THE FLOOD OF BLESSINGS

Glory be to Allah & Salutations Upon His Prophet

Man isn’t a stone that he should be lying around, or a tree so that he may wither away in the tides of time whilst standing aimlessly. He has been created as a vicegerent of the Almighty, and hence should constantly be in the state of improving himself and adding to the world around. Everything in this universe has been created for man, whilst mankind has been created for the sake of worshipping his/her Creator. Allah Ta’ala states, “And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.” (51:56)

Luckily, unlike other nations, even the smallest deed of a Muslim that is done with the right intention becomes worship. For example, two people go to their jobs every day. One who makes the intention of earning Halal for himself and his family spends his 9 to 5 as if he was praying the entire time, whilst the one that simply went to work, for the sake of the social norm of having a job, won’t have his Book of Deeds credited. So in essence, we only have one life and a limited time to earn for this world as well as the Hereafter. The question then becomes, how do we optimize this “one and only” experience? How do we integrate this life with the next life, so that we may become successful in both? The answer is quite simple.

These days, in business schools throughout the world, professors emphasize on the art of “effective” management, rather than just management. Similarly, for a Muslim it should be “effective living”, not just living. The ultimate answer, and the key to achieving this state lies in two things.

First, the notion of “dedicated living”; a life which includes everything, but that “everything” is purely for the sake of Allah. Even if it is worldly in nature, for example playing tennis, we should make the right intention and that in turn would ensure physical hygiene as well as spiritual hygiene. The Blessed Prophet (s) stated, “The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak believer, whilst there is good in both.” (Muslim) How many Muslims are there in the world today that have memberships with various fitness clubs, or engage routinely in such activities? If only they would make the intention of acting upon the above-mentioned Hadith, they would enjoy the best of both worlds. Hence, dedication implies that anything you do, find an intention to do it for the sake of Allah. Present your daily schedule before a scholar, and ask him about what intentions can go along with every single task.

The second piece of the puzzle lies in hard work, toil or action. Whatever we do in life should be meaningful, and not just meaningful, but significantly meaningful. Allah Ta’ala mentions the attributes of a true believing Muslim in the Holy Qur’an, and states “…and who keep themselves away from vain things.”(23:3) Scholars have defined “vain” as that which has no worldly benefit, and neither adds to one’s Afterlife.

The most rampant disease of our times, aggravated by the notion of “entertainment” along with the rise of portable technology, is wasting time over useless media. Whether in the form of short clips that are usually kept in large numbers for short laughs every now and then, or entire movies that go a long way in polluting the Muslim’s heart. If media is useful, eg. An Islamic documentary, university lecture or maybe even a corporate presentation from an industry conference…that, would not fall under the umbrella of “vain.” Those are things that either add to one’s religious, or professional life. Although one should be mindful of non-religious elements in those as well eg.music etc. Anyone who has made a concrete change to the world we live in, whether Muslims like Ibn ul-Jawzi (ra) or non-Muslims such as Einstein, those feats would have been impossible without the passion being met with right amount of hard work.

The Salf as-Saliheen, our pious predecessors, wouldn’t even let a moment go by in wastage and direct it towards their ultimate purpose of life, Islam. Imam Shafi (ra) had become “Imam Shafi” by the raw age of 13! Imagine the hard work he had put in, to be able to contain that oceanic amount of knowledge he had.

Muhammad bin Qasim (ra) was only 17 when he conquered Sindh, whilst commanding an army that was not as experienced as the opposition. Hajaj bin Yusuf called for Bin Qasim and said “Our forces are engaged on multiple fronts, but I have received word that a few Muslim women have been taken hostage from a caravan, by a couple of Raja Dahir’s (Hindu ruler) bandits. One of the younger girls was able to alert nearby through screaming for help.” Upon hearing this, Muhammad bin Qasim assembled a force of the available men, who were untested as warriors, and through superior leadership and help from the Almighty, erected the flags of Islam from Sindh all the way to the city of Multan; as well as rescuing the Muslimahs taken hostage. Such a feat, at such a raw age, is impossible without the necessary amount of endeavor behind it.

Similarly, others have also applied the notion of hard work to achieve their means. Hafiz Abul Qasim al-Tibrani (ra) spent 33 years in the journey to study Hadith from approximately 1000 different Mashaikh of Hadith. Abu Hatim al-Razi (ra) states that “I walked no less than 9000 miles to different stations for attainment of the Noble Ahadith.” Imam Seeb’way is a famous Imam of the grammatical science of Nahw. Only once did his teacher reprimand him for a mistake in Arabic grammar, and he dedicated himself to learning it such, that thousands of students, even today, benefit from his grammatical works on Arabic language sciences.

Hence, dear reader, whether man or woman, a Muslim’s life revolves around the formula of “dedication and hard work.” Such a life is worthy of commendation in this world, as well as the world to come. As the Holy Prophet stated, “As you live, so shall you die.” A meaningful life leads to a meaningful end, while an unproductive life meets a futile end. May Allah help us to become more efficient as beings as well as believers. Ameen.