Enemies [Article]

We always say that we are proud to be Muslims because this fact is said in the Holy Koran;

'Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah…'
(3:110)

If you look around you nowadays, does this verse really refers to our ummah, the kind that you see today or to those in the past? We Muslims are just glory in the past. Why? Simply because we are suffering from LPD that tears us bit by bit but we still do not realise it.

L: LAZINESS is like hypertension which is a silent killer to success. SUCCESS is 99% sweat and 1% intelligent. I think this is a very famous phrase but how many of us really take note about this. 99% of sweat means it really takes a lot of efforts to success. I admit that we cannot get rid of laziness because it is a part of attitude that present inside us but we can control it for our own benefit. The problem begins when we start to feel bored about what we are doing. This will lead us to depress, feeling weak and else which are useless for us. We can see here how much the energy that we are using to deny the fact that we have to do or to complete the task. In the Koran;

'….Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (with their own souls)….'
(13:11)

This verse proves to us one thing that we need to struggle first to change ourselves. What we need to do is to convert laziness to LOVE. Love can help us to gain energy, desire to struggle and fight to achieve what we want. If you love something, for example your parents, that feeling has give you a reason to live, to make them happy and you will do anything to make them smile. If we look in scientific point of view, an organism which has no function should be terminated from the environment to maintain the ecosystem. It is the same applied to those who are lazy; they should also be `terminated` because they will make the society suffer from their foolishness. If we think that we are true Muslims, then there is no time for us to be lazy because the ummah is suffering too much. It is in our hand to change the fate of our ummah.

P: PROCRASTINATION is the theft of time. I believe everyday we will read a chapter from the Koran;

'By (the Token of) Time (through the ages), (1)Verily Man is in loss,(2) Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy. '
(103:1-3)

The problem here is do we really understand what we read or say. If you think carefully, why do God mentions about time? He wants us, his servants to be alert with time because He gives us 24 hours per day to manage everything in our life including praying to Him. If we neglect the value of time, then we are like those who are mentioned by God in this chapter. For example, we live in Arab and we are able to see how these people who are intelligent, rich with raw materials and understand the Koran fail to be a great race because why? `Bukkroh` and `Maa`lish.` Even in Koran also there is a verse about this;

'Nor say of anything, "I shall be sure to do so and so tomorrow"'
(18:23)

We as Muslims, we should avoid this kind of attitude because we have so many things to learn and discover about the wonders of God`s creations. We must prove those verses in the Koran to verify that we are on the right path. How to do this? Just convert procrastination to PROGRESSION. Through progression, we are able to know at what level we are and does that level is sufficient for us to be the khalifah, the title that we are always proud of. Progression can help us to gain more knowledge to make us a fair person either in intelligent quotient (IQ), emotional quotient (EQ) or spiritual quotient (SQ). By becoming a progressive person, we can be a role model to the others to prove that we can also be extraordinary person just by a progressive or continuous effort. In other words, we can just simplify the above point as the following equations:

Ordinary + 0 = failure
Genius + 0 =pass
Ordinary + effort =pass
Genius + effort = excellent
Ordinary + extra effort = Genius + effort

D: DISTRACTION is actually a poison in our triumph and this is the big trouble that we must solve because it involves our attention. When we are distracted, we lose our 100% attention causing us fail to see the big picture of everything. Nowadays distractions are advanced especially songs and sports. Moreover, virtual games and social networking also play an important role to distract us from our right path or objective. Distraction can disturb the light of our future to achieve what we always want. If we look into the history of Islam, those successful Muslim scholars, they focused not only 100% of their attention but more because the harder we focus on something, the greater the effort or energy we use to gain what we want. What I am trying to tell you is that we need to change distraction to DESIRE. Desire can be described as follow;

'The first principle of success is desire; knowing what you want. Desire is the planting of your seed for your success.'
Robert Collier

This desire can help us to overcome our weaknesses, to face tension and depression. This can help us gain extra strength to push ourselves out of the limit. We are what we desire because man is creature of desire not the creature of need. According to `The Secret`, the stronger our desire towards something, the more positive energy is channelled to gain it. But if this energy is distracted by something else, then it is just a waste to channel that energy because we will not gain it.

As a conclusion, we must change laziness, procrastination and distraction to love, progression and desire because these will help us to be a true khalifah who can fulfil the needs of the ummah. If we feel lazy, love to procrastinate and distracted, just close our eyes for a moment and think about God and our aims in this life. This can help us to calm down and gain new strength to struggle and strive for ourselves as well as the ummah.

'Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah. for without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction.'
(13:28)

Lastly, remember that if we struggle for God`s path then God will make ours easier...

Waallahua'lam.

Source:
Prepared by:
Mohamad Suaidi Bin Mohamad Sazali
First year Faculty of Medicine
Cairo University