A tent, a conversation on daughters, and Heaven
The day was a slow, sunny afternoon in mid to late April 2025. I was downtown at my sales job working in outdoor adventure retail. Watched customers check out a Marmot tent set up on the floor across from where I was stationed in the Climbing Department. The blue, green, and gray tent was a classic tent for short backpacking trips. A bit on the heavy side, but sturdy and robust. Tough. A young father and two adorably dressed girls were all playing around and in the tent. His daughters were so excited! They bounced and crawled around inside the tent laughing, giggling, and chattering. Their Dad squatted down outside zipping and unzipping the door zipper of the tent; checking out how smoothly the zipper ran on its track. He laughed and smiled at his little girls.
As there was a lull of sorts in Climb, I walked over and said, “Hello, it’s ok to check out the tent.”
Also mentioned I have three daughters of my own, but they were all grown up now. They were, however, like his once. His two reminded me of my kids’ energy back when they were young.
“Oh, you have three daughters?” The man said as he continued to zip and unzip the tent door. He turned around part-way upon his haunches and looked up at me, eye to eye, with a sparkle in his brown eyes. “Do you know what it means when you have three daughters?”
He spoke methodically with what to me sounded like a Middle Eastern accent, but had no idea which country or ethnic group they may have been from. I felt glad they were here in Seattle. Their complexion was the olive complexion I associated with Mediterranean and some Middle Eastern cultures.
“No, what?” I asked. “What does it means?”
“A man who has three daughters will get into Heaven.” He replied.
Wow, I thought, ok.
Didn’t quite know what to say except, “Thank you.” He stated what he said with such sober, solemn seriousness tinged with the happiness of delivering good news. This whole time I stood bent over behind him as he squatted facing the tent observing his two daughters inside. Didn’t quite know how to respond, so I mumbled something about that’s good news and thanked him. Would love to go to Heaven eventually, but not anytime soon.
I sensed the man was Muslim. It felt like an Islamic saying, as from a Hadith. Hadiths are said to be the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, and the record of stories, saying, and traditions associated with him versus The Holy Q’ran, which Muslims view as the direct word of God transmitted to His Prophet via the Archangel Gabriel. I’ve studied enough Islam to develop some sense of origins, have prayed in different mosques, and had long philosophical conversations with different Muslims over the years. While I have read the Q’ran cover to cover twice, studied the different kinds of Islam, and read the history, I was unfamiliar with the Hadiths. Besides, my Arabic was terrible. I love languages, and with my cluster of “invisible disabilities” made poor progress in learning them.
Afterwards jumped online and discovered there are Hadiths on having daughters. Actually, however, it isn’t about merely having female children. It is the way one cares for them with patience, love, respect, the manner in which a parent, in this particular case fathers, treats his daughters. Especially if one has three! He who only has two daughters, or more, and raises them well shall also enter Paradise. So shall one who only has one daughter and still cares for her with love and honor. These young humans are precious vessels of spirit. God, or Allah, sees all, knows all. I spent nearly three hours studying these Hadiths. One who raises up these daughters doesn’t have to be the biological father. The mother, grandparents, older brothers, uncles, aunties, and guardians are all part of the greater circle of responsibility.
Yes, I do have three young women I consider my daughters. Only one, my oldest, is my genetic offspring. Helped deliver her at birth. The second I adopted. She’s actually the maternal cousin of my firstborn, and I chose to take her in and raise her as my own. The third is my stepdaughter, and I also helped deliver her along with our community. I raised her up, too, and even many more changes in multiple relationships we consider each other father and daughter. We are, after all, from the same species on the same planet. We’re all biological. We all somehow somewhere share the same distant ancestors, the same origins. We’re learning, too, our species is a little older than once thought, over 300,000 years old now. Our origins is far more complex than initially realized. We’re one species descended from many, including many overlapping and crossbred ones.
Parenting was a difficult challenge for me. Especially with all the divorces, financial, and health challenges we all faced. My daughters are all precious to me, all three of them are, regardless of their immediate origins. I love them dearly. We are in our lives, and still choose to stay interconnected as family. Yes, I do feel blessed as the father who took on raising three baby girls into adulthood. I am grateful for the ways they enriched my life and pray they feel similar reciprocity in their own unique way.
William Dudley Bass
Monday 21 April 2025
Sunday 31 August 2025
Shoreline/Seattle
Washington
USA
Earth
Copyright © 2025 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.