Mothers Day and Mothers Day Proclamation 1870
by William King, Halifax NS
Assalamu allaikum, peace be with you.
The teachings of Islam advocate that one honour and respect ones mother and other mothers. The Prophet, peace be upon him said, "paradise lies at the feet of your mother." When a man asked the Prophet, pbuh, who after God is most deserving of my attention, the Prophet replied, "your mother". The man asked the Prophet four times the same question and in returned the Prophet replied three times, "your mother", and replied the fourth time, "your father."
The entire Muslim congregation worldwide is called "Ummah" which is derived from the Arabic word for mother, UMM.
Not one Prophet and Messenger has entered this world through only father with and no mother. While the great Prophet and Messenger, did enter this life through only mother. This Messenger is referenced in the Quran as Isa Ibn Maryam, Jesus son of Mary. Son of Mary. Son of a woman is the most revered title applied to Jesus pbuh, in the Quran, while an entire chapter in the Quran is entitled by the name of a mother, that being "Maryam" herself, may God grant her peace and high station.
During each pilgrimage the Muslim, both male and female walk in the footsteps of a woman. As the pilgrim walks back and forth 7 times between the mountains of Safa and Marwa they are retracing the footsteps of another mother, that being Hagar, the Mother of Ismail (Ishmael), peace be upon both.
In the case of Hagar who was frantically running back and forth from mountain to mountain in hopes of finding water for her baby, did not God answer the calling of both mother and son by the gift of water from the water which was to appear at the feet of baby Ismail? Is it not a miracle that this water still supplies sustenance for millions of pilgrims each year at Hajj - this well called Zam Zam. Does God not answer the prayers of both righteous mothers, both Sarah and Hagar?
The Islamic understanding of God who heard the prayers of both wives of Abraham, pbuh, Sarah and Hagar, through Isaac and Ismail teaches us that we are all one human family under our original mother Eve that we should find peace one day as brothers and sisters? Who is it the fuels the fire of division within the human family itself? The Prophet, pbuh, stated "God is One and loves unity!" Would God turn away from one mother, from one child, the wife of the same husband' the same father, Abraham?
My love of Islam originally was fed when I embraced Islam by the rectified moral teachings that God has a dignified place for all of his creation when they sincerely ask of Him. In this case the teaching that Jesus came through Sarah and Isaac while Prophet Muhammed came through Hagar and Ismail, peace be upon them. A unified family! God loved both mothers! This is God's protected story and is the story of inclusiveness and love for all children.
From the time of Cain and Abel we see that one brother gave offering to God from his heart unconcerned for the loss of commercial value of that which he gave away while the other brother held tight upon his earthly goods in fear of loss of means. Does God not provide for the baby within the womb of the mother? Does not God give provision to baby of both food and love in the arms of mother? If the corporations would stop acting like they own this world and that they own us too, like mothers to us to replace our own mothers we would be starting along a better path. Has mother been replaced by corporation? Do we obey the corporation before obeying our mothers? We even obey the corporation in the method in which we decide to honour our mothers and even God!
Do you now understand why each day is mothers day? Do you now understand the gift of the simple embrace between mother and child and between child and mother that no corporation can replace no matter how much they try? But this methodology comes through using smartly and sincerely the gifts that God has given free of charge to you. Your heart, your mind, your tongue, your arms, your smile. This requires no extreme purchase using credit cards. This requires no lavishness. Loving your mother does not require the corporation be involved in your planning! Loving your mother requires, however, everyday you DO.... it requires everyday action... from your heart!
Serve your mother everyday! Hug her everyday! Set before her a cup of tea or a glass of water just as she provided for you sustenance from God. These simple means from the heart mean more to her than any one day per year.
Now do you think the corporation will support this approach if it means dollars out of their coffers?
Some will argue that this methodology will take jobs away from the people . You are not seeing the picture in the correct light then. Each day a son takes his mother a flower from a local florist. Each day a son makes a meal for his mom. Each day we as a community support a mother in a small business. Each day we use our yearly charity to support mothers in long term goals. What we do not do is support corporations that distribute their wealth to a few or one. What we do not do is support corporations which one man makes millions while the mothers in the communities starve. Support local, buy from local farmers, local seamstresses, local small mechanics. Build relationships Support mothers everyday! There is enough on God's earth for everyone EVERYDAY if we would get away from this ONE DAY methodology and supporting the few corporate shareholders and start an EVERYDAY policy in not just how we celebrate our mothers but also how we do our business, how we worship, how we relate to our families, our wives and husbands.... life is an everyday occurrence not just on weekends or once a year celebrations.
I am sad that this so called Mothers Day has fallen prey to the god of consumerism and commercialism. I am sad that the original message of the proclamation of Julia Ward Howe in Boston in 1870 has been lost. I am sad that yet again that Mother's sons and daughters prepare yet again, through following the drum of commerce engulfed by the flames of fear, to attack the sons and daughters of other mothers in parts of the world they have never been to, nor can they generally even point to on a map! What would Julia Ward Howe think of Mothers Day 2012 and what do you think she would think of the War Mongers? What do you think she would say about what commercialism and the media have done to the dignified role of mother today?
Mothers' Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870
Mother's Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons. Here is the original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870, followed by a bit of history.
......................................
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.
Julia Ward Howe Boston 1870
*************************************************************
Mother's Day for Peace - by Ruth Rosen.
Honor Mother with Rallies in the Streets. The holiday began in activism; it needs rescuing from commercialism and platitudes.
Every year, people snipe at the shallow commercialism of Mother's Day. But to ignore your mother on this holy holiday is unthinkable. And if you are a mother, you'll be devastated if your ingrates fail to honor you at least one day of the year.
Mother's Day wasn't always like this. The women who conceived Mother's Day would be bewildered by the ubiquitous ads that hound us to find that "perfect gift for Mom." They would expect women to be marching in the streets, not eating with their families in restaurants. This is because Mother's Day began as a holiday that commemorated women's public activism, not as a celebration of a mother's devotion to her family.
The story begins in 1858when a community activist named Anna Reeves Jarvis organized Mothers' Works Days in West Virginia. Her immediate goal was to improve sanitation in Appalachian communities. During the Civil War, Jarvis pried women from their families to care for the wounded on both sides. Afterward she convened meetings to persuade men to lay aside their hostilities.
In 1872, Juulia Ward Howe, author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", proposed an annual Mother's Day for Peace. Committed to abolishing war, Howe wrote: "Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage... Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs".
For the next 30 years, Americans celebrated Mothers' Day for Peace on June 2.
Many middle-class women in the 19th century believed that they bore a special responsibility as actual or potential mothers to care for the casualties of society and to turn America into a more civilized nation. They played a leading role in the abolitionist movement to end slavery. In the following decades, they launched successful campaigns against lynching and consumer fraud and battled for improved working conditions for women and protection for children, public health services and social welfare assistance to the poor. To the activists, the connection between motherhood and the fight for social and economic justice seemed self-evident.
In 1913, Congress declared the second Sunday in May to be Mother's Day. By then, the growing consumer culture had successfully redefined women as consumers for their families. Politicians and businessmen eagerly embraced the idea of celebrating the private sacrifices made by individual mothers. As the Florists' Review, the industry's trade journal, bluntly put it, "This was a holiday that could be exploited."
The new advertising industry quickly taught Americans how to honor their mothers - by buying flowers. Outraged by florists who were selling carnations for the exorbitant price of $1 apiece, Anna Jarvis' daughter undertook a campaigning against those who "would undermine Mother's Day with their greed." But she fought a losing battle. Within a few years, the Florists' Review triumphantly announced that it was "Miss Jarvis who was completely squelched."
Since then, Mother's Day has ballooned into a billion-dollar industry.
Americans may revere the idea of motherhood and love their own mothers, but not all mothers. Poor, unemployed mothers may enjoy flowers, but they also need child care, job training, health care, a higher minimum wage and paid parental leave. Working mothers may enjoy breakfast in bed, but they also need the kind of governmental assistance provided by every other industrialized society.
With a little imagination, we could restore Mother's Day as a holiday that celebrates women's political engagement in society. During the 1980's, some peace groups gathered at nuclear test sites on Mother's Day to protest the arms race. Today, our greatest threat is not from missiles but from our indifference toward human welfare and the health of our planet. Imagine, if you can, an annual Million Mother March in the nation's capital. Imagine a Mother's Day filled with voices demanding social and economic justice and a sustainable future, rather than speeches studded with syrupy platitudes.
Some will think it insulting to alter our current way of celebrating Mother's Day. But public activism does not preclude private expressions of love and gratitude. (Nor does it prevent people from expressing their appreciation all year round.)
Nineteenth century women dared to dream of a day that honored women's civil activism. We can do no less. We should honor their vision with civic activism.
Ruth Rosen is a professor of history at UC Davis.
by William King, Halifax NS
Assalamu allaikum, peace be with you.
The teachings of Islam advocate that one honour and respect ones mother and other mothers. The Prophet, peace be upon him said, "paradise lies at the feet of your mother." When a man asked the Prophet, pbuh, who after God is most deserving of my attention, the Prophet replied, "your mother". The man asked the Prophet four times the same question and in returned the Prophet replied three times, "your mother", and replied the fourth time, "your father."
The entire Muslim congregation worldwide is called "Ummah" which is derived from the Arabic word for mother, UMM.
Not one Prophet and Messenger has entered this world through only father with and no mother. While the great Prophet and Messenger, did enter this life through only mother. This Messenger is referenced in the Quran as Isa Ibn Maryam, Jesus son of Mary. Son of Mary. Son of a woman is the most revered title applied to Jesus pbuh, in the Quran, while an entire chapter in the Quran is entitled by the name of a mother, that being "Maryam" herself, may God grant her peace and high station.
During each pilgrimage the Muslim, both male and female walk in the footsteps of a woman. As the pilgrim walks back and forth 7 times between the mountains of Safa and Marwa they are retracing the footsteps of another mother, that being Hagar, the Mother of Ismail (Ishmael), peace be upon both.
In the case of Hagar who was frantically running back and forth from mountain to mountain in hopes of finding water for her baby, did not God answer the calling of both mother and son by the gift of water from the water which was to appear at the feet of baby Ismail? Is it not a miracle that this water still supplies sustenance for millions of pilgrims each year at Hajj - this well called Zam Zam. Does God not answer the prayers of both righteous mothers, both Sarah and Hagar?
The Islamic understanding of God who heard the prayers of both wives of Abraham, pbuh, Sarah and Hagar, through Isaac and Ismail teaches us that we are all one human family under our original mother Eve that we should find peace one day as brothers and sisters? Who is it the fuels the fire of division within the human family itself? The Prophet, pbuh, stated "God is One and loves unity!" Would God turn away from one mother, from one child, the wife of the same husband' the same father, Abraham?
My love of Islam originally was fed when I embraced Islam by the rectified moral teachings that God has a dignified place for all of his creation when they sincerely ask of Him. In this case the teaching that Jesus came through Sarah and Isaac while Prophet Muhammed came through Hagar and Ismail, peace be upon them. A unified family! God loved both mothers! This is God's protected story and is the story of inclusiveness and love for all children.
From the time of Cain and Abel we see that one brother gave offering to God from his heart unconcerned for the loss of commercial value of that which he gave away while the other brother held tight upon his earthly goods in fear of loss of means. Does God not provide for the baby within the womb of the mother? Does not God give provision to baby of both food and love in the arms of mother? If the corporations would stop acting like they own this world and that they own us too, like mothers to us to replace our own mothers we would be starting along a better path. Has mother been replaced by corporation? Do we obey the corporation before obeying our mothers? We even obey the corporation in the method in which we decide to honour our mothers and even God!
Do you now understand why each day is mothers day? Do you now understand the gift of the simple embrace between mother and child and between child and mother that no corporation can replace no matter how much they try? But this methodology comes through using smartly and sincerely the gifts that God has given free of charge to you. Your heart, your mind, your tongue, your arms, your smile. This requires no extreme purchase using credit cards. This requires no lavishness. Loving your mother does not require the corporation be involved in your planning! Loving your mother requires, however, everyday you DO.... it requires everyday action... from your heart!
Serve your mother everyday! Hug her everyday! Set before her a cup of tea or a glass of water just as she provided for you sustenance from God. These simple means from the heart mean more to her than any one day per year.
Now do you think the corporation will support this approach if it means dollars out of their coffers?
Some will argue that this methodology will take jobs away from the people . You are not seeing the picture in the correct light then. Each day a son takes his mother a flower from a local florist. Each day a son makes a meal for his mom. Each day we as a community support a mother in a small business. Each day we use our yearly charity to support mothers in long term goals. What we do not do is support corporations that distribute their wealth to a few or one. What we do not do is support corporations which one man makes millions while the mothers in the communities starve. Support local, buy from local farmers, local seamstresses, local small mechanics. Build relationships Support mothers everyday! There is enough on God's earth for everyone EVERYDAY if we would get away from this ONE DAY methodology and supporting the few corporate shareholders and start an EVERYDAY policy in not just how we celebrate our mothers but also how we do our business, how we worship, how we relate to our families, our wives and husbands.... life is an everyday occurrence not just on weekends or once a year celebrations.
I am sad that this so called Mothers Day has fallen prey to the god of consumerism and commercialism. I am sad that the original message of the proclamation of Julia Ward Howe in Boston in 1870 has been lost. I am sad that yet again that Mother's sons and daughters prepare yet again, through following the drum of commerce engulfed by the flames of fear, to attack the sons and daughters of other mothers in parts of the world they have never been to, nor can they generally even point to on a map! What would Julia Ward Howe think of Mothers Day 2012 and what do you think she would think of the War Mongers? What do you think she would say about what commercialism and the media have done to the dignified role of mother today?
Mothers' Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870
Mother's Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons. Here is the original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870, followed by a bit of history.
......................................
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.
Julia Ward Howe Boston 1870
*************************************************************
Mother's Day for Peace - by Ruth Rosen.
Honor Mother with Rallies in the Streets. The holiday began in activism; it needs rescuing from commercialism and platitudes.
Every year, people snipe at the shallow commercialism of Mother's Day. But to ignore your mother on this holy holiday is unthinkable. And if you are a mother, you'll be devastated if your ingrates fail to honor you at least one day of the year.
Mother's Day wasn't always like this. The women who conceived Mother's Day would be bewildered by the ubiquitous ads that hound us to find that "perfect gift for Mom." They would expect women to be marching in the streets, not eating with their families in restaurants. This is because Mother's Day began as a holiday that commemorated women's public activism, not as a celebration of a mother's devotion to her family.
The story begins in 1858when a community activist named Anna Reeves Jarvis organized Mothers' Works Days in West Virginia. Her immediate goal was to improve sanitation in Appalachian communities. During the Civil War, Jarvis pried women from their families to care for the wounded on both sides. Afterward she convened meetings to persuade men to lay aside their hostilities.
In 1872, Juulia Ward Howe, author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", proposed an annual Mother's Day for Peace. Committed to abolishing war, Howe wrote: "Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage... Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs".
For the next 30 years, Americans celebrated Mothers' Day for Peace on June 2.
Many middle-class women in the 19th century believed that they bore a special responsibility as actual or potential mothers to care for the casualties of society and to turn America into a more civilized nation. They played a leading role in the abolitionist movement to end slavery. In the following decades, they launched successful campaigns against lynching and consumer fraud and battled for improved working conditions for women and protection for children, public health services and social welfare assistance to the poor. To the activists, the connection between motherhood and the fight for social and economic justice seemed self-evident.
In 1913, Congress declared the second Sunday in May to be Mother's Day. By then, the growing consumer culture had successfully redefined women as consumers for their families. Politicians and businessmen eagerly embraced the idea of celebrating the private sacrifices made by individual mothers. As the Florists' Review, the industry's trade journal, bluntly put it, "This was a holiday that could be exploited."
The new advertising industry quickly taught Americans how to honor their mothers - by buying flowers. Outraged by florists who were selling carnations for the exorbitant price of $1 apiece, Anna Jarvis' daughter undertook a campaigning against those who "would undermine Mother's Day with their greed." But she fought a losing battle. Within a few years, the Florists' Review triumphantly announced that it was "Miss Jarvis who was completely squelched."
Since then, Mother's Day has ballooned into a billion-dollar industry.
Americans may revere the idea of motherhood and love their own mothers, but not all mothers. Poor, unemployed mothers may enjoy flowers, but they also need child care, job training, health care, a higher minimum wage and paid parental leave. Working mothers may enjoy breakfast in bed, but they also need the kind of governmental assistance provided by every other industrialized society.
With a little imagination, we could restore Mother's Day as a holiday that celebrates women's political engagement in society. During the 1980's, some peace groups gathered at nuclear test sites on Mother's Day to protest the arms race. Today, our greatest threat is not from missiles but from our indifference toward human welfare and the health of our planet. Imagine, if you can, an annual Million Mother March in the nation's capital. Imagine a Mother's Day filled with voices demanding social and economic justice and a sustainable future, rather than speeches studded with syrupy platitudes.
Some will think it insulting to alter our current way of celebrating Mother's Day. But public activism does not preclude private expressions of love and gratitude. (Nor does it prevent people from expressing their appreciation all year round.)
Nineteenth century women dared to dream of a day that honored women's civil activism. We can do no less. We should honor their vision with civic activism.
Ruth Rosen is a professor of history at UC Davis.