Remembering Zayed: nation led by its loving father

Picture gallery: Sheikh Zayed had boundless love for children, his own and those he considered his own as leader of the country. He valued their opinions and was strong in his knowledge that if they were well educated, the nation¿s future was safe.

Sheikh Zayed stops to speak to a little girl during a school inspection in 1977. Courtesy Al Ittihad

Sheikh Zayed had boundless love for children, his own and those he considered his own as leader of the country. He valued their opinions and was strong in his knowledge that if they were well educated, the nation's future was safe

The father of the nation, Sheikh Zayed always kept a special place in his heart for all of his children.

At any event and on any occasion, the President would always find time for any children present. He saw in them the hope of the nation.

"The real wealth of the country," he once said, "is not found in any material wealth. It is made up of men, of children and of future generations.

"It is this which constitutes the real treasure."

Sheikh Zayed's own childhood was spent at a time when boys became men at an early age.

His education consisted of lessons in reading and writing, and instruction in the Quran from a local preacher.

Accompanying Bedouin tribesmen into the desert taught him other skills: hunting, tracking, training a falcon, looking for the signs of fresh water.

Sheikh Zayed's own sons and daughters stayed close to those old traditions but enjoyed all the benefits of the country's fast-developing education system.

Despite the pressures and demands of state, Sheikh Zayed always found time for his own family.

In an interview with The National in 2009, his daughter Sheikha Latifa shared her memories of her father.

She recalled an episode when two of her sisters fells asleep in his room: "When my father went in and found my sisters sleeping there, he gently roused them and they woke up in his arms."

Her father also took children's views seriously, she said: "My father never underestimated anybody. He always took what we said seriously and discussed it with us back and forth."

Whatever Sheikh Zayed wanted for his own children, he wanted for his bigger family. Education was always a priority as the UAE developed.

"The education of our people is a great wealth," he once said. "We are proud of our educated nation because through knowledge and science we will open the horizons of a glorious future."

And most memorably: "Education is like a lantern which lights your way in a dark alley."