.بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

I think I at least somewhat fear,

The false promises, brittle ‘solidities’ of how

Certain things can sometimes appear. But:

How things appear

Are not really always what they truly are.

I regret to inform you, and on the flip-side:

I love to, too.

[For different intents and purposes,]

You and I, we have definitely been wrong before.

It can feel quick, and ‘easy’, to be quite… deceived:

And all the everything that some mere appearance of things, an ‘image’,

Can hide, push down, have quite ‘masterfully’, perhaps, concealed.

So I ask Allah for Truth. I hope to seek it, almost fervently. I ask Him

For things true. ‘Ask and ye shall receive’, so ask, and then I: do.

[This piece about how things can appear a certain way, and, even in spite of our personal ‘convictions’, not be so is in part inspired by the fact that recently my aunt, cousin, and I decided to meet for lunch at a Moroccan café. Good food: good avocado chicken, Maa Shaa Allah.

Anyway, there I’d seen a sister, near us, who looked like a girl I knew from five years ago. So I… kind of excitedly said, “Hafsana!”

And: the woman looked a little confused, clarified that I’d got the wrong person. I think I just apologised: over time, these highly ’embarrassing’ moments feel less embarrassing. E.g. maybe a week before this incident, at the masjid, I’d seen a sister who looks much like someone I tend to speak to when I go there and see her: she’s from Sweden, and has a Swedish accent. But, that time: it was basically her doppelgänger. All good though: we just had a conversation afterwards, and I explained.

But I think I felt quite embarrassed at that restaurant because… my aunt and cousin had also been there. I felt the blood rise up through my face like cranberry juice being poured into a cup. Oh no!

Although the woman had really appeared to have been Hafsana, it had not really been her. Ah, well. I think I’ve realised by now that I’d rather be fairly excited and so on, even if it ultimately leads to me being a bit embarrassed, in the end. As long as I’m not ‘cold’ and stuff towards people, by some attempted means of ‘self-protection’.

To me, the risk of a bit of embarrassment seems like an acceptable price to pay, sometimes…

‘Price to pay’: at this restaurant, I also witnessed one of those wholesome pay-for-the-bill friendly jostles, betwixt a big group of (male) friends].