Destiny: Part 1

'O Allaah, there is no ease except in that which You have made easy, and You make the difficulty, if You wish, easy.’

I would like to apologize to drmaza.com English section readers for falling behind on my translation. It is truly one of the highlights in my life to have the opportunity to do this translation work, to give whatever little contribution that I can in the world of da’wah. I do miss the glorious feeling of satisfaction that I experience every time I complete translating an article because it means a lot to me to know that there are people out there who benefit from it.

My professional life as an engineer with Petronas has taken quite a significant turn and the path that I am walking on now demands a more extensive commitment and in meeting that requirement, it really drains me of my energy. Because of that, when I get home from work, I’ll have enough strength left to do only the basic life’s routine like solat and checking on Hajar’s homework and probably do a little bit of reading just before bedtime. Previously, I was able to effectively spend a couple of hours every night to work on the translation. These days, I can still spend a couple of hours every night sitting in front of my laptop but I can hardly finish up one paragraph by the end of it.

To do the translation, I have to do lots of intense thinking and this necessitates me to have a high level of energy. That is because I am not blessed with having intrinsic lingual flair. I am technically inclined by nature and my education background is technical. It is not like me to write using ‘ornamental’ terms and style. It is simply not in me. Therefore, I had to try hard to deviate from my ‘natural’ style of writing in coming up with a translation that is as lingually artistic as the original article. If it’s up to me, I would just write the translation in bullet format and probably with a diagram or two to illustrate the scenario being discussed.

Nevertheless, I hope that this is just another phase of my life that will only last for a short while. Probably, things will get easier (with less debilitating effect) once I get the hang of it. I pray for Allah to continously give me the strength, and to show me the way, to play a part in the sacred struggle of upholding His religion.