The Other Side of Me

August 28, 2001. This date is carved in my memory, even now after 10 years I still remember all the lessons I've learned from that day, the day that has made me a better person, the day that taught me to appreciate life. I never thought I'd share this with anyone, but after ten years, I think I'm ready to share all what I've learned that day, maybe it can be useful to someone. Maybe I'll help someone learn something without all the mess and pain I went through. It was a car accident, but it wasn't just that, for me, it was the experience of a lifetime. I'll leave all the ugly details of the accident off this post and any other post, there is no need to depress anyone. Let's just say I was in the USA, I had my family with me in the car, and I got seriously injured. I was taken to a hospital all by myself while everyone was taken to another hospital, at that time I didn't remember seeing anyone after the accident. I'll leave how I learned anything...

Signs... they're all around us all the time, God sends them to us to help us through this world. They're everywhere in our lives. A sign can be words from people around us who know nothing about that sign they're sending. It can be a dream that you dream just once, or one that keeps repeating everyday until you understand. It could be something that you remember out of the blue, or a song you barely hear that is played on the radio, a movie you decide to watch just to find out that it matches something in your life. It could be just a feeling. It could be seeing yourself in the future doing something, not a premonition of course, but the way you keep thinking of yourself doing a certain thing in the future for no known reason. They're everywhere, and it's up to us to either pay attention to them or ignore them. And if we decide to accept God's help, then there's the problem of how we interpret the signs, and the other problem of trying to understand what is...

I haven't felt Ramadan at all this year, with all the politics and people dying all around the world, no one is happy anymore. The celebrations are not here, how can we celebrate when our revolution is fading away? Anyway, I'm writing this as a trial to cheer myself up and feel the Ramadan spirit that is definitely in the air, I just can't feel it. Most of the things in that list I'm doing this year too, but not enjoying as I used to unfortunately. Taraweeh prayers in my favorite mosque among neighbors that I only meet in Taraweeh, but who never fail to be the friendliest people around. Or even my late night Taraweeh at home. المسحراتي the one who says اصحى يا نايم واحد الدايم instead of just banging his tabla, would be even better if he calls children's names. The race of finishing Qur'an before your friends, although I'm kind of slow and I only finish once, but I probably work harder on it than those who finish it twice, and for that I'm proud. T...

God's always sending tests our way, and if it means anything, it's that God loves you and wants to teach you something new. He will still love you whether you fail or succeed in that test. And it's not actually about failing or succeeding, but rather the lesson that you'll learn from every experience if you look between the lines. If you fail, it won't be the end of the world, it might be that God is reminding you that things don't have to go always your way and if they don't then it doesn't mean he loves you less, or he won't give you what you think you need. It only means he's teaching you many things. You might have failed so he can teach you than you're not always right, that you don't always know best. You might have failed so he can remind you how good success tastes, because if you never fail, you'll never know how good it feels to succeed. You might have failed so he can remind you that you should never give up, that failing ...