salaams!

hey salaams bros,

it was amazing seeing so many of you jhuma bros at shamim's wedding
this past weekend! shamim was beaming and looked incredibly happy.
as for me, residency life continues despite a fun filled
weekend...sigh. but i honestly can't complain, it's going well.
here's a quick reminder for all of us:

narrated by Abu-Huraira: "Riches does not mean, having a great amount
of property, but riches is self-contentment" (Bukhari)

--zain

salaams!

salaams all,

i think i may have missed my last update, but inshallah with this new reminder system i'll stay on track.  residency life has officially started with me now that intern year is over and i'm finally doing what it is i actually want to do.  and for all those brothers struggling through medical school, all i have to say is: its all worth it in the end.  now i know what everyone is thinking..."that's cuz derm is an easy residency."  while that is true from a work-hours standpoint, i will say that i worked far less during my intern year...actual work that is.  i had a pretty chill prelim year in a community hospital so i may have been in the hospital for long hours, but i wasn't really doing too much during that time other than sitting around in the lounge.  but despite the "chillness" of it, i didn't truly enjoy what i was doing, and i just did it to get through it.  but when you've really found something that you love, it doesn't matter if the hours are long or short, i can truly say that i enjoy what i do now and i don't regret any portion of the journey of getting here.  the learning curve is pretty steep so there is a TON of reading to do pretty much everyday...on par with medical school to be honest...but most of it relates to what i do on a daily basis, so its much more interesting to read.  and despite all that, not having to work weekends and taking call from home are pretty sweet alhamdulillah :).

a real quick hadith for everyone to think about...i'm sure you have all heard it many times:

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "By Allah! I ask for forgiveness from Allah and turn to Him in repentance more than seventy times a day."( Bukhari)

none of us even come close to the piety and perfection of the Prophet (SAW), but even he would make istaghfar 70 (and in some hadith, 100) times a day.  just think about all the small things we do each day that we could be asking forgiveness for and try to make istaghfar after every prayer.  it only takes a few minutes more and its quite possibly the simplest way of erasing smaller sins, so it seems ridiculous NOT to do it.

in other news, i'm really sorry to have missed out on the festivities at bilal's wedding, the pictures were awesome!  and a big congrats to imad for getting engaged!

--zain

Blog Automation Solution [Your Reply Requested]

Asalamu'alikum,

InshAllah, you and your families are in the best of health and Imaan. Alhumdulilah, Nazia, Abida and I are doing OK.

I have a solution to propose that can, inshAllah automate our JHUMA Brothers blog, although it doesn't meet Nabil's full automation suggested requirements, it is, inshAllah, a solution that will work better than our current.

The solution is:

1. I will schedule an automatic reminder email on the 1st day of every month for everyone to send to ME ONLY (usman.email@gmail.com), their own blog post for the month.

2. As we have 24 brothers in this group, we each will have until the 4th of the month to reply back, to ME ONLY (usman.email@gmail.com), with our individual post. If you miss the deadline, there is no guarantee that your post will show up, but i'll try to accommodate.

3. Please start your email with "This is my [YOUR NAME HERE]'s JHUMA Brothers post," to avoid confusion

4. I will copy and paste your post into the blogger system and schedule one post to be sent out per day of the month.

We all don't need to know the technicalities of how the delayed posting works, but it would be good if ONE or TWO of you could volunteer to be a back up, at which point I will show you how to schedule the posts through the blogger system that is already linked to this google group.

 NOTE: all of the emails would originate from my email address in this solution, so I will make the subject of your email posts your name.

Also Note: You will still be able to send additional emails to the group whenever you want, if you have an in-between update, etc.

 InshAllah, please reply back so I can know if we have a consensus to start this automation. If so, I will plan to kick this off on June 1st.

JazakAllah khier,
Usman