picnics in the park, running barefooted through forests playing hide and seek, or spending 10 minutes alone time with Mum or Dad before bed every night.

Whatever it is we do, we are building a family culture that most likely, our children will continue and pass on to their children some time in the future inshallah.
As grownups now, what do many of us do....we look back fondly at particular memories we have; things our own parents did and we enjoyed, and we replicate that now we are grown up with our own children.
We remember inside family jokes; things that we look back at and smile. Things which to the outsider means nothing, but to us, means everything.

Family culture  is to cultivate the things we hold dear to us, and matter to only us; not anyone else. And in this we are all unique.
We are all building different memories; habits that will be captured with fondness and love, passed on from generation to generation.

Don't let someone else's family culture dictate how you should nurture yours. Be inspired, but acknowledge and allow your own family to develop a legacy that is important to you not anyone else. It is this legacy that will bond you forever.