Do not think less of me for being a girl

Bismillah.

It's year end. 'Tis the season to be jolly.

Something I read, made me laugh and thought I share with you. Picked it up from www.brainpickings.org

where I read a cute piece of writing about Tyfanny, a South African girl who wrote to Albert Einstein. Yes Einstein the professor with funny looking blue sandals on the cover of a book called "Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein's Letters to and from Children". And yes, apparently he did reply to letters from his young fans. How nice of him.

On 19 September 1946, Tyfanny writes: "I forgot to tell you, in my last letter, that I was a girl. I mean I am a girl. I have always regretted this a great deal but by now I have become more or less resigned to the fact. Anyway, I hate dresses and dances and all the kind of rot girls usually like. I much prefer horses and riding. Long ago, before I wanted to become a scientist, I wanted to be a jockey and ride horses in races. But that was ages ago, now I hope you will not think any the less of me for being a girl."

And this was Einstein's reply, about a month later: "I do not mind that you are a girl, but the main thing is that you yourself do not mind. There is no reason for it."

LOL. I just loved this exchange. Also love the fact that Einstein being him, had given his clever reasons for all other questions posed by children via letters to him. Because naturally for a scientist, there is a reason, a logical explanation for everything but for certain things there is just no reason for it :)

Being a girl is cool, I must say. And for many girls, the way to their heart, diamonds aside, is to buy them great books. If you go by the teachings of Shaykh Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, a man should not think less of a woman because: "A man may most perfectly contemplate God in woman, since, in her he contemplates at once his own servanthood and dominion and in union with her may experience, in microscomic mode, that fusion of polar experience which is the Reality."

I am getting someone to ask Shaykh Muhammad Mendes answer some questions on this matter. Let's see if we can get a reply from him ;)