Emails and strangers.

A few months back, i got an email from a total stranger. Instead of discarding it into the trash can (like i usually do), i decided to read it and write a VERY VERY LONG, LENGTHY, BORING reply. Months passed and I never heard from the person again.

That was, until a couple of days ago.

Anyway, I'm not in the mood of writing long-winded entries today, so i've copy-pasted those emails for your reading pleasure. You don't have to read my part of the exchange tho (like i said earlier, it's lengthy and without much substance).

I'm not kidding, don't read it!

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From: stranger
To: Izyan Ramdan
Sent: Friday
Subject: Salam from Egypt

Salam..

Am truly very sorry for my late reply. It's been about 6 months since your e-mail and I never really got the chance to thank you properly for your words of advice. Alhamdulillah, I am now studying medicine in Egypt at Ain Syams University in Cairo. So far, I'm able to understand what I'm actually studying but must be because I've not gotten to the hard part yet?? Hehe.

Salam ukhwah..

FNM

P/S: I happened to stumble upon the website salam from perantauan so yeah, just decided to ask any of the MARA scholars..which happens to be lucky you! =3 BTW, is your ym id the same as your e-mail?




--- On Friday, Izyan Ramdan wrote:

From: Izyan Ramdan
Subject: Re: Advice please? Am a Malaysian student
To: stranger@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, 1:59 PM

Assalamualaikum wbt Stranger,


I have to admit, i was a bit surprised to receive your email. Reading through, I believe i can understand the predicament you are in, although i have never been in such situation myself. Anyway, i will try to answer as best as i can.


I don't want to be biased in my answer but honestly, MARA and Ireland are the only scholarship and medical school respectively that i am truly familiar with. Therefore, I can't compare MARA to YP nor Ireland to Egypt for the simple reason that i have never had the pleasure of testing said waters.


However, i can assure you that MARA indeed offers quite a 'healthy' lump for us students in Ireland. And the nice thing about MARA is that unlike some other scholarships, they make an effort to show that they care. [my brother was on JPA scholarship, and boy! they were quite a pain to deal with, from what i heard]. But again, this is only a vague and amateurish observation from me, and i should stress that i have not the slightest idea of YP's pros and cons. For all i know, it's way better than MARA.


Now, the issue of placement, Egypt or Europe?? Well, as i mentioned before, I have only ever studied medicine in Ireland. It's a pretty decent university (the one i go to) but not at all the best. (I believe my uni was ranked 700++ in the recent world university ranking. Yeah, lousy huh?) I personally think that when doing medicine, whichever uni regardless, what really matters is that you end up graduating and becoming a good doctor. This, i think requires more out of YOU than the university you go to. If you are determined enough, i'm pretty sure u'll end up being the best doc ever, even if you graduated from some unknown and unclassy uni in Sri Lanka (totally random).


Anyway, I really hope you get what i'm trying to say here - that it doesn't really matter where you study medicine. Generally it's bound to be the same, with some minor differences here and there. Nothing too major. So where you choose to get your education would more likely depend on what u're seeking. You mentioned something about learning Arabic and The Qur'an. That's very nice to know. I hate to admit this, but my sole motive for choosing Europe was merely to travel to all those european countries (and see with my own eyes what real snow looks like). I didn’t come here seeking for Islam but Alhamdulillah that is what I found along the way.


So, even if you do choose Europe, or UK , they have a fine Islamic base here. In fact, I've learned more about Islam than i probably would have in Malaysia. In essence, when you say obtaining ilmu dunia and akhirat - it can be achieved anywhere on God's land! What really matters is you. Seek and InsyaAllah you will find. Even if you're not in an arabic-speaking country - that doesn't necessarily mean you can't learn arabic or you can't memorize the whole Qur'an. [Tho obviously it would be much simpler picking up the language in Egypt than it would be in Ireland =)]

Anyway, i can say all these things to you and babble on forever but ultimately Allah knows best. Ask Him, and hopefully you'll know in your heart what to do. InsyaAllah, He will guide you whatever and wherever you choose to be.


All the best.


Izyan Ramdan
NUI Galway, Ireland .


p/s: How did you happen to stumble upon my email?

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Hahahah.... I warned ya, but you didn't listen...

Gosh, i can't believe i wrote all that crap... berlagak as if i was some kind of know-it-all pulak, padahal sendiri pon struggling. Adeh~. =__='

Ahhhh, but then again... i made a new (and hopefully normal) friend, so i believe it was worth pretending to be smarty-pants after all. (eventhough, my good-natured advice was effective overlooked~)

And now, my faith in random strangers has been restored. (not everyone you meet on the Internet are total creeps, huh?)