Countries
and
Nations

You know,

ever since the children of Adam and Eve set off to explore the world around them,

humans have wandered from place to place to find somewhere they wanted to settle down and live,

somewhere to raise a family.

And that didn't stop even after they had reached almost everywhere the world had to offer,

and their communities had formed into different tribes or nations.

And sometimes the border of a country is a natural barrier between one nation and another,

like high mountains or an ocean,

and sometimes the only way you can tell where one country ends and another begins

is the line on the ground where one nation's soldiers face the soldiers of the nation next door.

They have borders because they see themselves as different.

For not only do the tribes of the family of humankind

sometimes look different and speak different languages,

but also they often have different ideas of what is a right and proper way to behave.

Some tribes will think it is important to dress a certain way,

while another tribe will have rules to make sure that you dress in another way entirely.

But people within tribes would also see themselves as different,

and would often wonder if they could make a better life for themselves if they moved to somewhere else.

Now, since the invention of steamships and planes,

it has been easier to travel to distant places far from where you were born,

and young Scottish muslims today

know that in the past perhaps their grandparents or great-grandparents

came to Scotland from somewhere else.

People have come for all sorts of different reasons,

perhaps to find work here,

or as students to study here,

or even running away from wars as refugees.

But they all liked what they found, and felt welcomed and at home,

and decided to stay and become part of the Scottish nation.

But there will always be a family memory of a country far away

in which there is still a connection to some kind of family roots,

people that maybe look a bit like them,

distant aunties or uncles

living a very different life to theirs in a different nation.

But despite all that,

one thing that will tie them to their roots is their Islam,

a way of life that can be instantly recognised all around the world,

the original root of all the muslim tribes and nations.