Put a smile on your face =)

As promised, the second post of the day (my audit is waiting for me. what am i doing writing 2 entries in one go?!)

I called the cab, and the cab arrived less than 5 minutes later. As I climbed into the taxi, I was too emotionally drained. I just want a piece of mind. I planned to use the time in the cab to dread the fact that i am super late for my communication skill session.

But, no. That was not what that had happened.

The cab driver talks. And I mean talk. Like proper talk. Like a proper-conversation-talk. Not just a how-are-you-today-then-pure-silence-talk. He was a super duper extremely over friendly guy. Hehe.

He started off by asking me the usual question. "How was your morning today love?"

I told him I had a crappy morning, which obviously i did not go much into detail. And I thought it would just stop there. End of discussion. But no, he continued to talk and asked more questions about myself. I was not bothered to be frank. He seemed like a nice enough guy. So, we chatted for quite a bit. Hence, my plan for a piece of mind was thrown into the bin.

The reason I wrote this entry is because of a statement that he said to me.

"You are wearing a scarf. So, I guess you must be a muslim?"

"Yes, I am"

"Funny. I thought you look like a Christian"

I was taken aback by his remark. I look like a Christian? To be frank, I felt a bit insulted. I was curious to know what makes he think I look like a Christian.

"That's the first time someone had said something like that to me"

After an awkward silence, he said " You smiled"

I was confused. Was he trying to change the topic?

"You smiled a lot. All of those Muslims that I see, they don't smile. But you smile a lot. Not like them"

I smiled upon hearing his answer.

"All of the Christian nuns that I see, they wear headscarves like you. And they smile a lot. You wear headscarf. And you smile. So that's why I thought you are a Christian"

As you can guess, I was still smiling at that time. Only managed to say "Ookkkk..." Not entirely sure how to reply what he said.

And the conversation went on after that, talking a bit bout religion. He told me he does not believe in God, but only believes that in this world, there are good and bad people. I did not challenge much about that, as i was afraid he might chuck me out of the taxi if i said things wrongly. Which i do regret a bit right now. As i had the chance to enlighten him at least a tiny bit about Islam, but i did not had the guts to do so.

Anyway, the main thing that I would like to remind my friends and I (especially!) is we, as muslims, need to smile. Lighten up. Be nice unto others. Even to the nonbelievers. Obviously be nice to them accordingly. Remember, whatever we do in our lives reflects our religion. If we behave beautifully, in a way, we are showing to the world the beauty of Islam. Just imagine, something as simple as a smile might flicker the heart of the nonbelievers to learn more bout Islam. Interesting, huh. We all may not be capable to stand in front of a crowd and preach them about Islam, but we all certainly can smile!