Lucky day

One day me and Fauzan was having a breakfast early morning at the mess hall and we met Fauzan's friend named Harry from Indonesia. He worked at the same project with us but from a different company as well as position. After having our breakfast, he asked for a favor from Fauzan to go to Doha with him today since every Friday we have our off and we can go to the city as we wish but the disadvantages of going on this day is where the shops will only opens at 3pm. I don't know why but it's been like that since before.

Okay people, this is a bit of course but I'll explain a little bit about 'Friday' here in Doha. Every Friday, we have our break as I mentioned earlier and we are free to do whatever and go wherever we please but there's a downside on that current day. Although we can go out to Doha on Friday, we are restricted to go to certain places in Doha such as Old Souq and City Center. Why? One of the reason that was told to me was it's Family Day and it's only for families and the local people who are allowed to go to those places. Say what?! Since when does a shopping complex has boundaries? Well, they must have a reason why they're doing that. As for Old Souq, there will be polices guarding a certain perimeters and we aren't allowed to trespass these perimeters or we will be chased off by them (not to forget in a rude manner...). The reason was again, it's for the Family Day (I can't understand why! a mystery indeed...).

Therefore we are bounded only at Souq (it's at another place but I'm not sure the exact name), where you can shop for cheap things. On Friday, it will be packed with workers mainly from Indians and Philippines. There are other countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and etc but they're in the minorities. All of them are from different projects. Anyway, although we are allowed to go there, the shops will open after 3pm. So we've wasted our day from morning to evening just to wait for the shop to open at 3pm (again folks, I don't even know why they opened at 3pm!)

Anyway back to my real story (that was long! at last...), after doing some discussion, Fauzan agreed to accompany him as he just explained that he's going back to Indonesia the next day at 2am therefore he doesn't have much time. Because of the time constraint and the limitations of places in Doha, they agreed to depart to Doha at 3.30pm. Everything went well until he knocked at my door at 2.30pm...

"Knock, knock!", there was a knock on my door. I was currently busy talking to my fiancee back in Malaysia so I have to postpone the call with her as there was someone at the door. I was expecting Harry and it was indeed him since the time shows 2.30pm and he looked prepare to depart for Doha. But I noticed something was wrong when he asked me to go to Fauzan's room for something. As I had guessed, Fauzan just told him that he can't go to Doha at the very last minute and he asked me to go accompany Harry to Doha. What the heck?! I had no plans on going anywhere because I want to spent  my time with my fiancee! (Heheh!) Darn! I could easily refuse the request as it had nothing to do with me because Fauzan was the one who made that deal but then, I felt pity for him because he wanted to buy a Sejadah (Praying Mat) for his future wife before he went back to Indonesia. Furthermore he was here only for 10days. With a heavy heart, I prepared myself for the journey. Hmm...

Later on, I called Danny where he's a friend of mine working at another project in Doha and invite him out to stroll around the city. He accepted the offer and things weren't that bad after all if he's around because he's funny and you won't get bored when he's around. When we were at Doha, we met Danny at the usual place and we start to search for Harry's things. So we found the praying mat and he bought several but it's a pity that he can't find any shirts with the label "DOHA" or any souvenirs that significantly shows that it's a trademark from Doha. He wanted to buy it badly as it will be a remembrance for him when he's back at Indonesia as well as a gift for his family at home.

After doing some shopping with him, the three of us went to grab some grubs before we head back to the camp. We stopped by at an Indonesian restaurant (because everywhere else was full!) but the place was indeed quite homey. I took advantage on being there at the restaurant where I fulfilled my promise with Danny where I should had an open table which means I will be treating him. Since Harry was there, he was lucky to be treated by me. We ordered some foods and the owner of the restaurant suddenly asked whether Harry is holding praying mats in his bags. Harry acknowledged it and the owner asked again whether I'm a Muslim (that question again? Haha...refer to my previous post, here). I acknowledged that I am a Muslim and then to my surprise, she took out 2 praying mats for each of us! Whoa! I was surprised as I thought she was selling it to us and I would've bought it if she did sell it to us. The Sejadah was big and the material was comfortable. Refer to the photos below on how it looks like.

 

Quite nice eh? Haha.. From Western Union!

I guess it was a charity by some bank as I saw she has a bag of praying mats (and the logo of Western Union! obviously!). The point is, I was surprised by the events that happened to me that day because even at a restaurant the owner of the restaurant can still do her Ibadah to Allah. It was indeed my lucky day where if I have refused to go out on that day, I may not received such unexpected gifts. So praise to Allah for the generosity that Allah has given to me. Alhamdulillah... On the other hand, Danny was asked also by the owner whether he's a Muslim too! In the end,the owner apologizes to Danny as she can't give the gifts to him. Danny was all good.

It was unexpected and it was also the 1st time that I ever encounter something like this. If only we can spread out the kindness and generosity for the needy one, we will feel good because we do good deeds because of Allah. If you give a portion of what you have to the needy, Allah will surely return the rewards to you more than what you gave to the needy. Indeed it was a lucky day for me because it was a small help with unexpected return. SubhanAllah...