Friend

A friend of mine, not very old, but very close one, came to see me Wednesday morning. Right after morning salaat, I have his text saying saad milo (Saad, let's meet) and I say yeah sure, the time was decided, 6 am. Well, I hadn't slept the entire night, so I was Very sleepy, and tired. And cranky. And I hoped he would go soon. But we talked for Three hours. He left around. Anyway. The talk was... okay. Not hear to heart, per se. He said many things. Basically it was a scold I needed. On all the things I was doing wrong. Basically, he was telling me to get my shit together. He said many, almost all, things right. Except a few. Here's a recalled-from-my-kind-of-memory except from the conversation:

Him: What have you done in the last 2 years? You have wasted your life. No progress. Nothing. You haven't got a place. You haven't got a car. You haven't got a promotion. You just wasted time. If you would have a car right now tumhara style he alag hota (You would have been awesome!) tumhain koi tensionen nahin hotin (You'd be in peace) ....

There are very very few friends in life, who will muster the courage to come to you, and say to your face this kind of things. The kind of things you need to hear, and the people who are already telling them, you totally ignore. So he has the perception to see it, the honesty to know it, the courage to say it, and the importance to be listened to. The scold went on for 3 hours... well not exactly. It was we both talking mostly. It would have been 0.75 - 1 hour probably, and he highlighted many mistakes I was making. I thank him for those things.

Later that day, I go to masjid. And there, one of my friends is giving a small small talk, just 4 or 5 people sitting. Motivating them. That these times are tricky times, and if we don't sacrifice our own plans, walk individually to people and invite them to live their lives in line with values etc, then these things will get worse and start to affect us. Well, something along those lines. But he said something, the tableeghi people often say kamyabi maal, mulk, banglay, gari digri main main nahin hai, kamyabi tou poray k poray deen main hai

And that kinda introduces a conflict, a contradiction. No? So me being a Muslim, think of what does the most authentic sources have to say on this?

Quran (13:2): "Verily, in the remembrance of Allah swt do hearts find rest."

Case dismissed.