By: Ahmer Ali - Young Muslims
Canada
Whenever a person
lacks motivation or the desire to do any amount of productive work and
laziness overcomes that person, usually it is a weakness in their
practice of the basic principles of Islam. So essentially, it is upon us
to find out what these principles are and what they should mean to us
and how they should define our lives. What is to follow are some basics
in Islam that we all should be aware of and it is a perfect opportunity
to review or correct any practices which may be missing in our lives,
insha Allah.
Often we long for the
spiritual power and strength that the companions and the early
generation of Muslims were known to have but without us having to do
much work to achieve that level. We want to just wake up one day and
have this drive instilled in us magically somehow. What we fail to
realize is that their success did not come from their numbers but from
their intellectual comprehension of Allah.
The key is Tauhid
(Oneness of God), understanding Allah and being conscious of Allah's
supreme presence. It may be a simple concept, yet it is a very powerful
and profound statement. But Tauhid has increasingly been ignored, even
though there has been a huge influx of lectures, high-level conferences
and workshops.
Let us look back to
the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and we realize that 13
years out of the 23 years of his Prophetic mission were spent developing
this very concept of Tauhid among the people of the Arabian
subcontinent. This is an exasperating number, yet we totally ignore this
most important concept. After all, Tauhid is the first pillar of Islam
and therefore one of the most important aspects of Islam by far,
initially. For it was known that, one who did not truly and correctly
understand Allah, could not, truly and correctly serve Allah.
There is much to
understand but it is essential to know whether we understand this
concept of Tauhid or we just say we do. To believe in Allah and know
that Allah is our creator is not enough! Even the pagan Arabs in
Pre-Islamic times knew this fact. What Tauhid entails is that we obey
Allah, and acknowledge that He is the only one worthy of worship. That
we obey Allah out of fear and love and hence work hard to avoid
displeasing Allah. And we fear only Allah and seek all help from Him.
So we must first
educate ourselves about Tauhid, this is the most important first step in
changing our lives, and to begin understanding the attached implications
of the kalima. By knowing whom we obey and serve, we can definitely
increase the productivity in our lives insha Allah.
Once we know and
understand whom we worship, then there is the actual process of
worshipping our Creator and the Creator of the heavens and the Earth and
everything that exists today. This is where Salah comes into play. If we
are no longer motivated in our lives and we are stagnating then we must
question ourselves, what may be causing this? Are we praying the 5 daily
Salah? Are we praying in the proper and prescribed way? Is our prayer
even benefiting us?
Without this
connection to our lord our lives will remain dull and stagnant. By
establishing Salah, this worship helps to open up our hearts and drives
off Satan and all that accompanies such as laziness. Salah gets us on a
schedule, as there are certain times for specific prayers. Praying Salah
requires dedication that we get up out of our warm beds to make Wudhu
and perform Salah in the early hours. This same dedication will then
further pass into our lives and make any and all work for Allah
productive. We must establish Salah to be successful. Further readings
are available at http://www.youngmuslims.ca/publications/salat.pdf which
gives a few tips on improving our Salah.
Ahmer Ali is a
contributing writer to youngmuslims.ca