Timeful Time

Have you ever came across time when it appeared as if time has stopped or moved much slower than usual, hence allowing you to achieve much more at a comfortable pace? A rare exception to the rule characterised by fast paced living with no time to reflect before the next job appears on life's conveyor belt.

This week something unusual happened, alhamdulillah. I will try to elaborate but it may not be easy to describe experience as experienced. So here goes three instances ..

I

I took upon myself to chair-cum-moderate the Mosque Religious Officers (MRO) meeting held at Al-Istiqamah Mosque, since my colleague was on medical leave. The meeting started half-an-hour later than scheduled but we were able to end on time for lunch before everyone made their way to their workplaces. I opened the meeting with introductory remarks covering several happenings and important issues of the week. Subsequently we had two presentations, the first was a beautiful tazkirah (reminder) by Ustaz Abdul Manaf on Hati Yang Hidup (A Living Heart) followed by a briefing on Mosque Management by Hj Kassim Kamis. Although we started late, we were able to have a good discussion and additional contributions by the participants. Much to my surprise, we were able to add 2 more items to the programme, a) reflections on their visit to Khalsa Prison and b) plenary for MROs to share the happenings at their respective mosques. I felt that as more MROs took the floor to offer their updates and views, the slower the time went. It was almost as though time had given us additional 3 minutes for every minute passed. Truly blessed time!

II

Our meeting with Br Necmettin, Br Erkan and Br Cengzhi from the Turkish Cultural Centre took an interesting twist. We had put aside 2 hours for the meeting for this getting-to-know each other session. As expected our guests arrived on time but requested to pray Asr when they arrived at An-Nahdah Mosque. We started the meeting after the pleasantries and both parties took turns to share our activities, through video and powerpoint presentations. We were conscious that we will have to wrap-up before Maghrib prayers. Alhamdulillah, we explored several initiatives and at the of the meeting we discovered that there were 6 areas of collaboration agreed. And it was a bonus for we started without expecting any deals and were pleasantly surprised that we were able to end the meeting well ahead before Maghrib. What a Turkish delight!

III

Aisyah gently reminded me to finish the REA meeting by 10.00 pm, and understandably so since she lives in the west quite a distance from the venue in the east. We arrived at the meeting place at 8 pm sharp but no other members had arrived. And since its dinner time, we went to the nearest coffee shop for a plate of fried chicken. We were already behind schedule the moment we started, and almost with his magical touch Br Hakeem led the meeting for us to discuss several outstanding issues and seek commitment to undertake various tasks for the inaugural award ceremony sometime in October this year. Contrary to our fears that this meeting will go into the night to make up for the brief hiatus, I was personally impressed when we closed the meeting with Tasbih Kaffarah and Surah Asr at about 9.30 pm. It certainly made Aisyah's day!

&

How did it happen? I wondered and asked myself. What were the "right" elements that came together on the day, at the meetings and during it to achieve much more, without the stress or rush to compete with time.

Is this what is meant by Allah's blessings of time?
That made time timeful.

The All-Knower, only He knows best.