Don't be a victim of circumstance: Make the best out of what you have.

Case Study : Nafi', Imam Malik, ibn Umar 

One of the most prominent teachers of Imam Malik ibn Anas was in fact a 'slave' - by the name of Naafi' ibn Sarjis, the freed slave of companion Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab (radhiAllahu 'anhuma).
 
Some scholars of hadith consider the "golden chain" of narration - the best and most authentic narration - to be that of Malik, Naafi', ibn Umar, and finally the Prophet Muhammad (sallAllahu alayhi wasallam).

Amazing! Think about it : Nafi' was a slave - and yet Allah has honoured him throughout the channels of history until the Day of Judgment, in playing a major role in the establishment and preservation of the Shari'ah - the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (sallAllahu alayhi wasallam).

What we can learn from these great individuals:

1) Nafi' didn't have the defeatist attitude in his state of being a slave - he made the best out of it. He recognized that his master, ibn Umar was one of the prominent companions of the Prophet, so he made most of the opportunity to learn from the best of the best. As a result of his dedicated efforts to learn, he was eventually the teacher to the great scholar Imam Malik, teacher to Imam Ash-Shafi'i.

How many of us are making full opportunity of what we have? How many of us are quick to blame our situation on circumstance and surroundings? How many of us are making full use of Qur'an and Hadith at our fingertips, and classes around us to enrich ourselves and those around us?
If a slave could take initiative, what are we doing?

2) Ibn Umar was a great coach! Imagine if ibn Umar had thought "oh you're just a slave - go do your other chores; this knowledge is for us elites".
How badly do we treat our 'maids' today? Do we even have any consideration of their betterment and improvement?

Ibn Umar developed this individual who would eventually be part of the golden chain of hadith. Now, if this was the level of development his slave had, what more his own children? How much effort have we gone into raising and nurturing our youth?

Children these days are more likely to take Astro, YouTube, and iPads as their coaches and shaykhs, more than their guardians.
Parents today need to re-establish the good old days where they placed importance on values and passing down their legacy and skills, and take a hands-on approach in nurturing the future leaders.

3) Imam Malik, the great scholar and faqeeh of Madinah, would learn from a slave. Imagine it's like a CEO of a great corporation learning values from his office janitor.

While this was very common back then, it's a forgotten virtue in our modern world today - Focus on the MESSAGE, not the Messenger. Whatever agrees with the Truth, if it's good advice, we take it, regardless if the person is an 'ustaz' or not, or whether he regularly appears on TV.

In any case, all three individuals shared one common trait and lesson for all of us - make the best of what you have. You never know where the blessings and barakah of Allah are.
Your circumstance may present opportunities which you never realized - seize them and make the best of them!

Lessons from the Stories of the Prophets in Qur'an

A major role of the Qur’an is a source of MOTIVATION and ENCOURAGEMENT for the believers, where Allah uplifts them and reassures the believers that they are on the right path to keep them focused.

And one of the many ways in which He does this is by narrating the stories of the people of the past. These aren’t folk tales or bedtime mythology, these are actual historical events that took place with ordinary people like you and me.

Let’s take some general yet profound lessons of the stories of the Prophets of the past  :

1. Nothing worth doing in life is easy. If you think your task/job adds value, guess what – the jobs of Allah’s Prophets were the most value adding of all, and it was no walk in the park. Allah Knows your Efforts and how sincere you are, and that’s all that matters.

2. "The Night is darkest before the Dawn" - For His Righteous slaves, Allah will Spare an immediate success for a greater success. “Failure” is relative – so put things in the right relative perspective. In seeking the Ultimate success, people around you might perceive your efforts as a waste, but Allah, ash-Shakur will NEVER let an atom’s weight of your efforts be wasted. Imagine if Nuh gave in when people mocked him as he made the Ark.

4. The Prophets: People who were more skilled and better in conduct than you have met with considerably worst challenges. So don't get cocky or arrogant.

5. Never give up on your people. The Prophets met with people who are much WORSE than the people you’re dealing with – people who rejected and opposed the Message even when the truth was laid bare in front of their eyes. Yet even they, some of the hardest enemies CAN become good people in the end. If you give up now, you might miss out on that one “push” that could tilt the scales.

6. Allah rewards for your EFFORTS, not your RESULTS. There are Prophets who have no followers – but they still are rewarded Paradise.
   
7. A sign that you are on the path of success is to have the integrity to still be persistent and patient despite the nonsense around you. “So hold on - It’s only a matter of time!”

8. Just because you have “facts” and “the truth”, doesn’t mean people are going to support you or like you. So don’t compromise the truth. It just means you might have to try again and again : perhaps with better wisdom.

9. Losing arguments doesn’t mean you are wrong, it just means your opponent is louder or more eloquent. Some people argue for the sake of arguing - and they’ll never surrender.

10.Don’t be disheartened when your opponents use Character assassination against you by attempting to make you look stupid just to block your message or distort the facts. They are using the same tactics as Fir’awn, Namrud, Abu Lahab and others – yet the Prophets never used this, or allowed themselves to be affected by it. Stand your ground and don’t sink yourself to their level.

.. And there’s so much more. The reality is, human nature has always been the same – characters, behaviours and mindset have been constant: only the names change, only ‘technology’ improves. Our job is to derive from this accumulated wisdom and apply it.

So when we recite and learn Qur’an, we shouldn’t just treat it as a ritual – don’t just treat stories as stories: It’s an actual tool for us to keep on track. Allah doesn’t Narrate to entertain us, He Narrates to us to TEACH us. So let’s learn =).

And what a great time to turn to Qur’an on this weekend amongst the first 10 days of Dzul-Hijjah =)


فَاقْصُصِ الْقَصَصَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ ﴿١٧٦﴾
“So relate the stories, perhaps they may reflect.” (Surah Al-A’raf 7:176)

نَحْنُ نَقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ أَحْسَنَ الْقَصَصِ بِمَا أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ وَإِنْ كُنْتَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ لَمِنَ الْغَافِلِينَ ﴿٣﴾
“We relate to you, [O Muhammad], the best of stories in what We have revealed to you of this Qur'an although you were, before it, among the unaware.” (Surah Yusuf 12:3)

Should we have Faith without believing in the Last Day, Paradise and Hellfire?

A friend of mine asked an honest question out of curiosity: 

“Is it wrong for me to practice my religion WITHOUT the aspect of Paradise and Hellfire? Not that I don’t believe in them, it’s just that I intend to practice purely out of faith of the religion, knowing that what it prescribed for me is good for me, and what it prohibited for me is bad for me – not necessarily out of seeking ‘pahala’ (rewards) from Allah? Is that wrong? Does that make my faith deficient in any way?”

Didn’t give him a good answer back then, but having time to think back, perhaps this would have been a better response :

Negating the aspect of “rewards”, Paradise and Hellfire will in fact remove a principal aspect of motivation: the drive for us to exert our utmost effort to excel. Without living our lives with the conscious knowledge of something great forward to, or something terrible to fend off from, it’s quite possible we will be complacent and quite content with being “mediocre” as a Muslim – and we have no guarantee of success either. What will drive us the extra mile to refine our character? To ditch that bad habit? To keep calm and patient while stuck in traffic? To make that extra bit of zikir? To give that extra dollar of charity? To advise our friends and family? If we had nothing to look forward to?

Allah Created us with the Knowledge of what motivates us – and in His Final Revelation the Qur’an, Paradise and Hellfire are repeated many times, in many different chapters, in varying descriptions and perspectives. Why, does so many times, when talking about what He Reserved for us in the Hereafter, Allah continuously Praise His rewards – Ajrun Azheem (great reward), Ajrun Kareem (generous reward), Ajrun Kabeer (BIG reward)?

Why would He repeat it, unless it was important to us? After all, He Revealed the Qur’an for our guidance – not for Him.

It’s important to remember that, as we pray a minimum of 5 times a day, in those prayers, lies one verse in Al-Fatihah which we recite at least 17 times daily : “maliki yawm id-deen” (King of the Day of Recompense) – a constant reminder to us that there will be a day of complete and absolute accountability of every single one of our deeds – good/bad, big/small, open/secret.

And wouldn’t I love to see the fruits of my labor? Wouldn’t I love that for every second of effort I did for His Sake, He will reward it with something much greater? Wouldn’t I love that when I walk out of the masjid after Fajr prayers, I have firm and optimistic hopes to a reward that is so great that “if we knew what it was, we would come even if we had to crawl”?
Likewise, on the remembrance absolute accountability, wouldn’t I be fearful of my bad actions, even if they are small or in secret? Wouldn’t I fear that every word of insult I utter in someone’s absence can be a cause for my ruin, or at the very least, ‘withdrawal’ from my account of good deeds and a serious threat to my investment?

It is when we have this constant reminder of Recompense, reward, paradise, and hellfire will life have a much deeper meaning beyond what meets the eyes, and from it will we have the enthusiasm and motivation to excel.

As Imam Bukhari stated, it is an established consensus amongst the scholars that the definition of “iman” is belief in the heart, utterance on the tongue, and action of the limbs – so if we had true iman in the Last Day (a pillar of faith), that belief would be manifest and reflected in our actions.

Live with the End in Mind - “Remembrance of Death puts Life into Perspective”

Your Attitude Towards ‘Failures’, ‘Mistakes’, or ‘Flops’?

What is

IBM once invested $20 million to start up a business division. After several years, the division resulted in massive losses to the company, and management decided to close down the division.
The Head of the division was called up to the CEO’s office; he asked the CEO; “I guess you called me in because you want to fire me”
The CEO said, “Heck no – we have 20 million dollars’ worth of experience in you. And we have to get that back. So we’re not going to fire you at all”

Mirroring that mindset was Thomas Alva Edison who said, “I haven’t failed 999 times, I’ve found 999 ways how NOT to make the electric light bulb.”

It’s a great attitude towards how we should view ‘failures’, or ‘mistakes’. When we, as an individual, or as an organisation – be it on a family, department, company level, etc – fail to learn from mistakes and extract the valuable lessons in them, then in reality we are impeding progress.
Audits, complaints and personal “muhasabah” (self-reflections) are in fact tools for progress – not for us to find fault and criticism.

When we are too bent on penalising failures or mistakes, we are in turn shaping a culture that is stuck in a loop of mediocrity.
When we are too ignorant or oblivious to failures or lack the initiative to learn, this results in complacency and no room for progress.

We should instill the mindset to bite the bullet – to do the right thing and learn from failures; not be hampered by them.

And this is precisely what the Prophet Muhammad (sallAllahu alayhi wasallam) said:
كُلُّ بَنِي آدَمَ خَطَّاءٌ, وَخَيْرُ اَلْخَطَّائِينَ اَلتَّوَّابُونَ
“All the sons of Adam are sinners,
but the best of sinners are those who repent (i.e. perform tawbah) often.”
(Related by At-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, graded “hasan”, with a strong chain of narrators.)

Without exception, EVERY one of us are guilty of committing sins or making mistakes. The only differentiating quality among us is how much we are willing to take initiative to swallow our pride, admit our faults, have the conviction to correct them.

If we can understand this need towards progress on an organisational level, then - reminding ourselves that we only have “one shot in life” - this  need for progress is even more so on a personal and individual level.

But why is it, there’s a sense of urgency to improve in organisations, but no such urgency on an individual, personal level - to repent, to change, etc?
Because in organisations, delays in progress means loss : loss in quality, loss in profits, loss in competitive edge, competency development, in valuble manpower, etc.

Likewise, this is the state of “loss” (al-khusr) which Allah describes on every single individual who fails to take initiative for continuous improvement. If we truly understood the magnitude and implications for this loss – we will see the urgency.

وَالْعَصْرِ ﴿١﴾ إِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ ﴿٢﴾ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ ﴿٣

“(I Swear) By the Time - 
Indeed, mankind is in a constant state of LOSS;
Except those who have faith and work righteous deeds,
And eagerly advise each other towards the TRUTH,
And eagerly advise each other towards patience.”

Scheduled Priority - Work vs. Prayer?

Do we schedule our work to meet our solat (prayer) times, or do we reshuffle our solat to fit our work times?

If we really considered our work / business to be a form of Ibadah, then we would not prioritize our jobs in compromise of the GREATER ibadah – the SOLAT, the first deed that shall be evaluated on the Day of Judgment.
If the definition of “ibadah” - worship – is to seek the Pleasure of Allah, and if we claim that to be our objective, then what kind of discipline are we implementing when it comes to consistency in performing the deed MOST beloved to Allah?

Abdullah ibn Mas’ud (radhiAllahu anh) asked the Prophet Muhammad (sallAllahu alayhi wasallam):
“Which Deed is most beloved to Allah?”
The Prophet said, “The Prayer (early) at its times”
(Sahih Al-Bukhari)

On top of that, wouldn’t we want a super quick and easy way to multiply it by 27 times – simply by praying in jama’ah?
Have we ever thought, what if our boss/client would offer us 27 multiple of our pay, simply by making the effort to find a teammate and work together as a team – yet we ignore the offer. A great loss!
.. So what is our attitude when it comes to this great offer from Allah?

Allah has made His Rewards and His Forgiveness easy for those who put in the effort.

So let’s put things in perspective and prioritize our priorities. May Allah keep us steadfast in performing our prayers with quality and ihsan.