WQT Hall of Fame- Writing Contest- Ahmed Khan- 3rd prize Winner- Age Group 2
Ahmed Khan
Age 15 Years
What has changed your life since the pandemic began?
During this pandemic, many people’s habits, lifestyles, and activities have changed. To understand what changes the pandemic has caused to my life, you must know about my pre-pandemic life was like.
My life has always been the same, I would go to school and learn, go to cadets, come back home to study and finish assignments, then I would play sports and then sleep. Most of the people I have come across have relatively similar lives. The one thing that was different from my life and my peers was that I always take one hour of the day to just think about myself and the world around me. I would think about Allah SWT’s magnificence, how I feel and what truly want. When I tried to think about Allah’s SWT magnificence I would often get dazed and when I thought about myself, I would never be able to pinpoint how I feel or what I wanted.
On March 12, 2020, the first lockdown was announced. I was excited because I thought that meant a longer March break. At the beginning of the lockdown, I was lazing away my days, playing, and watching shows. I also kept up with my learning and learned ahead because this was an opportunity to outshine my peers and get a head start. Around September, schools re-opened and I was excelling in my classes alhamdullilah, all the extra work I put in was paying off; I was excelling in this new environment. On December 26th, the government issued another Lockdown, and schools transferred back online, and for the first time since COVID-19 I got came to a sudden realization. It felt like a shock, it made me wake up. I realized that during this lockdown, as I was excelling in these tasks and playing around, I was losing the thing most important to me: my identity and my ability to think critically. It was very Ironic because as I was excelling and having the time of my life, I was losing the most important human quality, I was becoming a robot in an endless cycle of tasks.
On December 28th I made a goal for myself to become a thinker, find myself, find what I feel and want, and understand Allah SWT. As I was attempting to accomplish these goals, Allah SWT made a way for me. My family started reading the tafsir for the sura’s in the 29th Juz and we completed the tafsir alhamdullilah within a month, we also started learning the names of Allah SWT and we have reached the name “Al-Baatin” which means “The Manifester.” During the time I’m writing this, Allah SWT has manifested my goals and he has given me the ability to accomplish them. Through learning the names of Allah SWT, I have learned that God is not something we can comprehend, instead, he is something we have to get closer to by any means necessary. I was also able to find myself because I realized that I’m a Muslim who desires Jannah.
