'God guides whom he wills and I am glad he picked me'

Dubai - One thing that really helps me in keeping my energy levels up is going to sleep early. I go to bed by 10pm or so after the Taraweeh prayers.

Getting to back to work today after a good weekend rest during this holy month was a good experience for me. I felt since I spent a lot of time praying in the mosque and reading the holy book, it was not only my body that rested but also my soul that felt rejuvenated. 
I was happy to stay busy at work today as I had some extra work on me but I welcomed it as I felt light and energetic. There are no distractions of food or taking coffee breaks so I feel my days at work are more productive.
One thing that really helps me in keeping my energy levels up is going to sleep early. I go to bed by 10pm or so after the Taraweeh prayers which end by 9.30-9.45pm. 
However, things became a bit disturbing when I got a reply to one of my Ramadan Kareem messages from a friend who stays in the US. Since it was my first Ramadan, I was so happy and wanted to let all my friends know about it and I had sent Ramadan Kareem messages to everyone. One of my friends in the US replied in a bad taste. He was very angry that I had not only converted to Islam but also had become a practicing Muslim. He said all sorts of negative things to dissuade me from my path of Islam and said some unfriendly things about the religion which disturbed me a great deal. I tried to explain to him that he should not listen to people and should read about the religion himself before slandering it. But he was not ready to listen and just went on and on. I was quite disturbed by the whole conversation as this was the first time someone had said something negative about Islam since the time I embraced it. I felt upset and sorry at the same time as I wanted to convey the beautiful message of this amazing religion of peace I had found but I was unable to convince him. Anyway, I stayed a bit sad for some time and then picked up the Holy Quran to get on with my daily reading and what I read immediately gave peace to my heart.
It was from Allah that he made me open this particular chapter at that time, which was the second chapter of the Holy Quran called Surah Al Baqarah. And in the first seven verses, I read this part, that the non-believers are so drowned in depravity and misguidance that they are incapacitated to see, listen, and understand the truth as if someone's hearts and ears are sealed and the eyes are curtained! This at once put my heart at peace as I learned that Allah will guide whom he wills.
I felt so blessed that Allah guided me to this straight path and gave me the ability to see, hear and understand his message. Without even asking also sometimes God gives you what is best for you, you just have to ask him to guide you to the straight path and he surely will.
saman@khaleejtimes.com
 (AS TOLD TO SAMAN HAZIQ)
Luis Carreno is a 36-year-old from Colombia who embraced Islam in January 2018. He is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt coach for the UAE armed forces in Dubai.

• UAE
• Ramadan 2021
• Dubai