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Working, should it also be to Allah? - Muslimah - 07-27-2007
Bismillah
Praise be to Allah King of the Kings, Owner of Skies and earth and what is between them, Creator of the creations, prayer and peace be upon his final Messenger and all Messengers and Prophets.
In many occasions I observed how people become infatuated with their capabilities, derive their value from their position, base their lives on what they – think – they were able to attain of achievements on the professional level. Of course the same concept applies in other areas of life, but this time, I would like to focus on the professional area.
You talk to people and they tell you I was able to do this or that because I possess such and such knowledge, or they tell you no this is not the job for me to do, my qualifications are above this, or they really feel terrible if they encountered a situation when a boss stripped them off some authorities,…etc examples can go on.
Do we really derive our value from our professional position? Should we really look at our professional position as a main source of respect and self esteem??
Let us see from an Islamic perspective, how should we perceive professional career???
Allah actually compiled in one Ayah an essential foundation of the approach we must adopt during this short transit we are living:
“ 162. Say (O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم): "Verily, my Salât (prayer), my sacrifice, my living, and my dying are for Allâh, the Lord of the ‘Âlamîn (mankind, jinn and all that exists).” (Quran 6:162)
As it is clear, Allah made an essential foundation including living that must be for Allah, living that covers marriage, work, entertainment, …etc plus the other items of Salat, sacrifice and dying. Our core of interest here is the living. Living should be devoted to Allah and since living should be devoted to Allah, work and professional career must be perceived also to be for Allah rather than satisfying egoism desires. Rather than feeling happy and proud of your achievement, you should dedicate this achievement to Allah.
Someone would come and say what is the difference? Major difference. When you do your work because Allah Commanded you to do so in order to make a living rather than being dependant on others as in:
“He it is Who has made the earth subservient to you (i.e. easy for you to walk, to live and to do agriculture on it); so walk in the path thereof and eat of His provision. And to Him will be the Resurrection.” (Quran 67:15)
In this context, you would be obeying Allah, you would be abiding by what Allah Ordained us with.
Allah Created mankind to construct earth, to walk through and make a living, but we should be aware not to let this making of living turn into an aim, but rather a tool only a tool that allows us to survive without the aid of others, to earn the bread of your household, to survive.
Again someone might come and say but still why shouldn’t I be proud of my achievements, sometimes achievements are really good and lends one a sense of happiness, of uniquness? Of course they are. But how did Allah Describe this whole Dunia with all the achievements made starting from knowledge of how to ignite fire till penetrating into space??
“And this life of the world is only an amusement and a play! Verily, the home of the Hereafter - that is the life indeed (i.e. the eternal life that will never end), if they but knew[1]”. (Quran 29:64)
Thus according to this noble Ayah, no matter what kind of a profession you make, how important the achievement you made, even earning a noble prize, is actually nothing but an amusement and playing. I m not calling people to stop working, or developing a sense of carelessness, or low level of performance. On the contrary we are commanded to do our job as perfect as possible. What I m trying to convey here is the threat of deriving one’s value as a human being from a position or a professional rank. You see several cases when one is moved from one department to another that implied an indirect demotion, they actually loose control and some get into depression. This is what I m talking about.
As Muslims, we should not over estimate this Dunia and any achievement fulfilled therein except this what gets us closer to Allah. We must work and work hard, but not to prove ourselves, or capabilities, skills, unmatchable abilities, no but to make a living, construct earth, and obey Allah.
And if we do possess those items as mentioned above, it is only because of Allah. This is another point that we must be seriously attentive with. Claiming credit to ourselves.
Allah Gave us a serious warning, enough to let us be very careful.
Verily, Qârûn (Korah) was of Mûsâ’s (Moses) people, but he behaved arrogantly towards them. And We gave him of the treasures, that of which the keys would have been a burden to a body of strong men. Remember when his people said to him: "Do not exult (with riches, being ungrateful to Allâh). Verily Allâh likes not those who exult (with riches, being ungrateful to Allâh).
77. "But seek, with that (wealth) which Allâh has bestowed on you, the home of the Hereafter, and forget not your portion of lawful enjoyment in this world; and do good as Allâh has been good to you, and seek not mischief in the land. Verily, Allâh likes not the Mufsidûn (those who commit great crimes and sins, oppressors, tyrants, mischief-makers, corrupters)."
He said: "This has been given to me only because of the knowledge I possess." Did he not know that Allâh had destroyed before him generations, men who were stronger than him in might and greater in the amount (of riches) they had collected? But the Mujrimûn (criminals, disbelievers, polytheists, sinners) will not be questioned of their sins (because Allâh knows them well, so they will be punished without being called to account). (Quran 28: 76 – 78)
Brothers and sisters, be very careful not to be captured by this Dunia and the achievements Allah Allowed you to attain, be very careful of letting another devotee of Allah evaluate (in many occasions you hear an employee complaining of how his/her boss is not properly valuing his/her qualities or giving adequate credit) you but accept only Allah’s evaluation, be very careful to run around striving to assume high positions then be tempted by its glazing lights which sooner or later shall fade away, just work and earn your living no matter what you do, don’t feel down, low or underestimated, you are a Muslim remember.
And keep always in mind that this Dunia is not but:
“And this life of the world is only an amusement and a play! Verily, the home of the Hereafter - that is the life indeed (i.e. the eternal life that will never end), if they but knew[1]”.
Alhamdulelah Who Guided us for this and if it was not for Him we wouldn’t have been guided.
May Allah Accept and Protect me and you from Riaya ameen.
Working, should it also be to Allah? - SisterJennifer - 07-28-2007
Really an excellent post masha Allah and worth alot of serious reflection. Jazak Allah khairn Muslimah.
Working, should it also be to Allah? - Muslimah - 07-28-2007
Bismillah
Wa iyaki Jennifer Alhamdulelah.
Working, should it also be to Allah? - Muslimah - 08-09-2007
Bismillah
Praise be to Allah, and prayer and peace be upon His Messenger Mohamed and all Messengers and Prophets.
I felt I wanted to elaborate on this issue some more. Islam actually calls, stresses, and focuses on perfecting our work. We should observe rules, deadlines, we should not treat our work in a reckless manner, we should not try to evade responsibilities, have others do our work while we talk on the phone, or email, we should not use the employer’s facilities for our own personal affairs, we should not try to stage working while in fact we are letting others do that, we should not try hard to cheat the boss just to get an A evaluation.
At the same time, we must work hard to excel and perfect our performance whether or not the boss is looking at us, whether or not we hear others applaud and praise our performance, whether or not we receive an extra bonus. Why? Because we earn our income through this source, because Allah Allowed us a source of benefit that we must be dutiful for, that we must observe Allah and not the boss while we are working, because if the boss is not looking Allah certainly Is. There is a thin line between the desire and inner satisfaction we get from praises and compliments from human beings, large working space that goes with promotion, and the major concern to just exactly exert the same level of effort and performance in absence of all this. Our criteria should be the satisfaction of Allah, yes we still have to abide by the internal standards of each given employer, certainly we must, this is part of the package of satisfying Allah as well, we must do this – adhering to the employer’s standards, in other words requests and tasks – in order to satisfy Allah. In some cases u see employee’s work hard only when the boss is around, but this should not be the case, because Allah Is around all the time. Other cases, they come and complain this promotion was my right not hers/his, who can decide whose rights are?? We must look to promotions through a totally different perspective, if one is seeking to secure a right he/she is entitled to because of the hadeeth that one should not accept unjust nor cause unjust unto others fine, but questioning a right, may be Allah Knows that this person is better off without this kind of responsibility and trust coupled with the promotions, may be Allah Spared the person must amanah.. The most serious situation when someone who is a hard worker is by passed in a promotion, a reaction of me who works hard, I don’t deserve this, we work hard whether or not we get promoted, we do fulfill our duty the way we should because we earn money for it. Promotion is part of a fitnah, temptation and in some cases Allah Knows this devotee is not up to it.
Assuming high or middle level management position might negatively affect your faith, thus, Allah The All Knowing, Merciful spares you this threat and jeopardy. In other cases, it might put you in a confrontational position towards some levels of corruption that you might be incapable of handling, or be subject to hypocrisy of subordinates that might go into your head. In all cases, the situation might be unfair on the superficial level, but in the inner part of it, it bears all the good for your faith. Still even under such conditions, we still must perform as required and fulfill our duties as per standards.
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To bring it closer to our minds, Allah Say:
57:23
لِكَيْلَا تَأْسَوْا عَلَى مَا فَاتَكُمْ وَلَا تَفْرَحُوا بِمَا آتَاكُمْ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٍ
In order that you may not be sad over matters that you fail to get, nor rejoice because of that which has been given to you. And Allah likes not prideful boasters.
Nothing could be clearer.