Dear @apple,
I don’t know what is going on with your damn keyboard, but I have NEVER in the 19 years of owning iPhones, had to backspace, retype, start over, correct words as much as I am now! And what happened to autocorrect!? Is that not a thing anymore? Please fix this!
things that scare me:
employment
unemployment
getting married
never getting married
having kids
never having kids
falling in love
never falling in love again
In Madina, I wasn’t feeling well and called room service. A young man came to clean the room maybe around 20 years old, a Pakistani boy. Quiet, humble, just doing his work, minding his own business.
I asked him softly, “How did you end up here?”
He smiled faintly and said, “Baji, lambi stories hain.”
Then he began to tell me.
He said, “I have four sisters. I’m the youngest. My father had a heart attack four years ago. Since then, I’m the only one earning.”
His eyes didn’t show sadness only exhaustion.
He went on, “These people give me 1500 riyals. 500 goes to my kafeel, 250 for rent. We live five people in one room. Even if I want to cry, I can’t others will get disturbed.”
That line pierced through me.
“Even if I want to cry, I can’t.”
In that moment, I felt something break inside me.
Here I was, in the holy city, surrounded by peace and right beside me, a boy carrying the weight of an entire family, silently suffering so his loved ones can survive.
We talk about struggle, but what he lives is survival.
His story reminded me how many of our people from Pakistan leave their homes, dreams, and youth not to live, but just to keep others alive
I've never been through a hardship that Allah didn't make a way for me, even when I'm at my lowest, even when my prayers aren't perfect. When it looks like there's no way, He opens a way because He is Al-Fattah.