What is my most memorable memory?

It was Ramadan of.. I dont remember the exact year—it was after COVID. yea, COVID is the marker for everything now; it felt like a reset. anyway, it was Ramadan that year, and I was working in the office. My dad’s company invited me and my family to buka puasa at a hotel near my workplace. as usual, one of the things that made me not mind staying after work was the mall next door (my favorite). I strolled around for a while, waiting for my family to arrive so we could walk over together. Ramadan will always be my favorite month; may we be able to meet it again next year, amin. So, I went to the surau to pass the time while waiting for them. 

There werent many people there. everyone was waiting patiently for Maghrib with their luggage before heading to their destinations—just like me, except I was lugging around a neck-breaking heavy laptop bag. In one corner of the surau, there was a beautiful Arab woman reading the Quran so fluently. I thought sitting next to her would be a good idea because first, to gain some blessings from her, and second, to join her in reading a few pages of the Quran. “It’d be nice to have Quran tasmik with her,” I thought to myself.

we continued reading on our own until she finished hers. A few minutes later, i was done, too, as i planned to rest for a bit. then she looked at me and offered, “Do you want me to tasmik for you?” 

Is this a dream? Is this an angel sent from above? Was my thought heard by Allah? Did Allah arrange for my dad’s company to invite us here just so I could have this experience? My heart was racing with happiness and gratitude to Allah. “YES,” I replied excitedly but composedly. #sophisticated

so I continued with the lines I had left off with her. not gonna lie, I was quite nervous because it felt like a test—i mean, literally. A test reading Allah’s words in Arabic with an Arab! “No, no, not zo, dzho…” “No, your tongue must be like this.” She corrected my ظ and ض and adjusted my pronunciation, which I had confidently thought was correct before. It felt like a sudden tajwid class that had come down from heaven.

at that moment, we were in our own world, not really caring about the other people waiting. I couldn’t let them owned my shyness because this was SUCH a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I finished one page when my mom called to say they had arrived. we stopped to chat a little bit. i asked what she was doing there. She mentioned she was traveling before heading back to her country. I felt sad to leave her, but she gave me her phone number and name. when I looked her up, i found out she was a professor at a university in Arab. We said our goodbyes, and I left the surau with a full heart.

To this day, that remains my favorite surau and my favorite memory, vivid in my mind. If you’re wondering, no, I haven’t contacted her yet. Maybe I should hmm. I hope her number is still in my phone.

disclaimer. I am just sharing my story and do not mean to say i am better than anybody. please pray for me to be better everyday <3