It is not all about A's...

Pemeran Buku @ PWTC is over now. Most of our children now maybe starting to prepare themselves for the midterm exams. As I was driving home after fetching my kids, Finy and Aliff, from school this afternoon, I heard the two of them started to talk about the grade they got for their papers in the earlier Mac exams. Finy proudly counted the 'A scores' for Math, English, Science, BM...and I interrupted, "Alhamdulillah, semoga dengan izin Allah, Finy terus cermerlang,"...Aliff who did not manage to get any A's at all seemed a little bit down. After a while he asked " Ibu, ibu masih sayangkan Aliff ke? Aliff tak dapat apa-apa A pun," . I was shocked with his question. I didn't expect him to think about the 'business of getting A's' to that extent! "Kenapa tanya macam tu?" I was just to see what was really in his mind.
"Ibu tahu kan, sekarang ni semua parents asyik cerita pasal anaknya dapat berapa A..bangga sangat dengan anak-anak yang dapat banyak A...Aliff ni ibu tak dapat bangakan apa-apa kan? For a moment I was stuck with words,..how should I best explain this phenomena to him.
Then I started to lecture both of them...firstly, as a muslim, we should be thankful to Allah rather than 'bangga'...secondly, it is okay not to get any A's as far as you have put your best effort for it..and most importantly, this life is not just to get A's , our ultimate goal is to be 'anak/hamba yang soleh'...to excel in school is just a bonus, we can still be successful without the 'bonus'. I told them I would be much more happier if they become a good/practising muslim rather than get straight A in all subjects but lack of element of a good muslim. Not necessarily if you do not excellent in school (after you have tried your best), you can not have a good life (imagine if our children out there feel frustrated, being rejected, useless if they don't excel in their study while the fact is that not all of us are the same, some may good in their study, some maybe good in 'hands-on' skill ...)
As I stroked Aliff's hair, I noticed some tears in his small eyes...he suddenly turn to me and kissed my cheek! Oh!..Alhamdulillah, I hope he really got my points.
But truly, I myself got tired of those 'chasing A's business' among our children (or more precise among parents?).. please stop comparing our children based on their A's scores as is this life is all about getting A's..life is much more than that! Do not make them misinterpret our values... we want them to be a good successful muslim (in this world and hereafter), the rest can be as compliments...we should not pressure them (beyond their capability) in their study but rather make them give their best effort( and 'redha' with the outcome because whatever the outcome is there must be some 'hikmah' behind it) and most importanly make them understand what he supposed to achieve/do in this life in the view of our religious perspectives.

Wassalam.