priorities

Poem: Clarity
Poem: Clarity 2500 1667 Nadir Keval

It has been written,
long before our time,
what we are destined to be…
who we are destined to be.

Then why is it that we fret
about the matters that are outside of our grasp,
when we know that to worry
is, in truth, simply a form of insulting
God.

It is in the nature of man to be indifferent to the matters that are of importance to him,
but to then question that which is clear and right in front of his eyes.
Ah, but wait, perhaps that is not in his nature,
but instead in the way that he has been raised
to believe that things must be a certain way…
a way that is visible to man,
but without consideration of God.
See, without faith, we become limited.
Everything has to be “realistic”
instead of being based on faith.
We place a ceiling on the potential
of our growth and in His abilities,
not realizing that it all comes from Him.

The sun rises.
The sun sets.
We live.
We die.
We become strong.
We become weak.
This is the true nature of man.
We are predictable,
but our fate is unpredictable
by us.
And we live
with one of two things in our horizon:
a fog
or a mirage.
We are all capable of change and betterment.
We are all designed for greatness in our own right.
But, that clarity and zeal
will only truly come with God
in our hearts,
in our words,
in our actions,
in our minds,
and in the very essence of what makes us.
Our every breath is a result of His Will and Mercy.
So, should we not live every moment in the pursuit of pleasing Him?

To find clarity in life,
we must take all that we do
and pass it through Him.
We must make our living and our dying,
our thriving and surviving,
our working and resting,
our thinking and acting,
all focused around doing right by Him.

The world will try to push us,
it will try to lead us to falter,
but in the end,
our return is to Him.
So, earning His Love and Mercy,
is much wiser than earning
that of anyone else.

Copyright © Nadir Keval

Video: Finding Balance
Video: Finding Balance 934 525 Nadir Keval

In our lives, we are brought challenges, struggles, opportunities, and more, and if not balanced, we can quickly get overwhelmed, resulting in us drowning in our own potential. Many of us grow up without much responsibility, and when it comes down to it, we’re advised by our parents, providers, or whoever we depend on, to focus solely on one thing at a time while they take care of everything else. For example, we go to school, and often, if we’re privileged enough, are told to not work or do anything else and just focus on getting good grades. The reality of life, however, is that when life kicks in, you can’t just focus on one thing. You have responsibilities – a family, your health, your career, your leisure activities, and more. If you focus on just one, you’ll end up getting an avalanche of overdue tasks and responsibilities piling on to you, leaving you incapable of getting back up without an excruciating amount of time and unnecessary effort. Time and energy/effort are two very precious things. Don’t waste them on cleaning up messes you’ve created for yourself. Use them to move forward and upward instead.

Get Your Priorities Straight

One of the first things needed to find balance is to recognize and organize your priorities. Look at the different aspects of your life, label them, and then categorize them according to importance and urgency. In my case, I hold these priorities, in this particular order: faith, family and self, health, passion/work.

Give 100% To Each Aspect

When working on anything, you should always give it your all. But, in order to commit to that completely, you must place focus on one thing at a time. That doesn’t mean that you should work on one thing and neglect everything. Shoot, if I did that, I’d be sending myself to the career graveyard. Instead, place 100% of your focus on each thing in your life when you’re attending to it. So, if you’re at work, be completely at work, and don’t get distracted by unnecessary distractions. If, however, your family calls, or you need to do a prayer, step away from work and attend to your priorities. In my list, faith and family come before passion and work, and so, I step away and respond. One reminder though…if you’re on the family side of that transaction, respect the person’s personal space and responsibilities, and refrain from contacting him or her unless there is an emergency.

Learn more about the things mentioned in this article in the video below:

Priorities in Life
Priorities in Life 1238 912 Nadir Keval

I can’t remember the last time I had an actual conversation with someone that required some intellect and world knowledge.

Nowadays, people hardly have conversations because they’re always on the go, trying to reach some financial or career goal, or things like that.

What ever happened to the simple joys of using your mind for sincere, in-depth thought?

Why don’t people just slow down and smell the roses? And don’t say it’s cause the world works that way.

YOU make your own world.

YOU decide what you do with your life, and whether or not you’ll be a slave to society’s views on success.

What do you want out of life? What are you willing to do to get it? What will you compromise? What are your priorities?

I just find that people today are so focused on worldly things that are temporary, that they forget about focusing on the things that have deeper meaning. For example: the guy that says, “I won’t have a conversation with someone unless it’ll help me with my work/school/etc.” WHAT IS THAT?!?! What about just taking a moment to talk to someone, purely for the sake of just sharing thoughts on life? No complaining, no whining, none of that. Just talking about thoughts on life, or how the world is such an amazing and beautiful place, but we so often miss it?

What about the guys and girls that say, “I wanna finish school before I focus on my faith,” or, “I won’t get married until I’m stable with my job and career,” or, “Living here in Canada/United States requires us to modify Islam to fit what the norm is.”

First off…

School = this life.

Faith = Hereafter.

Career = this life.

Marriage = Hereafter. (and a 50% passing grade freebie for your Life test – read on if you don’t know what I mean)

Pleasing people = this life.

Pleasing Allah = Hereafter.

Think about what is most important to you as a Muslim. We don’t know when we’ll die and have to face Allah’s judgment, and so, why can’t we put as much, if not more focus on pleasing Allah and preparing for the Judgment Day, as we put on passing that class or getting that degree? What is the degree going to get you? Yes, Insha Allah, it’ll give you an opportunity at a job/career, a stable income, and a sense of security for you and your family. I’m not saying that education is bad. In fact, I’m an advocate towards lifelong learning, and constantly seeking knowledge in the way that best suits you and your learning style. But, that job, that stable income, that security, is all from Allah, and He can take it away just as easily as He gave it to you. There’s no guarantee. BUT, if you trust in Allah, then you know for certain that He will provide for you what you need, and whatever stresses or difficulties you face will in fact be blessings in disguise, as Allah says:

“And whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty). And He will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine. And whosoever puts his trust in Allah, then He will suffice him. Verily, Allah will accomplish his purpose. Indeed Allah has set a measure for all things.” [Surah At-Taubah, Chapter 65, Verses 2-3]

You can relate that verse to so many different factors of our lives. This include school, faith, career, marriage, pleasing others, pleasing Allah, and whatever else you face in life.

You may ask, why would I put career and marriage in the same category? It’s because we find too many people putting such a huge focus on their careers and not bothering with marriage, thinking that marriage will actually deter them from their school work. To be honest, I have never seen a case where a couple has lost their focus or done worse in school because of their marriage. In fact, I’ve actually seen the opposite. The reason, they explained to me, was that by being married, you build a foundation of support, trust and understanding with the person you marry. You don’t need to look for support, because your spouse will stand by you as you reach your goals. You build a trust, because during the growing phases of your life, you stand together and help each other along the way. And you build an understanding of each other, where you know what matters to your spouse, and you both learn to better understand and compromise (which are both HUGE key ingredients to a successful marriage). You grow together into one unit. You learn to build that bond that is unmatched by any other. The bond of marriage so beloved to Allah. It’s one of the greatest things you can do for yourself and your future in this life and the Hereafter.

That makes so much sense to me. When you’re not married, and I can vouch for this, you become so tied up with school, a career, and making money, that you don’t find time to balance and prioritize things. There are more important things in life than just school and career. There’s family, health, and most importantly, faith.

We need to begin reflecting on this, as it bring me to my next point: pleasing Allah vs. pleasing people. Don’t get me wrong, Islam teaches being good to others, and to treat people with the utmost level of care and kindness. But, it is done through the remembrance of God, and the emulation of the life of the Prophet. When someone asks you to do something that deters you from pleasing God, or makes you do something that is Haraam, then it is of no benefit to you. Please Allah, and He will make others who matter be pleased with you. Besides, He is the Owner of hearts, the Provider of all things, and the Most Generous.

Think about it. It was a great reminder for me. Hopefully, it was for you too.

 
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