Yes, I am another year older. Short of another year in my life. This day, for the year ended last night, I am very very thankful to God. like always, He has blessed me and my family so much this year as well. However, when I look at this past year, I feel overwhelmed by the blessings I had.
It was this year when my belief got stronger than ever before. My faith in Allah and recognition for his unconditional and utmost blessings on a bad bad muslim like me, my love for Prophet (SAW) and his beloved family, my relation with my Murshed Pak and my belief in his assistance and guidance towards recognizing myself and my religion.
It was February this year when we had the worst snow storm in Gaithersburg. Then it was a hard moment when I made the mistake of doubting in Allah’s blessings due to my corrupted mind and He responded in the most unexpected way. May Allah forgive me for my mistakes and keep his blessings on me.
Immediately after that, it was the time when during my visit to Pakistan, I was able to fulfill the long awaited wish of my wife. Not to mention that it has already become my wish as well but credit is still hers. Finally we were able fulfill our wish to pay a very humble tribute to our Murshed Pak by Allah’s blessings.
By Allah’s blessings and then by continuous support of our Murshed Pak through his advises and prayers, when I returned from Pakistan, I finally got a job that I wanted in a company that I wanted. Joining Citrix was a great thing, and then joining probably the best team available. I had no idea that I am going to like a team this much again. It’s true that I’ve always been blessed by having best teams in all my companies, but Citrix being biggest company in my career, I feel really good about it. I have a Cuban manager, a Russian team lead, a Chinese dev lead (now a Belge). In my team, I have people from all over the globe. Apart from all being very talented and supportive, they all make a real good friend. The kind that you can talk to and trust about any of your problem.
Another good thing about Citrix and coming to Florida was my exposure and relation to all other kind of muslims that I hardly met before. I have Syrian neighbors, prayed mostly in Egyptian lead mosque and have miuslim co-workers from Arab region as well as India and Pakistan. Also, this has been the first time that I’ve been this close to muslims from different classes and ideologies. When we pray even at work, in same prayer it’s a combination of deoband hanafis, ghair muqallids, shafiis and barelvis. Barelvi being me as per other’s blv but I don’t classify myself as Barelvi. It is true that none of us discuss the ideological differences a lot except me and my ghair muqallid friend.
About that ghair muqallid friend, he’s one of the best things happened to me at this company. Not only because he had helped me a lot in worldly matters, but also because of his “curiosity”. He like to question me a lot. To him, lot of my practices either end up on shirk or not good islamic practices. However, by grace of Allah and then by help and prayers or my Murshed Pak, the more he questions and sometimes really “forces” me to get deep into things, more my beliefs get clear and firm. I thank Allah for giving me this blessing in disguise. Honestly, I was never more clear about my beliefs in my life than now. May Allah keep me on right path and guide him. We differ a lot, discuss a lot, but most of the time we end up agreeing to disagree. Which is a good thing I guess. May Allah bless him and his family. Allah alone has the power to guide me or anybody else.
Coming back to the year past, I am most thankful to Allah for making me capable enough to take care of my mother’s wish. A wish that every muslim has in heart. To visit house of God and resting place of Prophet (SAW). My mother has finally performed her first hajj few days back. She, with my mother in law and my father, are now close to visiting the holy city of Madinah. InshAllah, there will be a day when I’ll be going there too. Till then, I am very happy and contented that my mother has been there and done that 
At this time of happiness, when we celebrated eid just few days ago and my parents performed Hajj, we had a really tough time as well. My brother got dengue fever, got admitted to hospital. It got worse when he developed brain swelling and lost his senses and control over his body. While continuously praying to God and seeking help of Murshed Pak in this most difficult time, there was not a single moment when any of us lost hope. He was in ICU, my parent were praying in Holy Kaaba, Our Murshed Pak seeking spiritual guidance for him and prayed in Astana Pak of Syed Ali Hussaini (RA), My sisters, cousins and whole family including us were reciting darood-e-paak and ayat-e-karima and everything while praying to Allah for him. Doctors had mentioned that medicine he is getting will reach and effect to recover his brain in 3 days and then he’ll be conscious again. Sarkar G told us not to worry and consoled us that he is going to be alright. That was the time, when my cousin took the water of Wudhu of Sarkar G (our Murshed Pak) and put few drops on his head. By the grace of Allah, it worked miraculously and he was conscious in no time. They kept putting drops of that water on his body and head and whole staff was amazed on his recovery including the neural surgeon and main doctors of ICU. When they were expecting him to regain conscious in 3 days, he was actually recovered and discharged after 3 days. Indeed Allah has his blessings on us and has helped us through the time of great difficulty. He is the one providing means for his blessings and keeping us patient in hard times and thankful in good times. May Allah protect everybody from any difficulty in the sadaqa of his beloved Messenger (SAW).
Truly, having my brother back at home (still far away for me), makes this birthday really happy along with all other blessings I’ve had whole year.
I pray for more blessings in coming year, not just for me but for every muslim and every human.