Assalamualaikum everybody
For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Yusuf and I’m a friend of Suhayb’s. My job here is to pretend that Suhayb is just the most amazing person in the world. Obviously he’s already managed to somehow convince Maheen of this but the rest of you are probably undecided on the issue and may take more persuading!
Before I get into that – a quick shout out to the party planning committee and the crawley mosque. It’s been a great afternoon so far and the food has been really good.
OK. Suhayb. I’ve known Suhayb now for a number of years. We met when we were both working at Tesco head office. Life has taken us apart and elsewhere but at that time he was a freshfaced graduate trainee accountant looking to make his mark on the world. Well, I say freshfaced but he has had that beard for quite a while and already had it back then. In terms of making his mark, I don’t want to point fingers but I think it’s interesting that he was at Tesco before and during their recent accounting scandal. We met over lunch with another friend who can’t be here today and we have had many lunches since.
At the time my initial thoughts were something like “Oh dear, look at this guy’s beard!” And then he explained he was on the finance graduate scheme wanting to become an accountant and then I was thinking “Wow this guy is going to be so dull.” But happily I was surprised and wrong and he turned out to be a rather interesting guy with well-reasoned and sensible opinions. And in the years since we met he’s made it through his accountancy qualification, travelled and lived in the Far East, come back home, added on several extra muscles and settled into the adult world mashallah.
As he begins this new journey into serious adulthood with Maheen, I thought it might be handy if I gave a quick pointer to help her navigate the next few weeks. The main point I want to get across is food. Much as he claims to like to go the gym and eat clean, Suhayb is a man who likes his food. If you look at his before and after photos from China, you can see the visible impact that food can have. He’s lost the pounds now but the photos are well worth seeing. For a short while the Great Wall of China wasn’t the only structure visible from space. And if you’re sharing a pizza, just let him have the last slice - otherwise years later you’ll never hear the end of it. And if he’s ever angry, make sure to give him some food before talking to him. A well fed Suhayb is a happy Suhayb.
Before I wind this up I just want to say that we started as strangers, but over the time I’ve known him, he gone through ups and downs, grown in wisdom and experience and even more importantly he’s become family and I’d be proud to call him my brother. If you ever just talk to his parents, it’s plain to see how proud they are of him and it gives me great pleasure that mashallah today he’s taken this giant leap forward in fulfilling the Sunnah of the prophet SAW and I pray that Allah blesses your union and that both of you bring joy to each other’s heart and that you grow stronger in faith today, tomorrow and always.
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