Nicco

 بِسْــــــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِارَّحْمَنِ ارَّحِيم

Alhamdulilah wa syukurillah :)

Iast night as I was brushing my teeth, I suddenly thought about blind people. I remembered how in primary school, teachers would teach you about having a good moral. It means to carry out good conducts, right? Sure. But it's funny how teachers would always use the example of helping the blind crossing roads as a noble act that it got a little too cliche, wouldn't you agree? My point is that, that night I felt soo bad because, in reality, I've hardly seen blind people crossing roads before. I mean, seriously...

We speak about it as though it happens everyday in our neighborhood or town but it doesn't. In my entire 20-plus-minus-years (:P) I've lived, I've yet to help a single blind person to do anything at all. I felt bad because I couldn't relate myself to that "cliche". I felt so bad. I was saying to myself, what kind of world am I living in when I'm near and hear about disabled people all the time (they're everywhere!) but have never actually held their hands, talked to them, played with them (other than when I was in primary school where my class was nearby the class of kids with special aid). Is it me or them who are living in such a small world? Astaghfirullah.

And like any other night, I slept off my concerns :'(

This morning I had my Eglish class as usual. I'm currently working on how the portrayal of Jesus (peace be upon him) in the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, may be offensive. "Jesus Burpeth and Farteth in harmony. MIRACULOUS! John 11:35am" is the caption underneath the image of Jesus being laughed at by his apostles. Apparently, according to Ms. Dorbeck, none of her American students sees it as offensive. I was like..huh. Interesting. But I shouldn't be surprised, I guess. We're tryna protect their "god", our prophet but the culture itself makes fun of "him"...what is there to say? I refuse to rest my case, however. I still find it offensive and I would defend my stance.

So, I was making my way to Holmes Student Center and my attention was caught at a person walking with his dog. It was a guide dog. So, he must be blind. He followed the dog. The dog was sniffing its way around. Suddenly I gasped as I saw he was nearing a big pole. Any person would rush to him if they notice what was happening. So i did. Subhanallah. Thank God I managed to get there on time and he didn't get hurt. The only right thing to do then was to help him and lead the way...so I did. We talked all the way until we reached his dorm. Apparently he was a sophomore student at NIU with a computer science major. Sunnguh lah. He said that he used to be able see colors..but after going through an operation to get rid of glaucoma, which was a failure, he completely lost his eye-sight. Innalillahi wa innailayhi rojiun.

His name is Nicco. He was nice and friendly and then we parted. I wonder if we will ever meet again. I'd be more prepared in speech, next time, if You will. I wanted to tell him something. He may not be able to see the sunlight but who knows if his heart is open to the light of Islam. Says who blind people are living in darkness.

Sambil jalan ke destinasiku, aku teringat peristiwa semalam. Allahuakbar. How so sweet of You, ya Allah. I wasn't even expecting or praying over what I thought of last night to be answered today or ever. There no such thing as coincidence without Allah's hands having worked into it.
Ya Allah. These little surprises mean the world to me and I'm just melted away....
Alhamdulillah. thank you Allah for making Your signs so obvious, so clear that You caught me off guard.

"(...) My Lord, indeed I am, for whatever good You would send down to me, in need." 28:24