Medina Stories #22 – Funny

You know, you really have to sometimes put yourself in certain situations to develop your patience, right. And I used to think that I was something of a patient person before I got to Medina, but I wasn't nearly as patient as I am now. Because there's certain things that are baked into kind of, you know, life in Medina that that really, really test you. And not all people can can survive it. And not all people have the patience for it. So one of these things, you know, they started instituting as things started getting computerized, you know, a very common excuse to not get any work done was the system's down, okay, so people would just to avoid work, they just say, well, the

system's down, you know, and as far as students, they technically they shouldn't have been doing this, but they would also they would always, like withhold our passports. So we would get to Medina every year. And then we would, you know, if we returned to our homeland for in the summer, for example, then we'd get there and we'd have to surrender our passports. And then they give us our residence cards, okay. And then, so if we wanted to travel home, in the summertime, we'd have to do the opposite, we'd have to surrender our residency cards, and they give us our passports, and then we can travel. Okay, so it was final exams, and I was trying to travel and return home that summer.

And I was going to the office to try to get my my passport back. And I go in, you know, I skipped class to do it, because for some reason, they don't plan these things, except during class time. And the guy didn't want to do anything, you know, he was just like, systems down, you know, I have my bag with me and all my books and stuff like that. And I just said, you know, I said, you know, if Allah wants, like, the system will come back. And so I just decided, I said, I'm gonna sit here, and I'm just gonna review, I'm gonna start reading I'm gonna do you know, work, you know, and then maybe, who knows, maybe a lot will bring the system back up. Well, this really annoyed the guy that

was working, because I had a thought I had a feeling that the system wasn't really down, you know,

he was very, very annoyed that I just, you know, sat there and was studying you so annoyed that everybody else who came in after me that day, he would like use me as an example. He said, The system's down, like, go back. Look at this guy. He's been sitting here for three hours, he's been sitting here waiting, and it's still nothing. Right? And I'm just, you know, read my book since I finally you know, the end of the workday. He does kind of sighs and he looks at me, and he says,

he says, let's go over. And yeah, he's like, give me he's like, give me your card, you know, any and he doesn't, I got my password back. I said, how the system is backed up. So you know, I've had a lot, you know, there's a really useful metaphor I borrowed from somebody else, which is, you know, relating horizontally versus relating vertically last month, Allah wants us to relate vertically, you know, talking about horizontally is all the means, okay? It's like if I wanted to, I want to try to force this person to work or do something and I can yell and I can scream and I can make a big fuss or I can turn to the one who turns hearts, right. If you turn to the one that that turns

hearts, then he can get anything done.