theme of the year

I turned 21 two days ago, on the 29th of June. I kind of can’t digest the fact because I guess, I don’t really think it’s that big of a deal. 21st birthdays are way too hyped up in this society.

Anyway, strangely enough I have a theme for this year…which is to utilize time better with regards to my religious obligations (ban idle talk from my life) as well as to become more punctual overall etc. Insha’Allah I’ll make progress in this area.

How I arrived to selecting this theme is a story in and of itself. It’s almost as if Allah sent me a reminder or something. I feel honored but at the same time it’s kind of nerve wrecking because I know I’m a weak human and I’m not entirely sure how I’ll do.

So the mini story about this theme..well..my mother named me after reading my name in Surah Al Asr and falling in love with it. It's been kind of like this well known thing in my family but I kind of forgot all about it in recent years (I went through this phase in which I hated my name because I never met anyone else who had the same name..not to mention it was spelled all weird and nobody would ever get it and plus I was a rebellious teenager so I gave myself a nickname which after 8 years I'm thoroughly sick of plus I grew up and realized that I like my real name a lot better and this is the longest run on sentence EVER)

So basically this weekend I attended a conference and this Surah happened to be part of their theme and was recited with its meaning every so often. On Sunday morning (also the day of my birthday) we’re sitting around after brunch and a speaker steps up and starts reciting the Surah. At some point I suddenly remembered how my mom named me after the Arabic word for ‘pious’ or ‘piety’ found within the Surah…and then I also remembered it was my birthday (truth be told I did kind of forget..I was so busy and involved in other things).
Then it just all hit home for me and I felt an out of the ordinary affinity for the meaning of the Surahs verses. Most of you should already probably know what it is but I’m going to paste them anyway:

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

By (the Token of) Time (through the ages),

Verily Man is in loss,

Except such as have Faith,

and do righteous deeds,

and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth,

and of Patience and Constancy.

Pair that with a few other things and epiphanies that surfaced not too long after coming home that evening….and yeah, you get some sort of obsession with those verses. The echoing of them will not stop in my mind.

But I’m not complaining