“Each
one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected
by outside circumstances.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
Just the other day, a sister told me, “You know sis, when I was in
Makkah, I could perform all those sunnah prayers and sit to recite many verses
of the Quran without any problems but when I came back, I found that it is
impossible to maintain the same momentum that I had there. I am frustrated
because I can only manage to perform the fardh prayers and I can’t seem to have
time to recite the Quran. I feel restless and unsettled”.
Aaahhh....Her grouses sounds all too familiar to me. I completely
understand her dilemma. I had the exact same problem when I came back from
performing hajj. After 42 days of going to the Masjid, eat and sleep, all in
that order, coming back home to the rat race really jarred my reality. I
just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t keep up with the schedule I had when I was in
Holy land. I was bogged down with work, kids and everything else. I couldn’t
recite the same number of verses from the Quran every night like I used to. I
couldn’t perform the same number of sunnah prayers as I wanted to. I was
frustrated and devastated. I started to feel suffocated with life, drowning and
slowly losing touch with my Maker.
So, what did I do? Same ol’ same ol. Whenever I get stuck, I speak
to the Wise Owl. He told me, “sister, life is about making the right choices.
You are the master of your own time so you should dictate what you should do.
Always check your intention. Your jihad actually starts after coming back from
hajj. Be happy”
I often wondered how the Wise Owl became the person that he is. He
has tremendous knowledge and he always finds time to do what he wants to do. No…let
me rephrase that, he makes time to do what he needs to do. He always finds time
for his Maker. How does he do it? What is his secret?
When the Wise Owl said ‘be happy’, I think he meant for me to find
my inner peace. I had it when I was in the Holy land but when I came back,
somehow, I lost it along the way. I suppose I let myself be sucked into the ‘rat
race’ again. I needed to find my inner peace again.
I then knew what I had to do. I needed re-asses my priorities. I
needed to make some sacrifices. I knew that my old life style can never accommodate
the things that I wanted to do after hajj. So, that was exactly what I did! I
changed my whole entire lifestyle. I stopped spending time doing irrelevant
things and focused on things that matters.
"A
man shall be asked concerning five things on the day of resurrection:
concerning his life, how he spent it; concerning his youth, how he grew old;
concerning his wealth, whence he acquired it, and in what way he spent it; and
what was it that he did with the knowledge that he had."Hadith
The Wise Owl was right. We are the master of our own time. We
should dictate our own schedule. Sometimes we just have to drop everything, take
a step back and take a breather. Only then, we are able see things from a
different perspective. It is actually mind over matters.
"The
Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) said, “Lose no time to do good deeds before you are
caught up by one of seven calamities awaiting you: a starvation which may
impair your wisdom; a prosperity which may mislead you; an ailment which may
damage your health; an old age which may harm your senses; a sudden death; the
Dajjal (Antichrist); or Doomsday, which is indeed the hardest and most
bitter." (at-Tirmidhi, al-Baihaqi)
Making sacrifices is never easy but if you want something so bad,
trust me, you would be willing to make it. If that sacrifice will bring you
closer to your Maker, then it is worth making it. God always have time for us
so we shouldn't we make time for Him. Busy schedule, too much work and other reasons
that could possibly take us away from performing sunnah acts and recite Quran,
are actually excuses that we tell ourselves, to lessen the guilt. If we can spend one and half hours
watching a movie at a cinema, why can’t we spend 20 minutes reciting Quran? If
we can make time to go shopping, then why can’t we slot some time to perform sunnah
acts? If we can arrange our schedule around our favourite program on tele or
soap opera, why can’t we arrange our schedule around doing good deeds? It is a
matter of choice actually, pure and simple.
“God said, ‘The offspring of Adam abuse
time, (even though) I am Time.” (Hadith)
But who am I kidding? Changes can’t happen overnight hence, we
need introduce one small change, one day at a time until we are able to incorporate
all the changes that we want to make. Slowly but surely. It is not easy but it can be done. If we keep
giving ourselves excuses and procrastinate, then we might not live long enough
to affect the change.
“There
are two blessings which many people lose: (They are) health and free time for
doing good” (Bukhari).
“. For each (such person)
there are (angels) in succession, before and behind him: They guard him by
command of Allah.Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until
they change it themselves (with their own souls).But when (once) Allah willeth
a people's punishment, there can be no turning it back, nor will they find,
besides Him, any to protect.”
Surah
Ar- Ra’d 13:11
The above verse is very clear. If we want any changes to be made then we have to affect the changes ourselves. Praying for it but still remaining idle will not make it happen.
So......back to the sister.......... instead of re-telling my whole saga, I
simply told her, to remain steadfast, make one small changes at a time and
with God’s Grace, InShaa Allah, she will find her precious time and inner peace…..
Mashallah Sister!very inspiring
ReplyDeleteJazakillahukhayran sis.....
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