Hi guys,
Hope you are well. I’m doing okay, Alhamdulillah.
I write this at 9:34 am on a warm Sunday morning in an empty apartment. For somebody who can sometimes be very extroverted, I really like the silence. It recoups my emotional energy and helps me think. I am incentivized to write a very short newsletter today for two reasons.
One. I slept through sahur time (in spite of my brother calling to wake me up lmao 🤪) and so need to pace myself through the rest of the day.
Two. There are two or three other important boxes I need to tick today, and so I’m not incentivized to spend too much time here.
What I will do is very quickly share something I have been thinking about over the past few days.
Lezz do deezzz.
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Sometime last year, one of my friends had been invited for an interview. It was a company I was very familiar with, and she really wanted to spend some time preparing for it with me. I had previously spent a little over a year in that company’s recruitment processes, and knew much more about it than the average person.
So it made sense for her to want to speak to me. But it was just not a good time. I was really swamped with work and life, and as much as I wanted to help, there was just no time to spare for the conversation. But she was persistent. Eventually, we agreed on a meeting time.
Saturday morning at 10am in sha Allah.
Well, Saturday morning came. At 9:57am, I sent the following message:
“Hi Xxxxxx, I’m sorry I just don’t have the energy. Worked till after 10pm last night and now I’m still lying in bed. Was hoping the energy will come before 10 and I’ll call you but it’s just not there.”

I’m sure she felt bad. I felt bad too. I took panadol, spent most of the day in bed, and was feeling much better by the next morning. In fact, on Sunday, I even had the energy to write Why A Students work for C Students and B Students work for Government.
I had forgotten about the entire incident until a few months later when she texted again. She got the offer! 🥳🥳
Man, I was so happy. So so happy.
You see, I had prepped several people for these interviews that didn’t eventually get the offer (and only a few that did). I myself didn’t get the offer when I went through the recruitment process previously. But she did. Great stuff.
I find a lot of comfort in the concept of Qadar (destiny). Just the idea that the future is already written, and in spite of everything we do or don’t do, what is for us will come to pass. And that what is not meant for us will miss us, no matter how hard we try.
** Jara content:
Looking back, my experience with my friend’s recruiting reminded me of this verse.
إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِى مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُ ۚ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِٱلْمُهْتَدِينَ
Indeed, O Muhammad, you do not guide whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He is most knowing of the rightly guided.
- Surah 28:56
Have a great week. ✨
I’m seeing this from another angle though. What if you were the one giving bad advice, (since you didn’t make it anyway), and that’s why the others you advised didn’t make it either. And so she did well without your advice to mislead her. Just saying anyway. Which makes me start to think about myself and all the people I’ve advised about my employer’s recruitment process, and none of them have made it through. Perhaps I should stop advising 😂😂