This I Believe

Student Learning Outcome: 1- Sense of Purpose

Description of Artifact: "This I Believe" is a short piece of my purpose through religion & what I believe. My ethics and morals are based on my connection with religion ensuring that I do my best to give all my students equal opportunities to learn and grow.

Artifact Alignment: This artifacts aligns with the sense of purpose student learning outcome because it focuses on my purpose for being here through the expression of religion.

Future Goal: In my future classroom and with the growth I hope to gain from there, I hope to formulate arguments for ethical decision making for my teaching and my students. I hope to solidify the morals, values, and theological principles within my own teaching so that my students can understand empathy, respect, and equality inside and outside the classroom.

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This I Believe

As a child, my parents, as any other religious parent, pushed me to attend sunday school in hopes that I would become religious and understand religion more. It didn't work. Not only did I refuse to go to sunday school once I hit the age of 8 because of boredom, but I didn't bother with religion until later on in life. I simply didn't understand the idea of a God or how there wasn't an explanation for some things. I let it go and didn't pay much attention to it until I was in high school. 

My parents gave up shoving religion down my throat, but they never stopped teaching me the morals that make me who I am today. The idea to respect each person regardless of who they are, respect myself, forgive those who harm me, and always appreciate what I have been blessed with. Once I matured, I started to question these morals. Why do I respect others? Who has blessed me with the life I have? Who forgives me for MY mistakes…? Those same morals led me to understand the importance of religion in my life. 

At the age of 16, when most children are finding themselves in strange ways, I realized who I was and what I believed in. I realized that all of the blessings that came into my life had to have come from something larger than me. I realized that there are some things that could not simply be explained, therefore there has to be a higher power in order to explain it. I realized that Islam was what I belonged to. 

I started to look more into my own religion, and found that the morals I already had, correlated with Islam itself. Respect yourself, your family, and all others. Forgive those who harm you and ask for forgiveness when you harm others. Be thankful for the things that He has blessed you with. Give back to others who are less fortunate than you, it all made sense. 

I began to look at life from a different perspective. I understood why things happened the way they did, I understood how I should be living my life and I understood the importance of prayer and repentance. 

I was fortunate enough to find my answers at a young age and continue to expand my knowledge in the religion that I follow. All I have to say is Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God).