Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Nail Keeper

Ok, so there was this nail keeper. He worked with an engineering company, a big one, where they have kilos and kilos and kilos of nails, which needed supervision. And he was happy to be trusted with the job. Wasn't that hard, keeping some nails and jotting down every piece which came in and out. Accidentally that day, he found that he brought back home with him a few nails, without realizing it. And no guard stopped him at the gate for bringing back home the nails, no harm was done. Anyway, what were a few nails compared to the hundreds and thousands kept in the store room? Soon the so-called accident, turned intentional. Every single day he'd bring back a few nails home, positively sure that they cause no harm, not to him, and not to the company. Every day he took not less than 5 nails with him.. what was there to a few nails? Finally, a year had pass. And the nails he brought back, some were used, others were given to his neighbours, while some just got lost. He had also overcome this bad habit of taking nails home for almost a month now. Maybe now and then when he needed them so much he'd take a nail or two. He was called to the director's office. Suprise suprise. He didn't know why, but it finally turned out that they had weigh the total kg of nails left. And they were short of 5 kilos. So where did this 5 kilos go? In the end, he had to pay for them, after all, he was in charge. 5 kilos of nails.
Our life is somewhat like the nail keeper's. Sometimes we take advantage of people without realizing it. And since Allah is Most Just, every advantage you took upon your friend, your partner, your neighbour, your children, you nieces, nephews, will all be recorded and in the end they'll be able to get back at you. It's way way better to repent now while we have the time, try patch things up and grant others their rights, before they ask for them on the very day you wish you had given everyone their rights for you to be able to go free.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

.:should've waken up earlier:.

Never have I encountered another worse day in my life as this one, and it was all my own fault. The day started off badly as I woke up a wee bit too late, missing a great clinical class given by Dr Ahmad Hamdy, which was supposed to be repeated. When? I don’t know, I had to call the centre. Ok. Fine. Then I was torn between going to lovely lovely communications course which would have cost me LE300, but I could have gone for free, over a lecture given by the head of department of Psychiatry for the upcoming exams, true enough I made a bad choice, I chose to go for the lecture, and kulluh kalam fadhi. Ok. Fine. Then I was torn (again!) between going for Dr. Usamah or Mostafa Hosny. If I wanted to go for Sheikh Mostafa, I could, by going for Dr Usamah in the afternoon, just after the meeting with the HOD. Or, I could go back home, study a little, and head for Usamah’s class, in the evening, at supposedly 7.30pm missing el-Sheikh’s class. Once again, I decided to take the wrong decision, went back home, studied two pennies’ worth and had a little nap, finally waking up for el-asr, then got ready to take off for Usamah’s class. But oh, it was 5.00pm and suddenly I remembered wanting to call the centre about Ahmad Hamdy’s lesson, is it today or is it tomorrow? And at what time? With my luck, just as I called, the class had just ended and I missed it. Ooh lala! I got myself ready for Usamah’s class, confident that I’m going to be early and get a good seat, took off and got there. As I paid the centre, I heard Dr Usamah’s voice lecturing away in the hall. Was I late? No. Not again. I entered, with 300 people looking at my face, most probably wondering, why in the world is this goof here at this hour? But since I didn’t know exactly when the class started I didn’t mind, I took my seat and opened the page, seems that I had miss somewhat 4 pages of the lecture. Great. Absolutely. Then, in about 10 minutes, ok 15, el-maghrib entered. And Dr Usamah said he’s going to take 5 more minutes. Yes, he usually does that, he talks for another 5,10 minutes and down we go for our prayers, then we will continue. 5 minutes were up and he stopped talking. For good. That was the end. Yup I came all the way. For a 15-minute lecture. Which I thought would have started after maghrib. But started at 6.30pm and ended at maghrib. So today I missed a whole lot of things, which were all so important. QadarAllah ma sha a fa al. And anyway it was my very own fault. Should’ve waken up earlier.