Islamifying your mission in life

Whatever it is that you enjoy or excel at, whether work or hobby, find a way to give an Islamic twist or goal to it, either the work itself, or the goal behind the money that you make. If you confine your practice of Islam to prayers and fasting, the practice will be stale and you may lose interest.^[1]I feel obliged to credit Dr. Brown again with making this important and astute observation. But if you can expand the Islamic practice into other very important activities of your life, whether that be work, education, or both, then you will always be in worship, whether at the mosque or at the workplace, and more importantly, it will give your iman a significant boost. For example, if you are a doctor, you may seek to help people, present a good Islamic character to your patients and colleagues, give them information about Islam if asked, and use your earnings to help out the Muslim community. If law is your specialty, you could learn about Islamic law, or seek to help Muslims in your area with their legal problems. If you like artwork, you may design clothing or artwork for Islamic purposes. If you’re a car mechanic, you could inform the Muslims of your community about your business and try to get their loyalty and offer discounts to “refugees” or poor Muslims and help them purchase reliable used cars. The possibilities are endless. Choose something that you bring more Islam to your life and more life to all your activities. Then you will feel all parts of your life united, bringing you closer to Allah, and not farther.

 

This could really seem like climbing mount impossible, but there have definitely been individuals that learned about Islam and the needs of the Muslims and used their creative senses to turn their industry Islamic. One such example of that is a male model who went on to design Muslim clothes. I also know of an artist that went on to start his own business doing graphic design of posters, book covers, and signs. Many bankers also go on to learn about Islamic finance and then work with bank execs to create Sharia compliant options for their company, maybe even earning more money than before. Similarly, bartenders moving their operations to non-alcoholic cafés with assortments of “virgin” drinks. But because of the economy, scarcity of jobs, and importance of work and earning, if a person cannot immediately change their profession, or does not even see that possible in the next few years, then they have to endure while asking Allah’s forgiveness and to provide something better.

 

Islam and your friendships

Whom you befriend or spend even the briefest time with never stops having an effect upon you which you can never cease to downplay or neglect the closest scrutiny of. A close association, perhaps not even your closest, may be what brought you to change your whole religion in the first place. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “The righteous sitting companion is like a seller of musk,^[2]A type of expensive perfume (now illegal internationally except for the synthetic “white” type) extracted from a gland near the anus of the musk deer. if he does not give you some or if it doesn’t rub off on you, you at least enjoy a good scent; the evil sitting companion is like a blacksmith, if he doesn’t dirty your clothes, you will at least smell a bad scent.” So you will always be affected by your companions, either by picking up from their manners, or by being pleased or offended by them at the least. Also, he said, “A person is upon the religion of his closest companion, so look to whom you take as your closest companion.” There are many other narrations from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as well as verses from the Quran and examples from the history of Islam and in every Muslim community and household about how poor companionship leads to disastrous consequences. On personal reflection, I can hardly think of anything I ever regretted doing in my life except that I was influenced by someone (or the media) into doing it. I’m not absolving myself from blame, but the point is, we have to be careful what we allow influence and trigger us to reveal the worst parts of our nature.

After declaring your Islam, some “friends” may voluntary leave your company while others may not. For many, it may not hit home with them that you’re changing until you turn them down for a round of beers. No doubt, when someone is afraid of losing a friend to an outside ideology, he may respond in an assortment of surprising ways. Someone you got stoned with a month ago may say in all sincerity “don’t turn your back on Jesus!” Another may attack your character, implying that you do not belong with the Muslims, because of your ethnic background, past sins or even because of your peacefulness if they see Islam to be a violent religion. In such cases, you have to make a stand and declare your limits. Others may attack Islam or Muslims as part of a last ditch effort to turn you back, and claim “you’ll be back” in a short while. Your response does not need to be anything other than “this is who I am, this is what I believe, I’m not a scholar of my religion, I’m not trying to force my faith upon you, to you be your religion, to me be mine, if you’ve lost your faith go look for it because I’ve found mine.” Usually, such friends will not want to associate with you ever again. Others may even admire your stance and be inclined to research Islam themselves. In all cases, know that until they part with you, they are closely observing your words and movements.