From Mindanau, With Love.

بِسْــــــــــــــــــــــمِ اﷲِارَّحْمَنِ ارَّحِيم

Alhamdulillah...

Allah... these past two weeks had been a real blessing. This shukr feeling, I don't know how to put it into words. Ya Allah, this shukr feeling, please help me translate it into my ibadah and action towards others :) I met so many people lately...I had lunch, outing and dinner with really warm people.
I'm happier than ever to be Muslim and identified as Muslim. What's even better? I've mamat by my side.

Tonight I met my teenage Mindanau bros and sis who came to America for the "Philippine Youth Leadership Program", sponsored by NIU. There was this one sis and bro that I bonded with quite a bit.
John my friend, was a volunteer for this program. He caught her off guard once, referring a group of girls as "those pretty girls". He thought that was a lil bit self-depreciating and insisted that she get a boost of confidence. He set up a date lunch for us three so I could talk to her and be like a "big Muslim sister" role model kinda thing which I had no idea of. If it was a study, I would want to learn it. She was already the ball of energy and potential that I, myself would to look up to. Maashallah.

Tonight, chatting to her about leadership, she made a closing remark saying "We'll be Muslim leaders, inshallah" Then both of us went "Yeahh!" and louder and coarser "YEAHHH!!!". Hehe. Subhanallah. Ya Allah please bless this girl and us all with intelligence, diligence, humility, leadership and the understanding of Islam so we can be the 'abid and khalifah we're meant to be.

The bro appeared out of nowhere when we had lunch. A couple of other student swung by at our lunch table but he stayed with us for quite sometime. I asked him, so what do you wish to be when you grow up? "I want to study law. But a specific kind of law, the Shariah. Like my mother." Maashallah. For a 14 year old to say that, may Allah bless you, reward you for your intention and realize your dream. After graduating high school, he's planning to go to a Tahfiz schhool in Malaysia.

Indahnya hidup yang jalannya walaupun seperti ular kena palu, disuluhi dengan lampu jalan. Beza dengan jalan yang sama, disemadikan pula dengan kegelapan malam. Imagine how much gas money, mileage, time, sweat etc would you save? Pada awal umur! When I found Islam, life was made easy. It was the GPS (automatic navigation) to the Life Boulevard. You're cruising and soaring through life struggles/mujahadah. Imagine figuring it out at younger age. You know a couple of years ahead before the real journey begins. It is as though you got it all figured out. Subhanallah :)

These two buddies are really one of a kind. And our meeting began from John who thought "She's Muslim..and she's muslim. Heyyy, why not if I let the muslim sisters meet each other." Alhamdulillah. Cun la peraturan Allah ni. I wouldn't have had this great experience without John ;)

"It was hard coming to America. We didn't know who our host families were going to be, what they were like, how they were going to treat us. We were only exposed of Americans through Hollywood movies. But after staying and getting to know them for a couple of weeks, it proves to us that saying goodbye is even harder." - speech by a PYLP student on the Farewell and Performance Dinner.

All smiles then turned into tears :) It was a bit painful to watch the students' departure from their host family. Comellah tgk my bro and sis tu nangis. They really cried their heart out. They're leaving for Washington DC tomorrow morning at 5am. After one or two more programs there, they'll flying back to the Philippines.

So...What was it that bonded us so much instantly like magic?
Oh yeah, ukhuwwah fillah.
Ukhuwwah ni macam syurga dunia la Allah.
Pertama kali bersua, seolah2 dah kenal lama.
Bondingnya tak dipinta.
Indahnya tak terkata.
Akhirnya kekal inshallah bersama2. Amin :)

If I was down to the last resort, I pray that this ukhwwah could be my savior...