Totally confused but always optimistic

Aitkaaf and CPA and Eid and Birthday

Last couple of weeks, especially the last week were probably one of the most celebratory period in my life….in some sense. First I get the news on September 28th that i have passed the fourth and final part of the CPA exam. Then I sat in Aitkaaf from October 2nd to October 12th, has my birthday (according to the Christian calendar) on October 12th and celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr on October 13th.

Just like all the other parts I passed, I was not confident enough that i will be getting a passing score in the last part of the CPA exam (plus this was the 2nd time I had taken this part). Friday, I was driving back to work from Juma prayers, when my sister sends me a txt saying that i had passed the exam with a score of 80 (75 passing). I was very excited and relieved that I was done and over with studying etc (at least for now). So my parents called me later and congratulated me. Understandably they were very happy. In fact, I think they were happier than I was.

So that is done and and over with; except that I have to take an ethics exam online in order to get the certification. It is nothing intensive but has to be done in order to get certified & licensed.

I had thought of sitting in Aitkaaf during the beginning of month of Ramadhan. Initially when i had thought of it, I was scheduled to be on a client work but soon I got released and I quickly jumped on the opportunity to have those days marked as days-off, for the days I planned to sit in Aitkaaf. But then I few days later, I got scheduled on a client around the days off. And sure enough I would have been scheduled if I had not put in the days off. This got me thinking because this was a special project which was a good opportunity to learn something new.

For those of you that don’t know what Aitkaaf is; Aitkaaf is when you sit secluded from the normal day to day activities, in a mosque and pray and do all the religious activities, alone from all of the life’s mess. The most popular kind of Aitkaaf (and in this case) is the one that is done during the last 10 days of Ramadhan.

Not only that, I had an opportunity to attend the World Business Forum in New York around Oct 11-12 - for free. The forum was scheduled to have speakers including Kofi Annan, Jack Welch and Alan Greenspan. I really wanted to attend this forum since had the big names in business world come out and speak but since Allah was making other things fall in place for me to sit in Aitkaaf, i decided to not attend this and clear the final hurdle in my decision.

Sitting in Aitkaaf was a very rewarding experience. I got to learn many new and beneficial thing, regarding religion and this world (I must admit that I was also able to catch up with sleep as well). It was also very nice to not be able to worry about the hassles of this world. Since all you do most of the time is pray, read religious books, sleep, eat and talk to other people in the mosque. Initially I had decided not to bring my mobile phone, but I did. First couple of days, I didn’t use much of the phone (as I should not have anyways) but then later in the Aitkaaf days, I was using it more often just to play around etc. Although the ‘real/true’ Aitkaaf is meant to be nothing but prays and religious read and eating. But hopefully Allah can forgive.

The night before Eid (which was also my birthday), my dad came to pick me up along with mamo, and obviously they were happy (i had been seen them everyday though at the mosque when they use to come out for prayers). When i got home, my mother was also very happy and gave me flowers (I don’t know if they were for the birthday or Aitkaaf). Soon some of my other relatives also come to congratulate me, including my phopo and mamo’s family. Phopo gave e a necklace made out of roses (which is a way expressing happiness in our culture when someone comes back from a religious trip).

All in all it was an adventurous couple of weeks. Now only if i can find some time and finish off the ethics exam this weekend.

(I mean to post this a couple of weeks ago, but laziness and work got to me)

If you dont understand any of the terms on this page, feel free to email me via the contact page

No related posts.