Dare to be different

Imagine this situation.

You have a party to attend, and you dressed up specially for the event. When you walked through the door, suddenly everyone is staring at you. You were shocked and embarrassed as well. You looked around the room, everyone else are dressed formally while you are dressed as a pumpkin! You taught it was a costume party! If it was a costume party, no one would take a second look at you as everyone else will wear costumes too. But, in this case, you stand out from everybody else and every people stared at you like you came from another planet. Some even laughed at you. Just because, you are different than everybody .

That's the case where you involuntarily i.e you didn't know about the details of the party and thus, you didn't actually choose to be different. How about when you already know that it's a formal party and you still wear the costume? Because you just like to wear it and you've been wearing it to other events as well.

Well, the example, seems a bit hyperbolic [who would wear a pumpkin costume?].

But still I hope I made my point clear....hee..

Being different make us stand out from others. Being different makes people noticed.

So, it's not necessarily bad to be different. For example, in the case of doing an interview for a job. Hundreds of applicants will be applying the same position. Everybody has the same qualification and the same passion for the job. So, how do the interviewer make the choice? They'll choose someone that has something different from others.

Now let us relate this to being a Muslim. It's obvious when we go to the country where Muslims are not the majority, Muslims will stand out from others especially Muslim women because of our hijab. But, does that mean we have to be embarrassed with our difference? No. Instead, it's something that we should be proud of. We should be proud to say that we are Muslim to the whole world [This reminds of the story, "My name is Khan, and I'm not a terrorist"...hee...^^]. Our hijab is our identity and that made us special and different from others. Instead of feeling like it's an obligation, I think we should think that it's a present from Allah to make us feel special cause we are different. Different in a good way :)

I had few encounters where people asked me why I wear the hijab. And it makes me feel proud to tell them that I'm a Muslim. One of them didn't even know that Islam exist. The person thought I'm wearing hijab because of my culture. To me, that's the valuable experience when studying overseas. I can say that the experience here made me appreciate Islam more. It also open up my eyes and see Islam from a different perspective.

I admit, when I first came here, I felt awkward about praying in the open place in front of other people. I felt awkward trying to make wudhu on the sink. I felt conscious about what people

would think of me when I walk into class because I look different from everybody else . Now, Alhamdulillah, I feel more comfortable in doing all those things. And I'm happy that indirectly we can also spread Islam to other people .

[image taken from here]