green tea and me. Analogy #1

Assalamualaikum to dear readers. It's been a while since I last wrote my post in English and since it's the first  month of class, I was hoping to brush up my not-so-good English writing skills, heh. So I was thinking of this title, since last week. A cute story of green tea. Oh yes, by the way "bubble tea green tea ice-crushed with bubbles" is another version of my favorite drink, green tea, here in Wellington. (The other version of it is the one without any sugar). Though I must admit that I don't want to convert its price to Malaysian Ringgit cause I'll be disappointed. But we usually don't mind the price if we really like something don't we? (I guess it does not matter here).  Sorry.

at bubble central, courtenay place

Well, there's something special about this green tea, other than it's juicy-bittersweet-cold taste and the nutrients (gonna mention more about this later). It is about how I found green tea could really relate to our daily life, as human, as Muslims and more importantly as His servants. This is what we called. Analogy.

To those who are familiar with the good benefits of green tea, despite of it's weird, and unique smell, I would like to congratulate you for keeping up with this drink in your diet. It's seriously helpful, among its benefits are; help to prevent cancer, a good anti-oxidant, retards ageing process and before I forgot to mention, it's one of the good drink for those who are on diet (it helps to speed up your body metabolism's rate). But yeah, don't take it with sugar of course, that's the rule ;p

Ok, back to our story. Since I have started drinking green tea during my first year, I have heard so many comments and opinions about its taste. It's really funny that my friends could interpret the taste quite differently from each other, some said it tasted like soap cause of its smell, some said it tasted like seaweed, like 'cendol' etc etc and there were even people who mentioned that it also tasted like medicine drink. I seriously did not mind any of these comments, (cause it's my favorite) anyway, but the thing is, I did convince them the benefits of drinking green tea, but not many are willing to keep up with it. True, it is very true that people are different, and have their own preferences on their choices for their diet. Which is unique for me. Absolutely.

And so, if you notice, despite the various benefits of green tea generally or we could say to any other food, which has many many benefits, not many people will buy it. I mean, good things in life won't always be seen as a good thing in our eyes. And yes, that's the problem. People keep focusing on the "negative" side of it, the taste, the smell and so on. These are all excuses for not wanting to let go of our ego, and to accept the fact that it is good for us (health). The same thing applied to our lives. What we think bad for us, could sometimes have many benefits hidden behind it, and the good things that we like, could sometimes bring us harms that we could never imagine. So, don't let ourselves deceived by the looks, the taste and many other factors that could make us blind to see the hidden advantages of it. Again and again, don't judge a book by its cover and still if you're going to judge it, read it first. Seriously. And I am sure many of you know about this beautiful verse from the Quran :

"and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know." Al- Baqarah : 216

Therefore, the most important lesson, from this short and simple story of green tea is that people need to be more open minded and willing to try to think out of the box. Don't put yourself in only one shoes, but try as many shoes as you can so that you could experience and be more matured to face this life. And plus, there are many many things out there that we need to learn, especially what we thought or pretend or took for granted that we have known so well before, like our own religion, our faith. Islam. 

Trust me, the rules or the restrictions that Allah made in Islam for instance, is actually a guide for us to live the best way we can. He's the one who created us, thus wasn't it logic for Him to know the best lifestyle that we should practice? No other lifestyle than Islam, that could rule the world better. If you read the history, then you should remember that the Prophet s.a.w. is the only leader that could come up with such a great system for Madinah, uniting the muslims and non-muslims together harmoniously. So, tell me, why are we still denying Islam as our lifestyle,  to be practised each and every second, if we already know that Quran and Sunnah is the best solution for all humankind? 

I know that this is a very simple analogy that you could easily understand. But there are many many things out there, that we see, hear and feel everyday that we should always try to reflect and think of it from the most positive perspective. There is no such thing as coincidence in this life, and therefore we should use every opportunity and time left to be better each and every day. We could never be sure that the next minute or hour we would still be alive, don't we?

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p/s: those who wish to know more about the benefits of green tea, click here : http://www.green-tea-expert.com/green-tea-benefits.html