Dear Sketchbook

“Ish...ish.. Oh Allah…I am so sad” The midterm marks are evaluated and no chance to increase it, no errors in the markings. “How was your exam?” “Was the paper easy? – Surely you did them excellently!” a very sensitive question but a norm to us students. Attached to it are answers such as: “Okla, plus minus…surely you are better.” Moreover, some would utter, “Please don’t ask...” – not sure whether negative or positive.

These are sweet and sour obstacles of a student’s life. Either pass or fail; a two twist of fate that is actually unpredictable. We can strive hard to achieve the best but even so, above that are Allah’s plans. The truth is that we cannot run from frustrations, depressions and miseries because we are human beings designed as His creation. The piece of us that weakens the strengths to struggle and filter the iradah from Allah swt. Why do we feel sad?

Oh heart, don’t feel sad, do not be depress. Allah never has and will never test us with what we are unable to endure. This is His promise. If we pass or fail, it is to be quantified by Allah’s measuring scale, not ours. Let us check ourselves, are we sad, frustrate of what we have done followed by the spirit to improve? Do we have the force to prove the success we should gain in each hardship?

Do not be sad… Only those who are not Mukmin should feel the misery, not us for we have Allah swt to judge with the most acute measure. There are two types of sadness faced by humankind. One is al-Hazan, the feeling of sadness that has occurred in our past and remembered. The second is al-Hamun, arrive from something that has not happened but stressed by the thought that it will take place.

With two types of sadness, are two different ways to face it. First, one thinks so hard about one’s problem. This is what a person with a weak soul and faith would do. On the other hand, those who have a strong and noble soul, who are clear in heart, they would think beyond the problem, which is to think and plan the way out. They think to solve and they act to improve. They give themselves hundreds of reasons why they must obtain knowledge. They convince themselves it is their jihad. In reality it is Allah we are seeking via this quest for knowledge. Is that not the highest possible goal? Is that not sufficient to drive a believer’s heart?