The pleasure of reading

Reading is a pleasure...I can't remember a time when my parents didn't read. I started reading when I was 3 and my sister started about the same age too. Only my two brothers do not seem to have this love of reading in them.

So imagine my surprise yesterday when my nephew took out his Thomas books and started reading to me. At only 2 years old, he was able to read his books. Maybe, his diction is still not clear, but clearly, he loves the books and loves reading them. He made me follow him reading from the beginning to the end of one of the books. COOL!

Now, I wonder how to get my brother to read his books! After all, his oral exam is around the corner and yet, he is not making the effort to practise reading.

Life throws you a curve ball

One moment, you are healthy and the next...God's will be done. For those watching, all we can do is pray, for there are no other recourse left to us.



That's the reason, the Prophet left us this saying (paraphrasing from what I remembered which may not be accurate):



Appreciate these five things:

youth, before you are old,

health, before you are ill,

rich, before you are poor,

leisure time, before you are busy,

life, before you die.

Make your preparations during the "good" periods before the "bad" periods. That was the wisdom of the Prophet Yusuf (Joseph) left for us. He advised the Pharoah to prepare in the seven years of abundance for the seven lean years and that served the people of Egypt well. Similarly, we should do likewise and then leave what we cannot control up to God.

As I just taught my students in Linear Programming, we must identify three elements:

1. Our goal/Objective

2. The Decision Variables - the elements we can control

3. The constraints/limitations/requirements we are under

From there, we need to make the best decision. Yet, the best decision is not one where the outcome is always good. Just one in which we really exercised our best judgement based on the three elements above. The outcome is also influenced by factors that are not within our control. And those factors are what we leave up to God.

So in appreciating the 5 "good" things before the 5 "bad" things, we must ask ourselves these questions:

1. Did we make full use of our youth?

2. Did we do everything we can to stay healthy?

3. Did we utilize our wealth wisely?

4. Did we waste precious time?

5. Did we achieve our life's mission?

If the answer is yes, then when life throws you a curveball, you are content and there is no regrets. In the Qur'an, God describes of those who died when they saw Him on Judgement Day, they begged for a few more moments of this life to atone. But then, it is too late. None of us can recover three of the five things: our youth, time, and life. Perhaps if it is God's will, you can recover your health and wealth like Prophet Job. If that's the case, you are one of the lucky ones.

So let's not waste any more of our precious gifts that God has bestowed upon us.

Peace.