a blind date...
 
 

"Would you join me for a blind date tonight?",asked my friend. I got a shock of my life, for I have never been to any blind date before. If it is,a blind date is supposed to be one to one and not with a friend.I said no and thanked him for the invitation.

When he noticed that I got a shock and bemused by his invitation,he explained to me about it and I agreed to accompany him. For your infomation, we are still wearing our sarong with baju Melayu and just finished our magrib prayer at our surau. By 8pm, we left the surau and went to pick up our blind date.

"This is going to be the first blind date in my life", I joked in the car." On top of it,I am meeting my date wearing sarong and slippers! "Don't worry", said my friend. " You will be suprised when you meet him.".

He was waiting for us when we arrived. Before going to dinner, he asked my friend to stop at the nearby mosque on the way to do our Isyak prayers. My friend really took care of him; accompanying and helping him all the way because our blind date is a blind man in his early fifties. But he is no ordinary blind man. He is called Ustaz A and a hafeez.( A hafeez is someone who could recite the whole Qur'an). On the journey, I keep quiet most of the time for I have no experience in handling a blind man before and this is the first time I met him. On top of it,he is a respected ustaz in the community.

While having dinner, I was wondering how a blind man,so helpless physically, could recite the whole Qur'an? And me,with healthy mind/body and good eyes-sight could not even remember 5% of the Qur'an?? Honestly,I felt so ashamed of myself. So, I asked him how he did it. He was so humble that he just kept quiet and my friend told his story...

When the ustaz  was 30 years old,he was playing music and sang songs by the roadside to earn his money. It occurred to him that he did not want to sing songs for the rest of his life. After he saved enough money, he went to Egypt and registered himself with a guru to learn reading and reciting Qur'an. It took him only three years with only two hours sleep every night to get his ijazah as a hafez! That was a real perfomance! He is a very determined man and Allah fulfilled his desire. And every night now,he still reads Qur'an for two hours at least before he goes to sleep.

And that, it puts great shame on most of us( including me) for our lack of desire ,determination and efforts to learn the words of Allah.....