بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Last night, I had a pleasant nightmare (doo doo doo doo doo doo doo).
[From the opening of a series I used to watch.]
We bear in mind that Islam is: the religion of Raḥmah (Mercy, Lovingkindness,) and of Ḥikmah (Wisdom).
* Trust in //
God’s Plan. His Perfect Wisdom: He does everything in His Perfect Wisdom.
Yesterday, I ended up staying over at my best friend Tasnim’s house. What a Blessing from Allah this girl is, AlHamduliLlah.
What happened was: I had an assignment due the next day. An Islamic Law, Fiqh, assignment. And: for some reason, the wifi at our house (which is normally quite strong, no issues, AlHamduliLlah) wasn’t working.
I tried switching it off and on. Tried, as per the landlord’s advice, resetting it. You’re meant to use a pin or an unwound paperclip to push a button through a small hole in the router. I used a needle from my pouch of sewing things. But: to no avail.
Hotspot from my phone to my laptop hadn’t been working [Incidentally: always thank you to my father for paying for my phone bills among so many other things. I really shouldn’t ever take these things for granted. AlHamduliLlah.].
One of my housemates was out, away. The other: doesn’t have unlimited data, and was chilling in her room.
I texted my CMC classmates, to see if they’d be up and okay for me to go around. No responses: one of them had been unwell, and the other had gone to Manchester for the weekend.
I thought I would go to the CMC (women’s) library and stay over there. No kidding: there’s some comfy seats there. But I was genuinely worried about disobeying my parents. They don’t want for me to be out after Maghrib, for my own safety.
Disobedience = ingratitude = a complete misplacement of where and how things ought to be.
I asked Allah for Guidance.
Eventually, I messaged my best friend, who is currently living in Cambridge too: she is doing her Master’s at Cambridge University, Maa Shaa Allah.
She… responded. [!!!] Which is maybe especially awesome because in retrospect, I’d been thinking about how I want to see my best friend more just earlier in the day. I told her to say ‘KASMEH’ we’ll see each other more. And, later:
When I tell you how much I love this woman, and how special, and what a blessing, she is!
And so I booked a cab. And took, among other things, a cushion and a blanket from home. To my other home: home is where the people you love are, and where there is Islam.
So I went to my best friend’s house. And was waiting outside, and then one of her housemates, whom I’ve met before, opened the door for me.
Tasnim very kindly put on a lamp for me [she wanted to put fairy lights on but they weren’t working]. She made me very comfortable. And served me some snax. [My excuse for eating a lot: I have a fast metabolism! AlHamduliLlah!!!! And also: I could eat a whole meal and be hungry again like less than 2 hours later.]
I love spending time in Tasnim’s company. I got some work done, prayed, and went to sleep. And woke up for Fajr, and did a bit more work. Before submitting my assignment 18 seconds before the deadline, I kid you not.
AlHamduliLlah!
My best friend (lemme hype her up like the Desi auntie I am,) is amazing. Maa Shaa Allah, and May Allah Bless her always.
My best friend is a whole long list of beautiful things. And she is ever so kind, Maa Shaa Allah. Was concerned that the cushion I’d brought wouldn’t be enough for my head to rest on. A couple of hours, maybe, after she’d gone back to her room, she came downstairs with a pillow for me. And propped my head up and cared so much that I was comfortable.
I love my best friend.
The Way of Allah, His Sunnah, is often that:
He makes you wait for a thing. And you might experience some sadness, some hardships and so on. And then come the real, real rewards.
My closest friends over the years: beginning with my cousin Mazhar. Luca, Thomas, Foyzul and Ridhwaan at school. And Jerrin.
Maisha F. And at least a bit of loneliness. Nafisa, and Yu Zhu, and Tamanna.
Naajiya.
Different people, throughout time, and throughout these journeys of our lives. Even when friends left, or you grew apart. And you grew differently. AlHamduliLlah.
God’s Perfect Wisdom. Which: we sometimes only begin to properly and duly appreciate… in retrospect.
The benefit of hindsight, friends.
And then, while leaving Tasnim’s home, I struggled… with the front door. Why do I struggle with doors?
But here is when I got to the other side, in good time. AlHamduliLlah.
If we chase after the world, we’ll always feel like we’re in poverty, even when we have all the ‘wealth of the world’. Yet if we take care of our hereafter while here: Allah takes care of both Deen and Dunya for us! And this is Prophetic advice and wisdom.
Today I’d been thinking about (eventually) buying myself a CMC hoodie. They cost £30, but I think students get a discount. And I wanted to leave it at Tasnim’s house, for when I stay over, In Shaa Allah: as she’d told me, her house can get cold in the evenings.
And then, later that day (today,) this happened. ‘Coincidentally’ (Signs of and from Allah. God’s Plan>>>>>)
God is the Greatest.
Allahu Akbar.
I returned to Tasnim’s house this evening (Tuesday evening). My best friend had cooked for me. Made with love! And we were both tired after our respective days. And energised, simultaneously, in one another’s company.
Waiting 18 years for a best friend like this was surely worth it. AlHamduliLlah.
In Jannah, you will be with those you love.
And I realise that I am in just the right place, in Allah’s Perfect Wisdom, at just the right time. This moment. Deep breath: we’re alive!
Now: how to submit to Allah, and to exactly what He wants for us?
What comes, arises. What is, is.
We’re here. We got there in the end; we’ll get there in the end. Right now: we’re right here. And now.
“DO YOU WANT ME TO DO HENNA?” Tasnim just asked.
“YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH” arrived my chant for a response. And then we both burst out laughing for a little while.
Normalise being crazy. Sometimes.
Allah does not do things without reason.
Allah does things for Perfect reasons. Good, excellent, the Best, reason.
The other day, I got laundry detergent from Tesco. And some blueberries. And a card, for my friend Jade’s Ammi. A lovely woman, Allah hummabārik.
I: was going to get myself some food. And was going to then return home, to sit on my new velvet blue cushion, to work on my Fiqh essay.
When I’d come across Dawn, who works at the church that neighbours CMC. ‘Coincidentally’: from God, as all good things, and moments, and people, no doubt, are.
Dawn was going to go and visit Cambridge mosque again, and had also been exploring Mill Road a little more.
She said she’d been a little lost, and didn’t fully know how to get back to the church. I went to one of the CMC libraries in order to pray: Dawn asked, I think, if we have particular times to pray. Yes, five times daily!
We walked together. Talked about random things, like about the fact that she was going to be moving houses soon. She asked me who wrote the Qur’an.
The Qur’an was Revealed; it was spoken, recited, and only afterwards written down, on different materials. The Qur’an goes to the heart; read it every day, Dear Reader, if you are able.
There’s a chapter in the Qur’an named Surah Maryam, after Lady Mary. And another one called Surah Yusuf, after Joseph, son of Jacob (upon them be peace). It was very nice to have walked with and spoken with Dawn. She gave me a hug, and then we parted.
Guess I’ll end here then. Was going to add something to this article about how I felt my heart sink, and I felt sad and scared for a moment. I was singing that lullaby about London Bridge flying away. And thought about Westminster Bridge. And the time someone maniacally mowed down several people with a car, on it. And how they enacted barriers that separate the road and the pavement after that.
People should have the right to feel safe in big cities. Maybe global ‘Islamist’ terrorism is something I will write about soon, In Shaa Allah. In a hopefully meaningful way. Terroristic attacks are just that: completely terrifying. Imagine looking outside your window, as a New Yorker, and seeing the smoke and flames on that day.
The quaking, the fear and the flames. Unbelievable trauma.
And a mosque was bombed in Peshawar recently. Some Syrians looked through the US army’s garbage, for food, in the wreckage.
These things are anger and frenzied bloodthirstiness. It’s scary, it’s confusing.
Tonight, my best friend will do my Mendhi (AKA henna) In Shaa Allah. And we will eat… she’s given me the option of either a chocolate bun or a chocolate trifle.
AlHamduliLlah: there’s an endless list of things for us to be grateful on account of. Safety, warmth, love and friendship.
We got here. And we’ll get there. We’re here.
In Shaa Allah. And AlHamduliLlah. And BismiLlah.
Journey to the Heart of Islam. 