Dear Mom and Dad, Salaam my dearest mother and father, I pray that all is well with you and please send my regards to my little brother Yusuf. I miss you all very much.I remember the day of your departure as though it were yesterday. We were all sitting together in the car happily as we left our home to go vacationing. Little did we know that it would be a long timebefore we would ever meet again. I can still remember your voice mom, you were singing a sweet song to Yusuf so he could fall asleep. And I remember dad, we shared a drink together, but you would take fake sips so that it would be left for me. Remember Dad? They are the last memories I have before the accident took all of you away. Today dad, I went out and a boy pushed me to the ground. My knee got scraped. I got up to flee the scene, but he grabbed me by the collar and his father came also. They asked me who my father is and where he is. I had no answer for them. Then they called me a bastard child. I tried to run at them, but the father slapped my face and told me to leave. I wish you were here dad so I could show everyone I have a father and that I am not an unwanted child. When I arrived at the shelter, my heart was broken from the comments I had heard and then another pain started to take over me. I realized my knee was hurt pretty bad. I scrambled for some spirit which I found in the medicine cabinet, but I lost my balance and the entire shelf came tumbling down with me. One of the aides at the shelter rushed to the room I was in. I was relieved to see help had arrived. But she had only come to scold me. "Why don't you pay attention to what you're doing?" ,she said as she lifted me off the ground by the ear. I took the bottle of spirit while she placed the other bottles back in the cabinet. I put some spirit on a cotton pad and applied it to my knee. I almost jumped 10 feet into the air from the burning. Remember mom, when I used to get hurt, you would clean the area and then blow gently on it to calm the burning from the alcohol? So, I remembered this and started blowing gently. It was soothing, but not the way you used to do it mom. And of course I had no one to give me a kiss at the end like you used to do mom. Once all the drama of the scrape had subsided, I started feeling hungry. We were having rice with lentils, again. I had learned to like the food by imagining it was something else, one of the dishes you used to cook for us mom. I could smell the aroma of our kitchen, I could imagine you standing by the stove with your apron on, your hair up in a messy bun, how you would frantically reach for all the different spices, how you would bring our food out and serve each of us lovingly. You used to hold Yusuf in your lap and sit me beside you. You would take a morsel of food and feed it to Yusuf, then the next to me and before we knew it, the plate was empty and you hadn't had even one bite. Remember mom? your son, Yunus Sheikh Sa'di an orphan himself says the following: "Protect him whose father is dead; remove the dust from his raiment, and injure him not Do we ever think to ourselves how a kiss to your child in the presence of an orphan could affect them? How hurt they could be that they have no one to kiss them or show affection towards them? A man once came to the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu`alaihiwasallam, and complained that he feels hardness in his heart. The Messenger of Allah said, what translated means, "Would you like that your heart becomes soft and that you acquire what you need? Be merciful with the orphan, pat his head and feed him from what you eat. This will soften your heart, and enable you to get what you need." [At-Tabaraanee & As-Silsilah as-Saheehah]