I started this blog as a series of tweets last night whilst I was thinking about; “You’ll always have two decisions in most life scenarios; the option that’s good for you in the long term, but comes at a sacrifice in the short term …or the thing that’s bad for you in the long but is easier/ more enjoyable in the short term. For me it’s like the minute I get up I have to decide – is my next step good for me? Does it help me get closer towards my higher purpose? Will it help me achieve my goal better, faster and more efficiently? And I’m not sharing to be pretentious in any way – this is simply me publicly sharing my recent transformation towards a very time conscious attitude.”
So it starts…
I found that this year I had more time to think about life, my life at that, and realising my objectives, my motivations and higher goals. At the start of this year I started to think about where I went wrong previously – the mistakes that had held me back from my objectives, and in many cases taken me away from them. Having had a rough two years, from the All Merciful God’s wisdom and through my own mistakes and trip ups, I was hurt, in pain and in a dark chamber of shattered emotions. But I was still strong, and that was something that built up.
The penny drops
It was then I realised, those two years of battering by life I was being created into something much stronger. Resilient. Faithful. I knew I had to pick myself up, heck I was advising close friends and peers of mine to stand back up and keep going. I saw God’s wisdom and realised from there what my real objectives are. My dear brothers and sisters, this is how God makes us the better version of ourselves. This is how God carves us into strong and conscious human beings who are capable of fighting through the pressures of life and emerge victorious in this world and in The Hereafter. These are God’s laws of life. We must be strong to be able to push through.
So, what has this all been about?
Realising this, dragged me out of my own darkness and pushed me towards a journey. A discovery of thought. A path of questions, answers and inspirations. I started asking myself – what is my purpose on this earth? What am I living for? “WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT?” Lol. (Personal joke). I spent a lot of time with my cousin on random ‘jamming sessions’ where (usually situated near a river/water source (as documented on my Instagram)). It felt like a mission, an actual mission made entirely from thought; questioning, learning and reflecting. I’ll go into these strands of thought in various other blogs in the near future inshAllah.
< Fast forward >
I understood, what I needed to do with my life and within that, what I need to stop doing. Once again I’ll hopefully get the chance to talk about these actions, in upcoming blogs here on The Muslim Vibe. Once I had it all in front of me, I then I set myself a loose target date to do it by. And so this more active journey emerged in the storyline – where suddenly I was spending a lot more time doing stuff and less time thinking about it. Which then meant I had to make time to sit down, reflect, think and meditate. Yes, meditate. And then The Holy Month of Ramadan happened.
Suddenly I found myself in a stagnant state of having no energy or drive to even think, or action. It happens to me annually and somehow I just about get by, but end up with a huge deficit of progress. I then spend my time playing catchup for the rest of the year. And it happened again. But this for me, personally wasn’t a year I could ‘just get by’ – I had set myself goals. And these goals got more ambitious through the year. Now I had no choice but to take a deep breath, and jump. It was go time. Two years of a solid kicks in the face, all the hits, all the lows and all the pains. All that time, effort and hope; they all pended on me asking myself: How am I now going to spend my time?
The realisation of time
It is something we can easily become neglectful of as time just flies by. A series of moments just slip by as we float through an infinite ocean of decisions, hopes, trials and rewards. We know our time is limited right? A Hadith that has always stuck in my head by a brother (and mentor). And it’s really something that’ll make you take a second immediately to really ponder on.
“How arrogant is man that he thinks he will take his next breath.” – Imam Jafar Al Sadiq
Now breathe. Let that sink in. Our next breath is not guaranteed. So the question is. What am I doing with my time knowing it is limited and I am at God’s will as to when my time ends. Game over. And time to now get the results for every good deed of mine versus every bad deed. All of this is presented poignantly in The Holy Quran in Chapter 103 (Sura Al Asr):
I swear by the time. Most surely man is in loss. Except those who believe and do good, and enjoin on each other truth, and enjoin on each other patience.
In this powerful but short chapter, the answer to my above questions are there. I realised then, I had to make sacrifices of my own time in order to meet my objectives and goals. I had to sacrifice comfort, pleasure and ease to accommodate for something more productive, enduring and tiring. At first I counted months, then I counted weeks, then I counted days and eventually counted hours. Across every segment of time, I asked myself is this the best use of it? Am I truly gaining from this time or losing?
“How can I spend my time, more efficiently?”
It’s a question we should all be asking ourselves. We need to ensure we spend our time doing productive and positive things. Not waste our time on things that will lead us astray from our purpose. We should be actively engaging in a struggle to be doing better things with our time on a weekly, if not daily, if not hourly basis. This includes time for relaxing, this is a good things. This includes time for family, friends, the husband or wife, the kids or parents and even just time to yourself, to think and to have fun. These are all important parts of life that make our journeys enriched and beautiful.
But they all need to be productive and beneficial to us. Eventually our time will stop, we will not then be able to edit the time we have wasted and misused. Personally for me, the goals I had created and objectives I had set were very ambitious and some people say ‘too ambitious’ ..so it required extra time lol. Which is fine, as I’m able to offer that time in my life as I have nothing else more important (at present anyway). I’m asking myself why I’m writing this and how do I end this, so I’ll try this approach.
Something to think about
I write this as someone who’s no where near perfecting this yet and hoping I can help people around me going through the same struggles and the same dilemmas. I advise myself through my own words as a reminder to myself before others. (I just happen to be extrovert like that, shoot me!) My advice to people who may be reading this who may not realise what their objectives are – is to start thinking about your life, where you are and where are you going. Where do you want to go, in this life and the next. You’ll get there eventually but keep thinking about it. Make the time to think about it. If you’re reading this, and know you’re objectives and goals, but you’re wondering when your time is…your time is now. Go and do it, and still make time to think about what you are doing and does it serve you well.
Lastly, if you feel it’s easy – you just ain’t doing it right. Push yourself, push your targets and don’t shy away from taking the leap. Make the most of this time you have and do something amazing with yourself and your life! We as humans have finite lifespans on this earth but we can achieve so much if we apply ourselves, strive for something better and use our time efficiently. It means we have to sacrifice. Sacrifice what we are and where we are now, for who we could become and where we could be. Ps: I hope writing this blog wasn’t a waste of time, comment below and share your thoughts on this subject and don’t forget to share!
