I Will Have a Child – and Name Him Adam

I will have a child, and I will name him Adam—because in our times, even names have become accusations.

I will not name him Moses or Jesus, Ali or Omar, Saddam or Hussein.

Nor Zakariya or Ibrahim. Not even David or George.

I fear that when he grows up, people may judge him by his name before they know him as a person. I fear that a name may be enough to make him a suspect in the eyes of some, a threat in the eyes of others, or a rebel in the eyes of those who fear difference.

I fear that foreigners may see him as a terrorist, while extremists may see him as a rebel.

I fear that Shias may label him a Sunni, and Sunnis may call him an Alawi or a Shia.

I fear that his name may become his passport—deciding where he belongs and how others should treat him before he has even spoken a word.

I want him to be simply Adam: a Muslim, a Christian, and above all, a human being.

I want him to know religion as a relationship with God, not as a label imposed by society.

I want him to understand that a homeland belongs to everyone, not to one sect, one religion, one race or one tribe.

I will teach him that faith is something that lives in the heart and reveals itself through our actions—not something proved merely by a name.

I will teach him that Arab identity is only a mirage when it is placed above humanity, and that being human is greater than any race, nationality or identity.

I will teach him that hunger is a form of disbelief, that ignorance is a form of disbelief, and that oppression is also a form of disbelief.

I will teach him that God is found in the human heart, not confined to mosques or churches.

I will teach him that God is love, not fear.

I will teach him all the things our elders once taught us—or perhaps should have taught us—but somehow forgot along the way.

I will teach him that what we believe we lack may already be within our reach, while the very things we possess may sometimes be the chains that make us weak.

And I will explain to him why I began by saying that my child would be a boy.

Because even today, in Arab society, women are still being buried—not beneath the earth as in the past, but beneath prejudice, discrimination and injustice.

And that old wound, despite all the changes around us, has still not fully healed.
.. courtesy Muhammad Almaoot- Facebook, 07 Sep 2053