A Little Leap is All it Takes

Was it the latest songs? The hottest Hollywood couple? The soon-to-be-launched gadgets? Just ask Hauwa because she knows all about them!

I can still remember my friends coming over to consult me regarding the lyrics of a song or to settle a heated argument over celebrity gossip. At that time I was very much in love with the world; so much so that I avoided any thing to do with Islamic topics. As for my tongue, it ran free and wild! I would say stuff that I later on slept regretting. For example, I can still remember walking into a quiet room at the dorms during my high school days and blurting out “Did someone die?!” because they were all sulking. Little did I know that someone had actually died. Of course I didn’t mean the question in an inconsiderate way, but still it might have transmitted the wrong message to the others. I eventually got tired of that wild and carefree life. I wanted to become more mature considering I didn’t get any younger by the minute! I bought some Islamic books and tried to read them, but they mostly ended up somewhere in my closet with a dog-ear at the second chapter.

Then a very good friend of mine reccomended a lot of Islamic websites to me and I opened them up one by one. I Got It Covered happened to be one of them. I read through a few articles and suscribed for the mailing list. It was then that I concluded “CHANGE” was very much needed in my life!

I improved in my prayers and wore my hijab as it should be worn (not accompanied with too much perfume and a made-up face) and tried my best to quit my bad habits and adopt better ones. I started to read the Qur’an and the Hadith of the Prophet (salAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam).

But even then, after all that, I still couldn’t sleep well at night. What about my friends? I kept thinking. I tried engaging in Islamic conversations with them and even offered to forward them the websites that I benefited from. But to no avail. I remembered a quote by Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change you want to see!” So I tried my best to improve my character and prayed that it would influence them even an atom’s weight. I love them and would want them to see the “light” as I have had the opportunity to.

I know that time is precious and should not be wasted, which made me learn an important lesson: Sure we have time, it’s just not in our hands. At any point in time it may be our time to go and there is nothing and nobody that can stop it from happening. So why not change today? Why not now? A little leap is all it takes.

I pray that the Almighty guides us in all our deeds and helps us fight the obstacles that we may face on our road to perfection: ISLAM. Ameen!

By sister

Huwa