Ramadan Journal '16 | Week Three

A few weeks ago, I went to a charity event that was held at my high school, and the point being drummed home was that faith, and the success of this life, go hand in hand. Chasing this world and scraping its barrel for happiness, whilst forgetting the fundamental purpose of life, only leads to disappointments, failures and heartbreak. Because if you have your faith, you know that this empty life is temporary. You know that the stumbles and falls are momentary. You know to have patience and to trust in the Almighty's plan for you. You know that you only have to ask, and He gives. Having faith, unwavering, resolute, concrete faith and living by it, staying true to it...that's the secret to the success of both worlds. One of the speakers summed it perfectly with a simple story that has stayed with me since. I needed the reminder, just like we all do sometimes, that we have to stop chasing the world and instead start chasing its Creator. Maybe if we did that, we'd all spend a lot less time crying over what we've lost and what we can't have, and a lot more time marveling at the bounties that we are blessed with.

|   There was once a King who one day, upon feeling immensely generous, impulsively told his subjects, "whatever you touch in this land today, it is yours". Naturally, the people grabbed what their hands could find. From golden vases and goblets to jewellery to diamond encrusted furniture; they claimed what they could. But one of the King's servants didn't budge an inch from his side and instead, clasped the King's hand. The King asked him, "I have told you that you can have anything in my Kingdom, why have your hands only found my own?" To which the servant replied, "You are the King of the Kingdom. If I have you, then I too, have the Kingdom."

I am one of seven billion. Seven billion hearts are beating across the world in steady synchronisation and mine is just one. A little network of arteries and veins, a criss-crossing patchwork of red and blue as it steadily pumps one, two, three, eighty times a minute. Human life, weighed by a chamber of tensile muscle and metallic blood, no smaller than a clenched fist, that determines my every waking minute, breathing life into the seconds that tick by. Human life, reduced to a compact mass of tissue that unfalteringly beats, never once skipping or stumbling or stuttering. Its harmonised pulses silently count down the hours, minutes, seconds I have been allotted, my insignificant life on trial until that tiny little thing that quietly hums in the cavity of my chest comes to a slow stop, the beats now laboured and forced, fighting against the clock that is tick-tick-ticking away the last seconds of mine that have been written. It quivers and drops, that little heart of mine. Seven billion hearts beating across the world in steady synchronisation and mine just stopped.

I have my Eid gifts sorted! You don't understand how proud I am of achieving the impossible. I honestly have no idea how people cope with buying Christmas presents because I couldn't cope with like, five Eid gifts.

*facepalm*

It really doesn't help that the people in my life are so damn fussy! My mum and dad are the worst, they'll flat out tell me if they hate their gift with virtually no tact at all and as for my brother, well I just tell him to pick out a gift and hey presto! It makes my life so much easier. My friends, that's another story altogether. It's our tradition to do a "Secret Santa" every time we meet up because we don't get together often so we like to make it a little special. We're planning on having an Eid party in a few weeks time so naturally we're doing a Secret Santa - and of course, when I saw the name I'm buying for, I thought ****! I'll be honest, my friends are pretty easy to buy for but I've known them for over ten years and we've been buying each other gifts for as long as I can remember...and it's just become more difficult because a) growing up, our tastes and interests have changed drastically and b) eventually you run out of ideas of things to buy because wait, did I not buy her that last year or the year before?!

So now we're playing with the idea of wish lists. It's just so much easier when someone tells you they want a specific item because it saves you hours of thinking, browsing, and more thinking, and they're bound to love their gift - it's a win-win! Lucky for me, the friend in question put up her list and the perfect gift came to mind. I actually can't believe I've already bought all her stuff and that I'm confident I've nailed it. Wish lists are the way forward people! I wish my family would give me wish lists...*sigh*

And then there are the kids in my family. I have so many nieces and nephews, all of which I'm pretty close to and I love giving them gifts but I've gone from happy child to miserable adult and can no longer remember what kids like/appreciate so that's a mission in itself. I do have fun doing it though..(I am a kid at heart).

You can imagine how much stuff I needed to buy. A few days ago, it was stressing me out and I needed a second to breathe and write it all down to un-muddle my head and make sure I wouldn't forget anything because that would be so typical of me. But I literally got back from shopping an hour ago, and I bought all the party jazz I needed to and you know what, it was flippin' exciting let me tell you. My room is crowded with mail boxes (online shopping is a bloody God-send), bags and wrapping paper and it just feels so exciting to be wrapping gifts and preparing for Eid! :)

Um, my friends are likely reading this and so I tried to blur what I could without compromising the quality of the image but I may just have leaked who I have for my Not-So-Secret Santa. Oops.

Ar-Rahman is my favourite surah of the Quran. 

Shaikh Ibrahim Jibreen is my favourite reciter. 

Surah Rahman recited by Ibrahim Jibreen is my favourite recitation.

Listen to it. Feel it. Fall in love with it.