Rainy day makes me want to write.

Once upon a time, there was a kind Muslim man, one of the good ones. He was a good son, a helpful neighbor and a reliable friend. But he was a lazy man. He was too lazy to perform solat. He came up with excuses, and if he did perform a solat, he would had done it at the very last minute as possible.

So one day, he went to have an appointment with a Muslim scholar. Upon meeting the scholar, he spilled his bean, of how he's too lazy to perform the solat.

"Dear Sir, I am a good man, but I refuse to solat anymore. Surely all my goodness as a Muslim would compensate my solat, so may I be excuse from performing solat?"

The scholar smiled and replied;

"Sure, you can be excused from it, on one condition. You must first perform solat for 40 days straight at the mosque, right after the azan. On the 41st day, you are excused from solat forever."

The man thanked the scholar and went home with joy, for he wont have to perform solat anymore after the 40 days trial.

So he performed his solat for forty days straight, as per condition. Even before the azan. He had prepared himself with wudhu and sitting at the front row of the saf. He was intensely dedicated to be excused from solat forever.

On the 41st day, the scholar came across the man again and asked him whether he had abandoned solat as he wanted. The man suddenly broke down in tears and between sobs, he said;

"Dear Sir, I have never experienced this kind of serenity in my whole life. I was a good man but I never feel this calmness until I started to perform solat regularly. How did I miss this? By Allah, I will never skip solat anymore."

The scholar smiled. Mission accomplished, he thought. And the man never ever skipped his solat until the day he died.

This has been my all time favorite story. It simply means that sometimes, in order to curb immorality, misbehaving or mishaps, we have to use our wits to outsmart them rather than violence. We often hear people preaching about combating misdeed with gentle manner, but how many people actually abide by their own principal? Sometimes, even the unsophisticated way might be the best way.

"...But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not." - Quran (2:216).

2K16

So today is 2017. I didn't have any particular expectations or resolutions for 2016. I thought I would just go with the flow, nodding my head agreeing to what's going to be presented along the line, because it seemed like none of my resolutions from previous years came true.

My 2016 was, well, the first half was pretty intense, hectic and full of adrenaline rush. Who knew to graduate was not easy. Woke up every morning, did the work, sipped a cup of coffee, resumed the work, and went to sleep. An endless cycle of monotony I say. 

The other half was a relief. After graduating, I was finally at ease. 5 years of architecture school, finally paid off. I can pull all nighter if I wanted to. It's paradise *giggling*. But then again, I'm starting to miss campus life. 

I'd say 2016 was a more like closure. A closure is a sense of clarity, where moving on from what's done without denying its validity and existence, and believing that every exit is another entry. Adieu to 5 years of architecture school, adieu to all the futile hopes, adieu to all memories, and adieu to the former me. It's time to go on.

2017

2017 feels like a breath of fresh air. You know, the feeling of fresh air on your face and the wind blows through your hair (hijab?), then you take a deep breath, feel the air filling up your lung. I turned 24 last couple of days. A sudden realization subtlety appear, that I'm an adult. Hmmm.