a turning point.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,

One fine evening a friend asked,

"Why do you changed ?"

I smiled. I already expected this. I adjusted my hijab and took a deep breath but instead of answering the question, I asked,

"If you are given a twenty cents and a hundred ringgit, which one will you choose ?"

While laughing, he leaned against his chair and put his hands on the back of his head. A busy waitress passed across our table and smiled to us. I smiled back.

"Of course I will take the hundred ringgit ! Why people take twenty cents, if they can get more than that ? And it's free you know."

I carved a smile.

"See, that's what the Lord offers us. Instead, he can give you more than a hundred ringgit but if and only if you do what he asked you to do."

He crinkle his eyebrows,

"But that's not for free. We still have to do a lot of works."

I sighed, trying to search for easy words. Oh Allah, please give him the understanding.

"Okay, let say you have a hundred acres of land. You pay a few people to build your dream house on the  land. You provides all the tools and money. The house should be built in a year. And after a year, they could finish the work. Yes, your dream house is there. But there is something incomplete. There are some broken bricks, the paintings are scattered along the wall and if you watch the house from the outside, it is slanting as if it will fall to the ground. Are you going to pay them ? Are you happy with the result ?"

I watched him rubbing his hands on the Levis jeans he wore since the past two years. He was still the same person as before.

"I am certainly will not pay them. I want my dream house to be a magnificent one so I can bring my new wife to live in there. Why they didn't listen to what I asked ? They must be some dumb workers I hired."

We both laughed. Suddenly a waitress came and served us two cups of latte. We have the same favorite and it wasn't changed. He didn't touch the drink but waiting for me to continue my words.

"So, do you get it ? Allah provides you everything that you need. He gave you this world to live on, a family so that you can feel how to love and to be loved, the success you wish for in your entire life until you become a good doctor now and the most precious gift to you, He gave you Islam since you were born. And when the judgement day arrives, there is nothing to show to Him. He will not impress on your succeed because He is the one that give you that. He don't care whether you are a famous doctor or whatever is your title during your life in the world because they aren't the tickets to enter jannah. Instead He will go through to search for what have you done in your whole life ? What are the things you did to worship Him and the good deeds to other people ?

If you can't present Him anything, what else He can measure so that you can enter jannah ? Imagine if there is one of your patient that you treated says,

'Oh Allah, he is the doctor that asked me to start praying for you so that I can heal faster and worship you'.

And your neighbor says,

'Oh Allah, he is my dearest neighbor. He visited me when I was sick and helped me get up from the bed. Please let he enters jannah, oh Allah.'

My friend,
We don't need to go through the hardships to find Islam as other new Muslims brothers and sisters out there. But yet, why we are still can't afford to give back what He wants ? "

A silence prolonged.

He looked outside the cafe's glass window but I could saw that he tried to hold back his feelings.

"This is why I'm changing. It isn't wrong to change. And I don't want to be good alone. I want you too and everyone in this world to be not just good but a better muslim. The difference will happen if you make a turning point now."

' If you want to be a doctor, you are not  going to just treat the patient, but you are going to treat the ummah'

- Dr. Hafidzi Mohd Noor, Aqsa Syarif Malaysia-