Got Hired!

Yes, alhamdolillah! And guess what, the offer is far, far better than I the one I rejected earlier – alhamdolillah, I had no confirmation from anywhere when I took that step, “Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the ‘Âlamîn.”

So, here’s the deal:

• Company Open Source Software Development.
  
• People My team lead is a Muslim, and religious obligations are highly respected.
  
• It’s a startup Immense learning!
• Location 15 minutes drive from my place, 10 minutes from the mosque, and 11 minutes from my sister’s place (I get food from her!)
• Pay Can’t be any better, alhamdolillah..
• Perks A Macbook Pro to start with! ;-]
  
• Start date Tomorrow, i.e. the second day of Eid.. a direct gift from Allah SWT :->

I seek refuge in Allah SWT from the whispers of Shayateen, the wandering thoughts, the pride in all of its forms, anxiety, and incompetence. Wa’salam.

p.s. SCW -> SW , SW -> S -> SW , SW -> S

I appreciate your offer but ..

.. but I am a muslim, Alhamdolillah. Few things before I start:

“And no moving (living) creature is there on earth but its provision is due from Allaah” [Hood 11:6]

“Allaah will destroy Riba” [al-Baqarah 2:276]

“O you who believe fear Allah and give up what remains due to you of interest if you are indeed believers. And if you do not, then be warned of war (against you) by Allah and His Messenger, while if you repent you shall have your capital. Do not do wrong and you shall not be wronged.” [Surah Al-Baqarah: 278-279]

Narrated An-Nu’man bin Bashir: I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, ‘Both legal and illegal things are evident but in between them there are doubtful (suspicious) things and most of the people have no knowledge about them. So whoever saves himself from these suspicious things saves his religion and his honor. And whoever indulges in these suspicious things is like a shepherd who grazes (his animals) near the Hima (private pasture) of someone else and at any moment he is liable to get in it. (O people!) Beware! Every king has a Hima and the Hima of Allah on the earth is His illegal (forbidden) things. Beware! There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the heart. [Bukhari, Book 1, Volume 2, Hadith 49]

“but do not help one another in sin and transgression” [al-Maa'idah 5:2]

Allah Almighty says, “If a person is forced by necessity without willful disobedience or transgressing due limits, thy Lord is oft-forgiving, most merciful.” [Al-An`am: 145]

An answer for – I work in a bank in a particular country, in a department that does not deal with riba-based transactions, but the central bank does deal with interest and it is a government foundation. What is the ruling on working in this bank? I hope you can advise me.

It took me 4-5 months of job search and interviewing to find a Software Engineering job that suited my extremely fine grained criteria:

1. I don’t want to relocate,
2. I don’t deserve a below market-standard salary,
3. The company must sponsor my *h1 visa*,
4. The work must be exciting and learning-oriented,
5. The company can hire non-citizens,
6. It should be easier for me to practice my religion,
7. The company should allow me to survive without shaking any female hands,
8. &  again, I don’t want to relocate!

In today’s economic crisis, none that I know who is looking for a job has any criteria – people JUST need jobs! So perhaps, this was a perfect time for Allah SWT to test me – and it happened.. I got my first job offer after clearing 3 interviews & guess what, the job suited almost perfectly against my criteria.

But, there was something missing in my list -

• The company must primarily depend on halal sources of income.

And unfortunately, this company was dealing in interest. Although I was a just a leaf-node who was not supposed to be directly concerned with the company’s main buisness, but I don’t give this idea any weight.. because I was supposed to be a “part of it”, while helping it flourish, & taking it easy. I always wanted to avoid such companies, but I was far from making it a solid filter in my job search. But it took me mere seconds to categorize this as a test from Allah SWT.. and hence I decide to pass the trail and reject the offer.

It was not a big deal at all, Alhamdolillah. Although, the offer attracted me in many ways – from a decent salary to free covered parking, & from a cool boss to lamborghini showroom just across the street .. it wasn’t bad But the more it had to offer, the stronger became my will to decide against it. And just moments ago, I did it.

I feel no insecurity & I feel no hopelessness. I am sure that something good is coming up, be it comprehensible as good in my terms or no, but I am sure that Allah swt has better options in reserve for me!

Now, I may sound like boasting about something I did that I feel is good.. but I had to write this. I just want many to understand that we must not ‘make up’ strong cases of need when we find ourselves facing such trails. There is no need other than finding more ways to please Allah SWT because none of us has signed any contract about the time when we are supposed to meet Azra’eil A.S. (Malakul Mawt). And deep inside, I am dead sure, that we all know that most of the times we choose luxury over hardships by ignoring the commandments of Allah SWT. We abuse the definition of ‘neccessity’.

So be it a beard, a hijab, a strong denial to mix up beyond limits in office parties, to deny to shake opposite gender hands, or the numerous other things that we commit or ignore (while pleasing or displeasing Allah SWT).. trust me, the GOOD is always doable. And, it always end up in something better for us, we don’t see it sometimes, but we can always realize it from the eyes of our Iman.. if we try.

p.s. SCW -> SW -> W -> DONE -> W

Done with academics Period

• Twenty four years of examinations, Alhamdolillah, & I am done now.
• It’s about time to step into the new phase of my life.
• I am prepared and I am satisfied; I am blessed by all means, Alhamdolillah.
• I just can’t stop thanking Allah SWT for everything that has been happening around me, with me, for me.

But, there’s always something that keeps me from being ‘absolute’ happy.. I don’t feel like home anywhere. I get suggestions to visit the parents back home, but I am sure that it’s going to add more weight to this melancholy (I wished never to use this word). There are few thing I can talk about though.

I do not ‘party’. Not that I don’t want to, but I just don’t want to damage my Imaan by becoming a part of some celebration that goes beyond the limits set by Allah SWT for Muslims. Now when I do this, I make a whole bunch of people angry at me. And, the situation turns worst when I try to justify the cause of my decisions. Then, I also try my level best to stay away from movies and music. Not that it’s all not attractive to me, but because I don’t want to witness the kissing scenes in transformers2 with no shame and pretend that I didn’t see it. I am a man and I am not kid enough to shade my eyes when 18+ stuff happens. So, I have two options: either I enjoy my Isha prayer; or, I feel the guilt while praying it at 1:00 am because I went to theater and then wasted some time in talking rubbish at starbucks. And finally, I put a period on all discussions that lead to obscenity. So, I lost the ‘fun’ part of my old friends, I lost my friends.

So, I am alone, perhaps by purpose. If good comes, I’ll take it. For all else, I hold up on myself. I’ll force myself to hate that which is not in compliance with The Instruction Set.  I’ll prefer the patience over the useless laugh-out-louds. I’ll wait, Inshallah :>

Trust, Responsibility, and Intentions.

“If you put your whole trust in Allah, as you ought, He most certainly will satisfy your needs, as He satisfies those of the birds. They come out hungry in the morning, but return full to their nests.” [Tirmidhi]

Life is all about ups and downs (and downs and downs ?! :>) Alhamdolillah for everything. I try not to hasten but I ensure not to delay things; things that I’ve little control over. I think, talk, listen, argue, and learn. I think ideal, talk truth, listen critically, argue constructively, and learn sincerely. I’ve changed people’s opinions; opinions of people much older than me.. and helped them to be more optimistic.. Allah, the Exalted knows better.

And in the meantime, I discovered a bunch of things about my (real) self by observing the way people see me. The one best thing I learned is that I am different in the way I think about responsibility. One of the facets of optimism is an ideal trust on Allah SWT. With such an ideal trust, you feel comfortable in taking on responsibilities. Now, I don’t like it when someone tells me that he’s not mature enough to take a next big step in life, where apparently, all he is a trying to get is a little more freedom of being single, what we call partying out with friends. To me, it’s a lack of sense of responsibility combined with some nonsensical ideas about life.

Although, most of the times when we talk about the next big step, we refer to marriage. But, I want to talk in general. In general, how the heck can you feel immature by the age of 22-26? and again why the heck do you want to party out at such an age? I feel like this has something to do with the definition of freedom that perhaps is communicated to us by well-defined devilish sources like teen movies, sitcoms, and just some specific breed of friends. And this is where I become argumentative. I am straight in letting someone know that he’s a ruined fellow as far as his related concepts are concerned..  so harsh, I know! But to leave someone in a laughable state is NOT at all better than making him angry with you and at the same time, incite some serious thought process in him.

Anyways, unless someone has a geniune reason of not taking the next big step, He/She must take it.. I don’t see an option here and taking this step is not hastening, it’s truely about time. Talking about marriage, I am dead sure that it brings happiness being equally propotional to your intentions. If you want to enjoy a “few more” gatherings with friends to pick on each other and do some indecent jabbering etc. (while being financially able to get married) then you’re really not planning to take the most out of this relationship. There is not a single aim or goal of our lives that would ensure our well being in the hereafter, which might get obstructed by getting married. For all worldly objectives of supposed “well-being”, such a human being needs a serious rethinking.

Now most importantly, I don’t talk out of experience, I just try to make the most of the Hadeeths I know and the essence of trust on Allah SWT communicated by Allah SWT Himself. You are supposed to trust Him, depend on His plans, refresh your intentions, and take the decisions. And then, it’s so simple, with no need to know about people’s experiences :> and Allah, the Exalted knows the best.

`Abdullah ibn Mas’ood (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that he heard the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) say:

“Whoever transforms all of his concerns into one concern only – concern for the Hereafter – Allah will satsify his demands and needs in this life. As for he who devotes his concerns to wordly matters, Allah will not care in which valley he perishes.”