The world is a big classroom

Allah bless us with beautiful places in the world for us to travel and read the signs of His existence. If you ever get the chance to travel the world, grab it. Opportunities do not come twice.. so they say! I always love to travel and Allah has been kind to us.. we had many opportunities... I had taken my children off school for 2-3 months for many times just to experience living somewhere else when we had the chance. Some people would say.. what a shame! these kids had to miss school. But we have to remember that this world is a big classroom. All of us can be teacher and student at one point or another. So why not learn from this big classroom and let them explore... life is more than that going back and forth to school carrying those heavy bags. Kids can learn so much from many different experiences. It won't do them harm at all if we take them off school once in a while.

This world indeed is a classroom for all of us. We have to be aware and always try to understand from every each occasion of our lives and people around us teaches us a lot of things too. There are many different kinds of people. And one thing i realize from traveling is that.. the more you travel, the more friends you would miss and places that you long to go back. Allah put into our hearts the love of those whom we had never know before and bond us together through His grace and mercy. We don't have to have the same religion but our hearts can have that special bond like Anne Shirley called it as "Kindred Spirit".

I remembered a dear sister from France.. she is an Algerian French girl from outskirt Paris. We met in San Francisco when we stayed at a hotel in the heart of the city. One day, we went shopping and i noticed she liked a purse but put it back. I bought for her the purse. I give her the purse later that day as a present and she just looked at me, almost in tears and we hugged. We became sisters ever since. When we departed, it was the hardest moment - I remembered waving for her from the bus, she was all tears... she promised to go to Malaysia and she did... We spent Eid together that year. She actually did her practical training there for 4 months. Alhamdulillah...with only a cheap purse, Allah put into our hearts love for each other. Allah is kind and to understand Allah's kindness, we have to be kind to people. Like they said, what goes around, comes around... In the quran, it says .. (meaning) when you do good, you do good to yourself and when you do evil, you do evil against your own self.

This is something that we really need to understand. When we do good things to others, we are actually doing good to ourselves. We have to relate everything that happen around us and relate that to our own self. Nothing in this world happen as a coincidence. Never! Even the drop of a leaf from the tree is by the decree of Allah, the Exalted, Most High. It is Allah that has all the detailed plans and whenever anything happens, we have to take lesson from it. This is the classroom that i am talking about.. whatever you do.. relate back.. contemplate.. reflect. Insya'Allah, ALlah will give wisdom to those who want to understand.

Travelling teaches us a lot of things. Not only it enables us to witness Allah's greatness but more than that! You can look at it from many different perspectives. They said.. if you want to know someone, travel with them for 3 days.. then you can see his true character. Traveling usually needs lots of patience.. it is not that glossy smile and say cheese to the camera all the time.. yes, in the photos, you can smile but only the travelers know the story behind it.. the joy and the pain... It is funny when we heard about two families that went traveling together and when they came back, they no longer talk to one another... I am grateful i have Siti to travel with. It is not easy to find kindred spirits - but as long as we are willing to open up our hearts to accept love, insya'Allah, Allah will put plenty more! Look around us and see how many friends we have and what they have to say about us.. They are the signs for you to reflect. If they say good things about you.. alhamdulillah! If they say something bad, we might need to ponder deeper inside ourselves.. what have we done wrong.. what we need to improve? We can never be perfect like the prophet, Muhammad p.b.u.h. But these friends are like mirrors to us.. you look at them and you can see your ownselves - if we look hard enough!

May Allah open up our hearts to seek for true love which only Allah can provides. A true love is like magic.. it stays like glue and cannot come off. Seeking for Allah is actually seeking for that true love. And to love Allah is to seek for His pleasure.. to please him at all time and to fear Allah is to avoid displeasing Him because of that true love. Once that true love is there, nothing else matters ..

May Allah bestow on us that true love for Him and longing for Him in our hearts! Life is just a journey manifested in many different forms and we are like actors performing many different roles... Before that curtain is dropped, we need to review our performances.. has our performance made a difference to our audience or at least touches their hearts? If only we can have the best script, the best role, the best skill, the best costume .. it might make a difference!! Allah knows best. Wallahu'alam.