Connecting your dots
This is for you, who feels like you’re at rock bottom — the lowest possible level of your life — wondering if any of this will ever make sense...
It’s rough. I know. Whatever you experience right now. whether a failure at school, career, love life, or a personal loss, it can feel overwhelmingly miserable.
This reminds me with one of the greatest advice I’ve ever heard. Imagine all the events happening in your life from the early beginning as a set of dots. And this phase that you are currently struggling too as one particular dot. Some of the dots may already be connected to each other and form some part of you e.g. your passion, value, career, or relationship.
You may wonder right now why this dot, which causes you stress and depression, makes no sense. It seems like there is no good in it and it has nothing to do with any of your growth.
But as Steve Jobs said in his speech at Stanford:
It is impossible to connect the dots beforehand; you can only connect them when looking backwards.
Believing that the dots will eventually connect down the road will give you the strength to face every failure in your hand. Believe that failure happens for good reasons that you may not realize at that time.
Now let’s talk about who is connecting these dots for you. All credit goes to the one and only, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise, God himself, Allah SWT.
I want to give you a story of mine recently. as a reflection perhaps. I am a planner. I love planning my life. 1 year, 5 years, or even 10 years from now.
One moment when I was applying for a master degree, it was crystal clear to me how I thought my past had dots that led me to this path. Anyone can clearly see it without a doubt. Already prepared and planned in detail what I must do when I pursue that prominent university. I even got the best recommendation letter I had ever seen from a professor I know at the university I applied to, who, in fact, is well-known for winning a nobel prize. So, what were the odds that I wouldn’t get a chance to go to this university?
Unfortunately, I was wrong, and always been wrong. I was too proud of myself as well. I thought I knew what was best for me, and I was wrong about that. At least I learned something important that
Just because you can rationalize it, doesn’t mean you are right.
as a muslim we often say alhamdulillah (All praise be to Allah) as a grateful expression when we experience happiness. but I want to be in this state as well when I experience sorrow. and that leads me to learn to say alhamdulillah ala kulli hal (All praise be to Allah for every situation).
I firmly believe what God himself says in the Quran, Surah Al-Anfal — Ayah 30:
Allah is the best of planners.
Yes, anyone can plan, but Allah is truly the best of planners. The wisdom that I can share with you is that although we might think that we are the one who knows the best for ourselves, we have to acknowledge that we actually have very limited knowledge about what is best for us. Once again.
Just because you can rationalize it, doesn’t mean you are right.
Trust Allah’s plan — over your intellect.
— Hilal
