My high school's Parents' council along with the student council came up with a mini event at the Bahrain City Center mall this past Saturday. They asked me to help and since I had nothing to do that morning, I did.
The whole project's idea was to give out flowers with a reason of why we love prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The flowers were arranged in this huge cylinder covered in the words "I love Muhammad" in a bunch of different languages.
There were also brochures, booklets, water bottles, and chocolates. I personally preferred to hand out the brochures because I'm a boring person who likes to read random brochures. We gave the flowers, chocolates, and brochures to security staff, cleaners, shop clerks, receptionists, and random shoppers and passerby-s.
People's reactions to the handouts varied, some were happy to take the flowers and brochures, asking us if we had any more different booklets. Some smiled and said grateful words like, "thanks, love", "thank you, dear", "cheers", and "shukran". Some people thought we were selling the roses and some refused to even look at us while we handed things out.
Somewhere around the third "no" some of the volunteers started to complain that those who refused were ignorant haters. I didn't believe that. I might read every brochure given to me, but that's only me. I know for a fact if some of the volunteers were given brochures about Judaism or Buddhism they will refuse them. Some of the younger kids just wanted the chocolates, some people thought the whole point was to exchange and choose flowers, and a couple thought it was the prophet's birthday, but all of that doesn't matter. What mattered were those few who said, "I got a book about Islam in my language but it was to deep for me to understand, thanks for this one" and those who said, "that is a lovely thing to do, what you're doing. thanks."
In the end, not everyone will read the brochures we handed out, the flowers will wither and die, the bottle of water drank and recycled, but some will remember the day a stranger gave them a flower or a piece of chocolate in the mall and smile.
The whole project's idea was to give out flowers with a reason of why we love prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The flowers were arranged in this huge cylinder covered in the words "I love Muhammad" in a bunch of different languages.
People's reactions to the handouts varied, some were happy to take the flowers and brochures, asking us if we had any more different booklets. Some smiled and said grateful words like, "thanks, love", "thank you, dear", "cheers", and "shukran". Some people thought we were selling the roses and some refused to even look at us while we handed things out.
In the end, not everyone will read the brochures we handed out, the flowers will wither and die, the bottle of water drank and recycled, but some will remember the day a stranger gave them a flower or a piece of chocolate in the mall and smile.
