Mother walked into her bedroom and saw Shahla and Riaz in front of the video game. When they turned around and saw her, they both looked very guilty. “You both promised that after 30 minutes you would turn off the game and start your homework, and it has been way over an hour. I trusted you both to keep your word.” Mother said sadly. “Sorry Mom, but I couldn’t let Shahla beat me; I had to try again to get ahead of her!” explained Riaz. “Then I had to top him again, show him, girls can win too!” put in Shaha. “You both realize there is no end to that scenario: you will go on forever trying to be better than the other. I wish you would learn cooperation instead of competition!” sighed Mother. “But”, she continued, shaking her head sadly, “the main thing right now is, neither of you are showing trustworthiness!” Just then, Asma, Mona, and Anisa came up behind Mother to see who was getting into trouble, each of them glad it wasn’t them this time. “What is ‘rust wordy mess’?” asked little Anisa. “Rust wordy mess!” laughed Riaz, “It is when our words get all rusty, and we make a mess!” he said, laughing so hard he could hardly get the words out.
The other children laughed too. Anisa just looked at all of them as if they were crazy. “Trustworthiness, Anisa, means being worthy of trust,” explained Mona gently. “Yeah, Anisa, it means that people can trust that you will do what you say you are going to do,” added Asma. “So to have the virtue of trustworthiness, you need some other virtues to start with. Before someone can trust you, you have to always……what?” asked Mother. “Always tell the truth,” put in Shahla, jumping up. It was starting to sound like a game instead of a scolding, and that was way more fun! Meanwhile, Riaz had been quietly putting away the game, hoping Mother would be distracted by everyone and forget about why she had come in. “Honesty is important too,” added Mona. “Sometimes you can be truthful, but not be honest. If you are silent, and just not tell a lie, but let someone believe something that isn’t true, it is still not honest or trustworthy,” she explained. “I think trustworthy also means that people know that you will always do the right thing, even if no one is around,” said Asma thoughtfully. “They trust that you will make the right decisions to do what is good.”
“Yeah, I remember! ‘Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face.’ That is a quote we learned in Children’s Class. Being worthy of the trust of thy neighbor is being Trustworthy, right Mom!” said Shahla. “So I guess that means that people will trust that you will be generous when you have a lot, and not grumpy when you don’t think you have enough,” put in Riaz. “Very good, guys! Think about how wonderful the world would be if everyone were trustworthy…worthy of trust.” Mother explained, “Baha’u’llah taught us that, ‘Trustworthiness is the greatest portal leading unto the tranquility and security of the people.’ Can you explain that Asma?” “Ahhh… “portal” means door, so… trustworthiness is the greatest door leading to the peace and security of the world. I guess that means that if everyone becomes trustworthy then the whole world will be happy and at peace.” “Very good, Asma. Can you guys give us some examples of that?” asked Mother. “If everyone were trustworthy, what are some ways things would be different than now?” “Think of advertising: people would only say what was really true about a product,” Riaz said.
“What about how safe it would be: no one would steal anything if they were worthy of trust. We could trust to leave our toys or bikes anywhere,” suggested Shahla. “Or if countries were trustworthy, every country could believe in every other country. There wouldn’t be any more wars!” added Mona. By this time all the children had followed Mother into the dining room and were helping her as she set the table. “Can any of you remember any stories about trustworthiness?” asked Mother as she pulled out the Macaroni Gratin from the oven.
“I remember the story about the Bab,” started Asma. “He was a merchant, and one time when He gave a customer the money from selling a product that the man had asked The Bab to sell, the man was surprised that he was given too much money. The Bab explained that if He had sold it quickly when the prices were up, then that would be the amount of money He could have sold it for. Unfortunately, The Bab couldn’t sell it then, and when He could sell it, the price was down, so He got less money for it. The Bab took the loss, and gave the customer more money than He had made.” “Wow!” said Riaz “I can’t see businessmen doing that nowadays…people would think they were crazy!” “Yeah, but wouldn’t it be nice if they did?” answered Asma. Father walked in from work just then, and Mother sent everyone off to wash their hands before dinner. When they sat down to eat, Father asked them what they had been talking about when he came in. Anisa answered proudly, “We were learning about trust… worthy …ness. That means doing what you say you will do!” Everyone clapped and praised Anisa. “So are there any more stories you guys know about trustworthiness?” asked Mother as they all started eating dinner. The children looked at each other. Then Mona said, “Oh, I remember the Queen and the Flowers!” “I love stories about Queens; I love stories about flowers!” cried little Anisa. “Momo, please tell us the story!” Mona smiled as she began. “Once upon a time, there was an old Queen who didn’t have any children. She was worried about what would happen when she died, who could be her heir, (Anisa, an heir is the person to take over for you after you die). … Then, one day, she had a great idea. She took a bag of flower seeds and roasted them, so they couldn’t ever grow. The next day, she made an announcement throughout her kingdom that all the young boys and girls that were about Asma’s and my age, should gather at the palace on a certain day. That day, all the kids came, and to each one she gave a handful of the seeds (of course they didn’t know that the seeds had been roasted). She told all the kids to plant the seeds and to come back at on a certain day, a month or so from then, to show her what they had produced. She said she would decide who was to be the new king or queen after she saw what each child had brought. Of course, all the kids thought that they wanted to have the most beautiful flowers so that the Queen would choose them. And of course all the kids were disappointed when the seeds didn’t grow. Each child thought that they had done something wrong so the flowers didn’t grow. But, on the day that they were supposed to go to the palace, all the children had beautiful flowers!...”
“WAAA! Cheating!” shouted Shahla. “Inchiki! Zurui!” shouted Riaz (that means the same thing in Japanese). “The Queen looked around sadly as she saw all the beautiful flowers, ‘Is there no one in my kingdom that is trustworthy and honest?’ she thought. “Then, in the back, she saw a young boy, with tears in his eyes. He was sadly carrying a pot of dirt. She went up to him and asked him what happened to his flowers. He was very embarrassed, but answered, “I am sorry, dear Queen; my flowers didn’t grow. I tried everything, but they just didn’t sprout,” he said as tears ran down his eyes. “The Queen put her arm around him and announced to everyone. ‘Here is my heir, the next King. He will rule with honesty and truthfulness. He is trustworthy!’ “And the boy became the next King of the land! And the land had peace during his reign.” “Yahhh!” shouted and clapped the family. “That was good story. Thank you, Momo!” said Anisa getting up and giving Mona a hug.
“So, why did the Queen choose that boy to be her heir?” asked Mother. “Because he told the truth! Duh!” said Riaz. “Yeah, it seems like such a simple thing,” commented Mona, “but what would you have done, Riaz? Or any of us….would we have been truthful and trustworthy? Or would we have tried to win, no matter what!” “Well, we can just all be very careful from now on, that we are completely truthful and trustworthy,” said Mother. “Anisa, why don’t you tell us a story about what happens when someone is not trustworthy,” said Father. “Remember the story I told you about the shepherd boy?” “Oh yeah! Ok guys, I am going to tell you a story,” Anisa began. “Once upon a time there was a boy who took care of sheep; they call those people shepherds,” she explained. “One day, the boy got bored. It must be pretty boring just watching sheep eat grass…so he decided to trick the people in the village. He started yelling ‘HELP! HELP! A WOLF IS EATING THE SHEEP!’” Anisa shouted very loudly. Riaz covered his ears, “You don’t have to really yell it Anisa! We have imaginations!” he said. “So,” Anisa continued, “all the people came running to help the boy and the sheep, and the boy laughed and laughed because he tricked them.”
“Sounds like Riaz, doesn’t it,” said Shahla smiling. Riaz stuck his tongue out at her. “LET ME FINISH!” said Anisa. She continued, “The people were angry with him, and he said sorry, but the next day, he got bored again and did it again. ‘HELP, HELP! A wolf is eating the sheep!’ Again the people came, and the boy laughed and laughed. They were really mad this time, and he said, ‘Sorry, sorry’. Then on the third day, a wolf really did come. The boy was so scared he really yelled. ‘HELP! HELP! A WOLF IS TAKING THE SHEEP! REALLY, REALLY!’ But no one came; they all thought he was playing another trick. The wolf took one of the sheep and ATE it! No one had trusted him to tell the truth!” “Yah! Good job Anisa!” the family praised. “Just to be clear,” mentioned Mother, “Why did the people not believe the boy?” “Because he wasn’t truthful and trustworthy!” answered Anisa proudly. “What are some ways we can become trustworthy? Worthy of everyone’s trust?” asked Father. “Can you give some examples? Shahla and Riaz, you start.” suggested Mother. Riaz and Shahla looked at each other. They knew that Mother had remembered why she had been upset with them…they had hoped she had forgotten. “We need to always keep our promise, and do what we say…,” started Riaz, “…and turn off the game in half an hour when we say we will,” finished Shahla. Mother smiled and nodded at them. “But,” added Riaz, “how about when you and Dad told us we could go to the park on Sunday, and then you didn’t take us!” Mona shook her head and answered, “It was raining, that is why we didn’t go! You want to play in the park during a thunderstorm!” “Yes, well,” sighed Mother, “Daddy and I shouldn’t ever promise anything, because we never know the future. You know, the people of Islam always say ‘Insha’Allah’ whenever they say they are going to do something. That is Arabic for ‘If God Wills’. Daddy and I should have said, ‘Insha’Allah’, we will go to the park on Sunday.’ We will try and be careful to do that from now on,” said Mother. “Ha! And ‘Insha’Allah’, Shahla and I will finish playing our game in half an hour!” laughed Riaz.
“RIAZ!” scolded Mona. “It’s God’s Will if it rains or not. It’s not God’s Will if you obey or not!” “Hai, hai. I know. I am just kidding! Don’t get your diapers in a knot Mona!” scolded Riaz right back. “OK, OK guys, you all seem to have an amazing understanding of the concept of trustworthiness……Let’s all work a little harder at actually achieving it, shall we?” asked Mother laughingly. “Let’s help clear off the table. Then maybe we can all play a board game together.” suggested Father. “Ahh, Shahla and Riaz unfortunately still have to go and do their homework. I guess we will have to play without them,” said Mother, sadly shaking her head. “Ahhhh NOT FAIR!” shouted Riaz, and Shahla. “The consequences of not being trustworthy,” said Asma smiling. “Maybe if you hurry, you can still play a little with us.” suggested Mother. With that both children ran off to finish their homework while the others cleared off the table and got ready to play the game.