السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته،

الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم إلى يوم الدين وبعد

So my day began at 6 30 AM. Usually I wake up for Fajr which comes in at about 3 40 am, and I’m trying to increase on praying Qiyaam which means having to wake up at least 30 minutes before Fajr. But then I go back to sleep and wake up at around 6 to 7 am and do the basic formalities such as bathroom, food and then checking my email. I particularly enjoy checking my email and responding to some important emails and then deciding whether to nap from 8 to 9 am or not. Usually the brothers from America are online, at least one or two of them so we’ll talk online while I’m working. The beauty of my job now is that I work when work has to be done, and inshaAllaah I will be getting a heavier work load soon which means having to work harder.

But today… today was different. I actually had to leave the house at 6:30 am. Usually when I work I dont leave my house until around 7 or 8 or 9. Really depends on what I have to do. Alhamdulillaah this is the advantage of working at home. But once we get the office, I’ll be spending my work time there inshaAllaah. I had to go to the Chamber of Commerce to get my letter for obtaining a driver license stamped. Yes, my employer did not get the letter stamped by the chamber so I had to do it myself. I already got my eye test (which by the Mercy of Allaah was free, it usually costs about 85 Riyals or so) and my basic application papers and my blood group done. But the letter needs to be stamped.

This was the problem, I have an American Drivers license and usually you just go get that translated for 35 Riyals and then submit all these application forms with the blood group & eye test and the letter from the employer, but my license has a nice word written on it: “Temporary”. And the date of issue is the exact same as the date of expiry!

What went wrong O DMV of the “sunshine” state?! Well apparently they dont give a License renewal to foreign students every X number of years. And I made a mistake, you see I gave them an I-20 which I used for my first license, then it expired and I had to renew, but I renewed my I-20 visa for my employment and didn’t give that form in.

So I basically had a valid expired license in my hands. I didnt think that the DMV of the Sharqiyyah would accept it, so what was the only other option? Take the Drivers Test. No not the dreaded test!! Apparently they were failing people left and right because according to a taxi-driver rumor: “The cops and the Egyptian driving instructors have an agreement to fail students so they take the school and have to pay”. The school costs 450 to 500 Riyals, which is about 150$ or so. But what I dont understand is how a person with 20 years driving experience could be failed in a drivers test 3 times? So I didn’t want to take my chances and waste my time and money, so I decided to take the class.

But first I had to go to the dreaded chamber of commerce. I went yesterday after my meeting with one designer, but I was the 98th customer. Assuming each customer takes 1 minute, I really didn’t have time to wait 112 minutes (add Dhuhur break). So I came when they opened… at 7 Am! so I thought. I arrived at 6 40 AM thinking there’ll be a line… but no one! Turns out that they open at 7 30 AM.

So amazingly the chamber of commerce (the new building) is the SAME building as the location we chose for our Lab. So I decided to hang around inside that area and get some ideas of the design and all that. At 7 20 there was maybe 4 people waiting outside the building? Strange for the chamber of commerce, which you know the bureaucracy… it’s a slow moving behemoth.
This time I was the 3rd in line, I walked in at 7 30, left at 7 40. That’s the fastest I’ve ever been in any governmental establishment in the world. Paid 15 Riyals, stamped and off I went happy as can be. But it gets better. I go to a translations office to get my license translated to see if a family friend can pull some strings for me at the DMV, and the translator is baffled at the expiry date so he says “i’m going to put 5 years… so… 2012″. Great!! So now I dont have to waste a week of driving classes and 450 Riyals.

I never thought it’d be this easy but as I walked home from the Masjid from Ishaa I came to the realization that this is all from Allaah. Allaah has facilitated this affair for me as Allaah has done for most of my life. This is the Qadr of Allaah, He has Decreed it and It has come to pass. I never thought my “temporary” license would be made valid nor my paper being stamped in 3 minutes at one of the slowest government facilities. It’s amazing that you go about your life thinking things will happen or not happen, but then all of a sudden Allaah makes the best happen for you. Allaah truly controls all the affairs of the World, when will we realize that and put all our Trust in Allaah and act upon what Allaah revealed to us?

This brought to my mind the statement of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم:

أفلا تكون عبدا شكورا؟

((Shall I not be a thankful Servant?))