Letters to My Daughter

'Umar [ibn al-Khattab] (may Allah be well pleased with him) used to quote these two verses [of Arabic poetry] as an instructive example: Go easy on yourself, for the outcome of all affairs is determined by God's decree. If something is meant to go elsewhere, it will never come your way, but if it is yours by destiny, from you it cannot flee.

http://www.shobak.org/new_comments.php?id=216_0_26_0_C

http://paulgraham.com/procrastination.html Thanks Rayad, for the article.

"So how was it?" "Hajj was cool." Perhaps the understatement of the year, "hajj was cool" does not suffice as a response. But it is the response I have made, rather absentminded to folks who ask me about hajj. Really, the pilgrimage to Mecca is the single greatest experience of my life. Standing between my mom and dad in the Masjid al Haram in Mecca after we had completed our ummrah filled by heart with an indescribable love and gratitude. Three weeks of submission, with occasional bouts of puzzlement, and anger at the people of this place--can really transform one's perception of the world. I saw the ummah, this global community of believers sitting, standing, prostrating themselves before God at five appointed times each day for three weeks. I stood sanwhiched between all kinds of people: beautifully, big-bodied Sudanese giants and petitely framed Sri Lankan women. Women wearing multicolored hijabs, scarves, salwar kamizes. Others wore black-only cha