Your contributions = A Piece of the Puzzle: Playing your part in the Big Picture

Reflections from last weekend's Twins of Faith 2012 -

"What difference can i make? I am only one person?"

Many of us underestimate the potential of our contributions and the true goodness it can bring.

As the saying goes, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts", and Alhamdulillah - all praise and thanks to Allah - i witnessed and experienced this myself first hand last weekend, with the successful event that was Twins of Faith 2012 (29-30 December 2012).

This year I played a much smaller role than in 2011 - but interestingly, being closer on the ground, as part of the guys "behind the scenes", it actually gave me a better perspective of the big picture.

I am reminded of what Shaykh Yahya Ibrahim reminded us during Twins of Faith 2011 postmortem last year:

"When it comes to events like this, a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that the event is thanks to the Speakers who motivated the audience.

When in reality, all we do is just come onstage and talk.

But those hundreds of brothers and sisters who worked behind the scenes to make this happen - to ready the hall, the audio, the seats, ready the speakers, the tickets, the registration - they're the ones that made it happen for us."

It was definitely a motivating statement, but it didn't really hit me at first.. until I felt it last weekend.

Amidst the running up and down coordinating the stage events...
chasing the hospitality team to get the next speaker/performer ready, setting the timer for the next slot , giving constant timekeeping reminders, briefing the MCs on any scheduled announcements, setting up the microphones, modifying stage settings, greeting and briefing each speaker and performer, being at the centre of what was happening onstage..

subhanAllah it was a truly exhilarating experience!

And yet, I could have never been able to do those tasks without all those amazing hardworking and dedicated individuals who helped put the stuff ready for me to manage the stage – and I don’t even know most of their names.

But you know what, I just realized that better yet, at the end of the day, probably no one in the thousands of audience will ever know any of us or what we did for the entire event. 

Amazing!! I love it !

I realized a profound lesson behind all this : behind every achievement, in fact behind every success, behind every icon and role model who drive themselves to success, there were always people - largely unknown to others - who were the drivers to these achievements: people who helped & assisted them, who taught and mentored them, who comforted them, who made things easy for them, or even as simple as people who made sure they always had breakfast so that they were always ready to change the world.

And yet, mankind at large will perhaps never know who they are.

But Allah does. And the angels do. And every single bit of goodness achieved by these achievements are recorded clearly without fail.

And they marked their legacy. Their footprints in this dunya.

Think about it: Do we realize the role of the mother in being the sole person to raise and nurture some of the greatest scholars – orphaned at youth – but nurtured so well that they managed changed the nation: such as, Imam Ash-Shafi'ee, al-Bukhari and Malik ibn Anas?

Or even those thousands/millions of narrators of hadith who narrated hadith but perhaps more than 95% of the ummah don't even know their names - but in fact are responsible for authentically transmitting all the 30,000+ hadith we have today?

Or those Arab traders who had such beautiful akhlaq (good character) that caused the whole of the Malaysian and Indonesian region of people to be so attracted to the beauty of their manners, to the point where the huge majority of them embraced Islam (in fact, Indonesia today being the largest Muslim country)? Do we even know a single name amongst these traders?

No, the huge majority of mankind will ever know them. And yet Allah and His angels record every single atom’s weight of their contributions, and record the magnitude of the goodness that they have brought to mankind at large.

It all comes down to this:

Our role is to contribute to the big picture of His Deen, in our own individual capacities, matched to our own individual talents, competencies and abilities. We don’t all have to be leaders or scholars to make a massive positive impact to the ummah – we are all a piece of the puzzle: so make it a beautiful piece.
 

The Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wasalam) truly appreciated the efforts of an old dark-skinned woman who voluntarily swept the masjid, and he insisted to pray janazah on her when she passed away – in fact rebuked the companions for not informing him about her death (Narrated in Bukhari & Muslim). Why did he care so much for her? I mean, “it’s just a simple task of sweeping the mosque”, right?

Think about it: She wasn’t a great companion scholar who had the knowledge and ability to teach others; she didn’t have children to nurture to become great leaders; she didn’t have the strength to assist the efforts in war – but she did what she could in her own capacity: make the masjid a clean and comfortable environment so that the Prophet and companions would be able to pray with better tranquillity and peace of mind, 5 times a day every day.

And for that, she earned the honour of being given a janazah prayer by the Prophet himself – the best of creation. And on top of that, Allah preserved her deeds in hadith until this very day, in Recognition of her deeds. So that we can be inspired by this great legacy – the greatest of intentions with the smallest of means. 

And yet we don’t even know her name!! AMAZING!

So that’s how we should aim for in our deeds; as part of something greater. And in our own individual missions, strive to achieve the BEST in it. The Prophet said –

“Verily, Allah has enjoined excellence (Ihsan) with regard to everything….

… So, when you slaughter, slaughter with Ihsan” (Muslim)

imagine, the Prophet went to the extent to say that even a short and straightforward deed such as slaughtering an animal (which typically takes approximately 2 to 10 seconds), you should do it with excellence (Ihsan). What more about other deeds of good that you do for the sake of Allah?  

Have we ever wondered about the massive potential our small deeds can do to others?

The Prophet said  “Do not belittle (consider insignificant) any good deeds, even if it is to meet your brother with a cheerful face” (Muslim)

Why? Because you never know what good that small deed can do. You never know what sort of barakah (blessings) that Allah can place in your deeds as a result of your sincerity and keen-ness to seek His Pleasure. Perhaps what you do may not have an effect now, but somewhere down the road, it might trigger another person who was affected by your deed, to inspire him/her to make a small move, to change for the better. And perhaps that person might be the great mujaddid of this age of the ummah – and it all began with a cheerful face!

Or perhaps our deed collaborates with others who also do the deed and in the end has a massive effect on others. Imagine – for example, in Twins of Faith – if all the volunteers were smiling and giving salams to all guests in the event, and a non-Muslim or a not-so-practicing Muslim would observe this super positive and happy environment. Imagine the potential wildfire effect this can bring!

Or think about this: You give some advice to person A, he doesn’t listen. Your friend also gives advice to person A, he still doesn’t listen. Suddenly after the 50^th person giving advice, person A starts to think “perhaps they are correct after all”. But if it was any less than 50, he probably wouldn't have made that first step to change. But thanks to our role in the 50, that drove him one ant-step closer. 

Our deeds can do wonders, but what wonders do happen, that’s not our job. That’s Allah’s job. Our job is to play our roles with Ihsan and to the best of our capacity.

We put in the effort, Allah puts in the Results – out of His Wisdom, Mercy and Knowledge.

Our role is to put our utmost sincerity, to have that intention in our hearts, that we’re contributing to the big picture towards the greater good - to be a functional cog in the great machinations of goodness. Our role is to then put our tawakkal in Allah, and believe in the words of Allah that NOTHING - that was done for His sake – will ever be lost. 

“.. Verily, he who fears Allah with obedience to Him, and is patient, then surely, Allah shall never allow the reward of the Muhsinun (those who do good deeds with Ihsan) to be lost” (Surah Yusuf 12:90)

This is what we have as Muslims. We have a reward that we can look forward to – if not in this world, in the Akhirah. We live knowing that our deeds are acknowledged by one who is All-Appreciative, All-Rich and free of needs, All-Merciful and All-Just. We acknowledge that every effort, every drop of sweat, every ounce of difficulty in His Cause is a massive investment, not a sacrifice. The Prophet said:

"If any one of you beautifies (i.e. follows strictly, makes good) his Islamic religion then his good deeds will be rewarded ten times to seven hundred times for each good deed and a bad deed will be recorded as it is."  (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Book #2, Hadith #40)

This is why we don’t burn out or get demotivated. This is why, when we strive for Ihsan, it doesn’t bother us that that people don’t know or acknowledge our deeds, that we don’t achieve good name or wealth by doing our deeds.

But of course, as a reminder to myself and to all out there, we should not let our guard down and allow shaytan to make us feel arrogant and proud of our deeds. Always maintain our ikhlas, be thankful to Allah that He allowed us to do any acts of good, and do not be complacent.

Let’s keep up the effort (in fact ramp in up a few notches higher), play our part in the big picture and succeed in the best way we can achieve as individuals. Because if we all do, we will contribute to a change the ummah. Allah says (meaning of which is):

“Verily, Allah will not change the state of the people until they change what is in themselves” (Ar-Ra’d 13:11)

So let’s put things in perspective in our daily lives. All the little things in your life, think BIG. You might be housewife, teacher in a small class, a student, a person working in the corporate environment, a janitor, a receptionist, business person at an online marketplace, or any other place at all – in all of these you have the opportunity to play your role towards the betterment of the ummah: have your aspirations, stay steadfast on it, and work towards it in your own capability. 

• “Just a housewife”? Well, be the “Khadijah” to the husband that will change the world! Be the Khadijah who nurtured Fatimah – who grew up to be the leader of the women in Jannah!
• "Just another worker in a boring corporate environment”? “Just another student”?  Be the role model Muslim of Ihsan in the environment you’re in! Be the one whom people can honestly say “when I see this person, I remember to remember Allah”. 
• "Just a teacher of a small class”? Perhaps one – or two – or three – or all of them – will be the next Salahuddin al ayoubi or the next Muhammad Fateh. And you played a part in that!
• "Just another retiree”? Carpool with other retirees to go to the masjid 5 times a day! Let others in your neighbourhood spend their last moments cultivating in themselves love for the masjid – perhaps you may guide 1 or 2 to be amongst those who will be granted the shade of Allah, on the Day that there is no Shade except His shade. How awesome is that ?!

Yes, you can change the world. If you play your part.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we should stick to unambitious stuff and be content with the status quo. Yes, aim for the stars and keep going higher and keep going forward, but if you don’t physically get there (yet), at least be motivated by the very fact that you are making a difference where you are standing! 

We’re all a piece of a puzzle. Make it a beautiful piece: Live our lives with Ihsan.

The question is: what picture do we want to be a part of?

What legacy – foot prints – are we planning to leave behind when we leave this dunya? And what role do we see we fit in those footprints?

May Allah grant us barakah in all our efforts, the steadfastness to continue doing good for His Sake Alone, and to always have the correct intention in performing acts of good for the “greater good”.

And Allah knows best.