Dear Guests,

Gulberenk Educational Children’s Programs, taking place on the last Sunday of each month, continue to take place at Dr. Dursun Aksoy Culture Center in Izmir.

In April at our A Sweet Smile Program we said “Smiling is an alm”. Our program started just on time as always. Smiling is a very soft gesture, and when we were taught about smiling we learned that our beloved Prophet Muhammad Mustafa sallallahu aleyhi wa sallam said: “Smiling to your Muslim sister/brother is a charity, an alm”. And we learned that He always had a smile on his face. Moreover, we learned that smiling is an unrequited gesture and so we need to take and give smiles. Smiling has many benefits. Smiling calms one down, tranquilizes, raises hope, gives peace, strenghtens love, leads to compassion, reminds us of gratitude, teaches patience, makes us happy and lets us make others happy and lastly it is sunnah.

We all should appreciate what Allah has given us (and even not given us), and smile to Him. We should, in fact, smile when any disaster or trouble comes towards us (we should appreciate even these). We should be smiling to people, animals, plants, in short, everything created by the Creator. One merely should not laugh, but also make others laugh or smile. Like how? Like the ones grieving and going through sadness, we should console and cheer them up and make them smile when they can not. The one who has not tasted sorrow would not understand happiness completely. For this reason, we all need some trouble to understand joy. The greatest way to feel happiness is to cause one’s well-being.

Gulberenk Izmir team has left behind its 99th program. After our program which took place full with happiness and joy we did not say goodbye but left for our homes to meet next month. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the preparation of the program, especially Mrs. Betul Sengul and her team!