The difference between a work day and weekend is unreal. Yesterday and today have both been so amazing compared to the first four days of Ramadan.
Today was another home day, and I finally got to sit down and get actual work done. Bank stuff, mosque stuff, grad school stuff, future iftar planning… I know, super exciting things. It may not be the most thrilling activity in the world, but they were all things I had been putting off, and to finally cross things off my to-do list is a joy and accomplishment in and of itself.
I also got to reconnect with a couple of friends today. In the afternoon I was catching up with a friend who had just come back from vacation, and then later I went to another friend’s house for an impromptu iftar and dinner. You’ve all probably gathered by now that I’m a serious introvert, so having actual conversations with my friends isn’t exactly a daily thing. When moments like these do come around where I get to spend some quality time with my best friends, while I may need them in smaller doses than others, I so badly need them. After the long and stressful week I had, I needed this. So I made sure the family was fed and then left for my friend’s house.
I don’t think I’ve never done anything more stereotypical than staying up late with my bestie, drinking tea and talking about our favorite TV show and who of our friends are getting engaged. It was so nice though. That was the girl time that I didn’t realize I had been missing in my running from nursing home to nursing home and preparing iftar and organizing my finances.
So all in all, a pretty good day, alhamdulillah. I even managed to fulfill all of my Qur’an goals for the day.
Today I read about Allah’s name “Al-Wahhaab” or “The Giver.” The author writes a very nice metaphor to show how Allah’s form of giving compares to a human’s form of giving. “Above all, [a man] needs to receive the thing in order to give it. A tree which gives fruit, a goat which gives milk, need care, water, food. Allah needs nothing, so His is the true gift.” The author describes that while humans can adopt a form of generosity, the nature of being human is that we need to be given something in order to give ourselves. Allah simply creates and gives. These qualities of Allah that transcend worldly physics are what make God so awe-inspiring to me.
Islam On My Mind 