I know we all strive towards a life balanced between deen and duniya. And everyone has their priorities so you’ll see some folks who are very content with a simple lifestyle, a job that provides what may seem like basic to someone but enough to them, but most of their day goes in religious activities. And then there are people who are ambitious in their careers, fulfill their fundamental religious requirements but may not spend a great deal of time in deeni activities.
Where do you think the balance is? Is it what makes you happy or are there standards?
To me, striving towards rizq-e-halal is also part of our religious obligations. In fact more money you make, more you will be able to donate to your local mosque. And there is an authentic hadees where prophet compared people who do Ibaadat with the people who do ibaadat and also rich and spend their money on the path of ALlah swt; Prophet stated that later people will be more rewarded for thier deeds because Allah blessed them with wealth and they spent it on Allah.
I am not against any deeni brothers, but our mosques are supported by people who go out and work hard at their jobs and make good money, and not by the people who spend 18 of their 24 hours day in mosque doing Nawaafil. I have bigger respect for former group than later.
In fact if 2 people were given equal opportunity by Allah swt to earn money, and one decided to refuse it so he can spend more time in Ibadat, while other decided to take upon that opportunity and live a good life and contribute to community, I believe that first person is ungrateful, selfish and will be questioned on the day of judgment. My 2 cents.
I think it's a stereotype that ambitious folks with ambitious career don't spend time in deeni activities.
IMO, it's career oriented folks that have made strides for creating and managing local mosques and Islamic centers. You have the doctors donating the most, the lawyers doing the legal paperwork work and the other folks that have good project management skills managing finances and other activities.
The best teachers at our Sunday school are both awarded the one of the best teachers in NJ awards that teach in a private elementary schools in NJ and - the other is a PH.D.
The quality of deeni activties matter. Allah makes that pretty clear.
There is a stereotype that being "poor" or living a very simple life making you more closer to Allah. In fact I just a had a recent conversation with a close family member who thinks that being ambitious at work or business ventures means you are materialistic and away from deen.
In fact I just a had a recent conversation with a close family member who thinks that being ambitious at work or business ventures means you are materialistic and away from deen.
Perhaps he/she meant people who are always going on about paisa paisa paisa. Perhaps a doctor just wanted to be a doctor for the money and perhaps he doesn't even give any zakaat. Or perhaps his intentions were as TLK bhai described - to live a fulfilling life and contribute to the community not only through his skills but also through charity.
One can contibute to society by giving to non-religious causes also. The way the system is set up out here, the top 1% continues to get a larger chunk of assets, with more and more tax breaks, loopholes etc. Tax deductions for faith based contibutions should be removed - so people can follow their faith out of their own personal belief system without the government subsidizing it.
We as a society are engaging in a competition, contibuting to only our faiths.
I know we all strive towards a life balanced between deen and duniya. And everyone has their priorities so you'll see some folks who are very content with a simple lifestyle, a job that provides what may seem like basic to someone but enough to them, but most of their day goes in religious activities. And then there are people who are ambitious in their careers, fulfill their fundamental religious requirements but may not spend a great deal of time in deeni activities.
Where do you think the balance is? Is it what makes you happy or are there standards?
Me takes the positioning that vee must striving and effort in both dunya and deen ... yaa :)
The closer our daily lifestyle is to the daily lifestyle of the Prophet (saw) and Sahabas (r.a) the more it is balanced. Yes, they did give time to their family but generally their wives lived a life of widows and their children lived a life of orphans (in their life) due to their religious committments, in striving to spread deen in the whole world. Ask Imam Hussain (r.a) what a perfect balance is. i.e. to live ones' every second in pleasing Allah (swt) and not following even a single second for ones own desires/luxuries/comfort. In other words butchering one's own desires in fulfilling Allah's commands leads to a perfect balance.
Balance is a very tricky term these days. People like me consider it as a balance between time/money/energy for Ayyaashi /chaska/Israaf (dunya) and the time/energy/money & sacrifices for faith (deen).
As for the charity talk, the Prophets and suhabas never worked hard to earn more in order to give more. Their effort was to spread deen, even with limited salary and Allah (swt) increased their Rizq. The reason why Hazrat Umar r.a lost to Hazrat Abu Bakr (r.a) (despite of donating alot more than Abu Bakr (r.a)) was that the Prophet (saw) didn't ask "How much did you donate ?" Instead the Prophet (saw) asked "How much did you leave behind ?" Hazrat Umar (r.a) had left behind half of his wealth, whereas Abubakr (r.a) had left nothing behind for himself and his family. That was the PERFECT balance of Deen & Dunya in front of Allah (swt) that is why Allah immeditately sent Jibrail (a.s) to the Prophet (saw) in order to convey Allah's Salam to Abu Bakr (r.a).
I believe it should always be deen. Your priority should always be your deen and as deen requires you to earn halal living then we must earn some living in halal way , ( but it SHOULD not effect your deen , like bajamat salah, not expose one to gunahs etc)
Fine line is , our rizq is fixed but ticket to jannat is not , rather we are here in this world to earn a berth for jannat , is it not? So the priority should always go to your deen , thus if a clash comes between deen and duniya just throw duniya in trash and inshallah it will come after you begging.
When one is earning duniya in accordance with sunnat and inline with the requirement of deen then this person is just following deen.
Only parameter for Momin is his deen,
Surah Zakhraf
And were it not that (all) men might become of one (evil) way of life, We would provide, for everyone that blasphemes against (Allah) Most Gracious, silver roofs for their houses and (silver) stair-ways on which to go up,
And (silver) doors to their houses, and thrones (of silver) on which they could recline,
And also adornments of gold. But all this were nothing but conveniences of the present life: The Hereafter, in the sight of thy Lord is for the Righteous
Suhaba (r.a) maaldaar hogaye deen ki mehnat kartey kartey aur hum kangaal hogaye dunya kamatey kamatey. The Suhabas (r.a) used to say that in the initial times of Islam we concentrated to the best of our ability to spread deen, while we had nothing to eat and wear, but soon Allah (swt) blessed us with all the treasures of the world. Masjid-e-Nabwi was filled with heaps of gold and there was no one to take them. Allah (swt) blessed us with so much through the way of making efforts on deen that we could have never gained and donated as much by doing a job even for hundred years.
Dedicating your life to the religion is very good but as Muslims, we are required to have a balance in our deen and duniya. We are encouraged to get educated, and if we are also encouraged to migrate for rizq. This means Islam wants us to work hard for rizq and earn more money and use it wisely. We all know about wealthy Sahabas who had good businesses and they worked hard for their businesses but then used their income in Jehads and for betterment of the community.
What I believe is performing all the Farq (5 namaz, Ramadan Prayers, Haj etc) is enough and then spending my time to work hard to earn and use that money to fulfil my responsibilities (in my case my family was my responsibility in the absence of my dad). If I used my time in praying nafils whole day when my family needed me to work and provide for them, I think I would not be going good as a Muslim.
IMHO, if you have done one Haj and you have enough money for other, its better to sponsor the Haj for someone who cannot afford it or marry someone's daughter.
If you are performing your fard correctly, you should work for the betterment of others since Haqooq-ul-Ibaad is very important for being a good Muslim. By earning HALAL rizq and spending it for the betterment of people (including your family) is a kind og ibadat IMHO after you have been performing your fard regularly.
I have often wondered who is better: the person who dedicated his/her life to find a solution to improve the quality of life (through say inventions, cures, etc) or a person who spent all his life in worship. Isn't latter a very personal achievement whereas the former will impact thousands of lives (mostly in a positive way).
I know most of you would say you can't compare the two. But really the way I see it, Muslims of these days tend to encourage religious devotion to the detriment of social well being.
Why not put it this way. Some people try to help people in improving their this (temporary) life, while some people try to help people in improving their hereafter (forever) life. Both are important, but of course the pain/luxury of one is temporary and that of other is permanent. A spiritual doctor would always be better than the physical one, because if there were a better deed than encouraging good and discouraging bad, Allah (subhana wata'aala) would have chosen it for the Prophets (the best of all the creations should get the best job).
Deen is not only limited to personal ibadaat, but the responsibility on 'this ummah' is far huge, as no other prophet is going to come and spread it. We can't exclude this aspect when we talk of maintaining a balance, just like we don't talk only of making our own dunya better but also (to the best of our ability) of people we are responsible for (as relatives/friends and above all as humans).
Both are important, but of course the pain/luxury of one is temporary and that of other is permanent. A spiritual doctor would always be better than the physical one...
But people who make a breakthrough that impact the people in a positive way immortalize themselves or at least their deed. But why have such a disregard for this life? We're after all put here for a purpose and it cannot be just for the spirituality.
I have often wondered who is better: the person who dedicated his/her life to find a solution to improve the quality of life (through say inventions, cures, etc) or a person who spent all his life in worship. Isn't latter a very personal achievement whereas the former will impact thousands of lives (mostly in a positive way).
I know most of you would say you can't compare the two. But really the way I see it, Muslims of these days tend to encourage religious devotion to the detriment of social well being.
So to ask an obvious question - what of those people who focus on one or the other? Are they complete as both socially responsible and religious/moral beings?
How would one know if someone who is ambitious in their career and fulfill their religious requirements aren't doing any other deeni activities? The best charity is given from the right hand so discreetly that the left hand has no idea. Who knows, maybe this person could be supporting their poor relatives back home, for example.
I've seen people, that although don't pray 5x a day, complain about fasting, but when it comes to charitable deeds and helping others, they do it without any hesitation. It may not be to build and sustain a masjid, but to help a family/friend in need. How would you define their religious state of mind?
