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"Why are you here again?" The tired old man muttered, dusting his hands on the counter.
"I wanted something from you." The young man replied, his eyes glancing over the thin film of sawdust resting over every surface in the wood workshop. "Just a little bit of your time, to answer another question."
"Murad, the master of questions." The old man laughed.
"Uncle Sa'eed, the curator of answers." Murad returned a smile. "Today my question is specific, yet vague. And I feel like you'd be the best person who can answer it."
"Go ahead, I might as well entertain that mind of yours." Uncle Sa'eed nodded, picking up another tool to craft his wood.
"This—" Murad pointed at his chest, Uncle Sa'eed glanced at him briefly. "How do I control this?"
"You must be in love." Uncle Sa'eed shook his head.
"Not really, but I fear that I will soon be if I don't learn the answer from you." Murad spoke truthfully. "Her name is Tasbeel, she has the warmest eyes."
"Don't do that, claiming and allowing yourself to think this far. How much do you know her? Don't put yourself in a relationship in your head. It's a waste of time, and we don't have much of it to begin with. It also takes you off the list of eligible and present people — you'll start living inside your head so much you won't like real life."
"Build friendships, go the extra mile for a stranger, understand human connections, take care of others unconditionally, be a morning person, watch the sun and the shore, learn the tides of the wind and the tides of emotion, speak many languages, work with words, walk in a field of tall grass — just free yourself."
"There is more to life than what you want to control — let go. Invest in yourself, become someone you've dreamt of becoming, chase your belief and debate over facts. Learn to read people, communities, probabilities. When you find a soul that strikes you as a mould of all things new and old — and you eventually will, because we are made in pairs — marry that person."
"Don't rush into young love, you deserve a person who has explored the horizons as much as you have, who rests their foundations on similar grounds. And it takes time, it takes many risings of the sun and moon but eventually, eventually you'll be okay, you'll be home."
"Aah, I knew you could answer me." Murad laughed.
"You're on the right path." Uncle Sa'eed answered kindly. "Look, you've just made me a friend. And you fear to be in love, that is a place many don't reach even after forty years of mundane living. I can somehow read you enough to conclude you'd live a decent life."
"Thank you." Murad answered, bewildered. "The truth is, I wish I was born much earlier, I'd have loved to see how you were at my age."
And Uncle Sa'eed only smiled, perhaps a little amused, knowing that he had been far far foolish than the young man in front of him — perhaps even slightly crazy. But that's how wise men were made, he had no qualms with qadr.
