The Small Effort

Have you ever seen small children walking clumsily because their shoe laces are untied? They could even trip over and hurt themselves.

To the child, the little effort that her father or mother did, which is properly tying the shoe laces, means a lot. It could save him/her from getting hurt.

Alhamdulilah.. I can tie my own shoe laces.

But in my every day life I still depend on others' little efforts in order to make my life easier.

Besides teaching, my job requires me to check and grade the students' work such as their quizzes, assignments, projects and exam papers. I have always reminded my students to check their names, student numbers and group numbers. I had reminded them to write correctly all these details. It was just a simple effort on the part of the students, but it means a lot to me.

After grading the work, the marks have to be recorded correctly by referring to the name, student number and group number. It's quite simple actually.

But when I am in the midst of checking their work, sometimes the piling papers got mixed up.

So, there were times when I have to go over a long student list in order to record the marks because the student did not write his/her group number. It could take a few minutes or a few hours or even a few days!

I still remember a few incidents when lecturers became stressful over a missing examination script. A missing exam script is no small matter. We checked our tables, our drawers, in the office, at home, in our cars... We searched for days. In the end we found it, there, together with the other scripts. It was not missing after all, it was there all the while, but the script had a wrong group number!

What I am trying to say is, sometimes we don't realize how our tiny little effort could affect others. Writing the correct group number seems like effortless to students but it means a lot to us the lecturers. It could spare us the anxiety, agony and the long hours of checking a long class list in order to find their names.

This semester, I have over 100 students in four groups, with quite a number of them having the same name. I really appreciate those who took their time to write those details correctly. It makes my life so much easier. May Allah reward them for their little act of kindness. And there are also those who wrote their work neatly, one step after the other. It is always a pleasure to check these kind of works. Alhamdulillah.

To all my students, including those from the previous years.. I should have said this to you long, long time ago... Thank you very much for your kindness. I hope this gives you some deeper understanding that everything you do IS accounted for.

Jazakumullahu khairan kathira.

We are in the month of Ramadan. The month when the reward for our good deeds will be multiplied. Let's focus on doing good deeds no matter how small they are.

"Indeed, Allah does not do injustice, [even] as much as an atom's weight; while if there is a good deed, He multiplies it and gives from Himself a great reward"

( An Nisaa': 40)

Ya Allah

Ya Rahmaan Ya Rahiim..

Ampunkan segala perbuatanku yang telah menyusahkan orang lain

Maafkan Ya Allah..

Segala kesilapanku yang mungkin pernah menyebabkan kesusahan kepada orang lain

Ya Allah..Ya Rahman..

Rahmati lah dan berkati lah kehidupan orang-orang yang telah mempermudahkan urusan hidupku

Permudahkanlah hidup mereka sebagaimana mereka telah mempermudahkan hidupku..

Amiin..Ya Rabbal Aalamiin..