New Literature for a New Era

Some Practical Tips

All this means your commitment to work for Allah must translate into a serious commitment to do five things:

1. To learn as much as you can about the Deen of Allah. Without knowledge, you are basically blind and helpless.
2. To practice the Deen of Allah as best as you can. No human being can be perfect. So, at all times, with regard to everything, do the best you can.
3. To invite everyone else to do the same. If you don’t you haven’t learned the first lesson about what it is to be a Muslim – to be working for Allah.It is to make sure you don’t turn your back on your team – humanity. For, life is a team sport. That you don’t abandon your post and your primary responsibility of making sure that, at the end of the day, everyone comes home to Allah, where they all belong.
4. To do so in the most beautiful way. That means in a way that would enhance the best interests of the entire creation of Allah. That means you must keep your eyes not only on success and wellbeing in this world but also on success and wellbeing in the next world; not only on the letter and form of the law but also on the spirit; and with a great deal of caring and compassion.For, you are after all representing a God who is most merciful, most merciful – Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem!The Qur’an refers to such a wonderful life as Hayaat Tayyibah (16: 97). It is an amazing concept. It means a life in which science and Islam are one. It is a life in which Islam is operational in its full glory.The result is a most wonderful, glorious, noble, clean, pure, idyllic, happy, prosperous and delectable life for all, both here and in the hereafter. The Qur’an again calls it Fid-Dunya Hasanah wa Fil Aakhirati Hasnah!
5. Get busy trying to make this world a better place for all – starting out where you are. Or starting out wherever you can and however you can.Get busy with all kinds of targeted projects and activities that will improve the quality of life for your fellow human beings. If it means cleaning the streets and neighborhoods, do it. If it means building schools and hospitals, do it. If it means making clean drinking water available to those who don’t have it, do it.If it means making your streets and neighborhoods safe and crime-free, do it. If it means helping to elect the most honest, capable and God-fearing people to public office, do it. If it means helping to reduce pollution in air and water, do it. If it means working to make public life more transparent, accountable and less corrupt, do it.In other words, do whatever you can to be helpful to others – and however best you can do it. And try to do it all in the most beautiful manner: sweetly, gently, peacefully and keeping in mind the law of the land as well as the local sensitivities of the people and communities in whose midst you work.At the same time, do not lose your primary focus: inviting people to the path of Allah.For, all your efforts to make people’s life in this world better will not be of real and lasting value to them unless you also show them the path to eternal success and the ever-lasting blessings of Allah in the hereafter.This in a nutshell is what you do when you work for Allah. Where else can we find a more challenging job description, a better work environment or a more comprehensive reward structure or compensation package?

Two Areas of Focus: Private and Personal Focus vs. Social and Public Focus

There are two areas of focus in human life that are relevant to the question of working for Allah. And most people have trouble getting them right. The confusion comes from the fact that the two areas, on surface, seem to pull in two different directions. One toward self-focus and self-interest and the other away from it.

The first is a more personal and private focus. It has to do with one’s “personal” life – if there is such a thing as that. This would include one’s personal beliefs, prayers, fasting, personal morals and such other things.

The second is a more social and public focus. This has to do with the dealings of individuals with the rest of the creation of Allah. This starts out with one’s closest circles and spreads out to cover the entire known accessible universe.

The fact is humans are social beings and they need other human beings to exist and function in life. In fact, they need all of the creation of Allah, without which they are lost and doomed.

Imagine what would happen to the world – and to us in that world – if there were no water on earth; if the wind did not blow; if the trees did not grow; if the sun did not rise; if there were no animals; you imagine the rest. Our existence, thus, is most intimately connected with the existence and functioning of the rest of the creation of Allah.

That is why it is important for us to clearly understand our place and our role in this world. It is important for us both as part of the larger creation of Allah as well as in relation to our unique identity as members of different communities and social networks of human beings.

For example, it takes a man and a woman to produce one of us. And then there are all kinds of others who are involved in different ways in one’s life: nurses, doctors, teachers, butchers, bakers, undertakers, bureaucrats, police officers, military personnel, masons, carpenters, taxi drivers, gardeners – the list is virtually endless.

All this means one thing: People need people at all stages of their life. And no human being, as a poet once put it, is an island, but rather, a part of the whole.

And humans go on to build societies and nations that have their own political, social, economic and cultural structures and arrangements. Individuals must find a place in these larger structures, of which they are both makers and products.

It is such a human being – a basically social, political, economic and cultural creature – that Allah Almighty created as his representative on earth to run and manage this world in accordance with his laws and guidance.

He provided this guidance to us in his revealed books such as the books of Moses, David and Jesus, God bless them all. The Qur’an is the final, eternal and most comprehensive compilation from God of his laws for all people, for all times, in all places.

So, public focus means, on the one hand, how to deal with all of life’s situations in a way that would be in conformity with the commands and laws of Allah and, therefore, will please Almighty Allah. And which would on the other hand mean how to move life on earth forward and make it better for all of Allah’s creation.

Those who truly understand the relationship between these two areas of focus know that one is not possible without the other. And that the path to one inevitably must go through the other.

At the top of it all, however, is the imperative of working for Allah in such a way that the two seemingly contradictory areas of focus become one and the same. This seamless integration of different aspects of human life into one organic whole is one of the greatest contributions of Islam to human life, culture and civilization.

The challenge is to successfully combine the two – and doing so in a judicious and balanced manner, so that one aspect of your life does not completely overshadow or rob the other of its legitimate rights.

Essence of Being a Good Muslim: Integrating Private Focus with Public Focus

So, good human beings in general and good Muslims in particular are those who combine in their lives both private and public focus.

And make them both flow from and conform to Allah’s laws, commands, revealed will and pleasure.

It is not one or the other, but both together. That is the living miracle of Islam: the fact that it rolled all the divergent needs, demands and pulls of human life into one integrated and seamless whole.

As a result, Islam asks human beings to live a privately pious, God-fearing, God-loving, noble, civilized and decent life that would become a public boon and blessing for all of one’s neighbors, friends and relatives and for all members of the community and society and the world at large.

That means Muslims – Good Muslims if you want to call them that – are people who not only believe in God and obey him in their own personal lives – if there indeed is such a thing – but they are also people who toil mightily to make Allah’s world a better, happier and more just and compassionate place for all other human beings – and for all of the rest of Allah’s creation.

That means such people, in addition to having a private and personal focus centered on their own lives, also have a strong public and social focus embracing the lives and concerns of others.

That then is the true and fuller meaning of the expression working for Allah.

It means using the instructions and the blueprint given by Allah in the Qur’an, and using the practical example provided by the Rasul of Allah, Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, in his own life and times, to make our own lives better and to make this world a better place for all – in our own times and in the context of the conditions and circumstances in which we live.

That is quintessentially the ideal human being that Allah designed as his vicegerent on earth. Not superman, but a regular, ordinary human being with the right and proper perspective on life and existence. And that is also, precisely, the essence of being a Muslim – what you may call a good Muslim.

May God Almighty make us all of those who submit to him and work for him in the most wonderful manner, using his laws and commands as well as the model and example of his Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, to make our own lives better – as well as to make Allah’s world a better, nicer and more just, fair, compassionate and rewarding place for all of Allah’s creation!

May Allah help, guide, accept and bless our efforts! For, it is in his acceptance, grace and blessings that success is to be found.

And may he protect us from Shaitan – the devil – whose mission is to create impediments and roadblocks in our path and keep us from working for Allah.

END

(Revised)

© 2005 Syed Husain Pasha

Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional 
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at] 
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.

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