When life is not going the way we would like it to go, we can become frustrated and give up on the mercy of Allah swt. Or when our efforts are not accepted by people, we give up on their Creator and start thinking that the Creator does not value our efforts the same way as the creation chooses to pick up on our weaknesses instead of our strengths. What we fail to realize is that Allah swt does not grade us based on accomplishments but He grades us based on our effort.
In times such as now when I feel weathered down by things which I necessarily do not want in my life, I derive my strength from Allah swt who is always there to welcome me with His open arms and from His religion, Islam, which makes me feel special even if my efforts are not realized by this world. It's difficult to convince my loved ones to listen to a lecture/read an article until and unless it's something that I scream myself. Hence, I am going to make a little effort in sharing some words of wisdom that keep me going and what time could be better than the month of Sha'aban to renew our intentions and kick off for Ramadan!
If you look at the report card of a child, in particular of children who are in preK or kindergarten you will notice that they don’t really give students grades. You look at the report card card and there's not even an A, B or C but only an E – E for effort.
However, when we get older, we start getting worried about grades. When we are in school, we worry about which high school we’re going to go to, when we are in high school we worry about college, when we are in college we worry about which graduate school to go to and then in graduate school we worry about our sub-specialty and then we worry about our jobs. It’s an endless list! The time when we were young was a special time when only effort was enough. They would give you a paper which you could color and it didn’t matter if you were inside the line or outside the line - whatever you did, you got an E. You just had to copy the A and you could be as crooked as you could get and they would put a star and give you an E for effort because as long as the student makes an effort, he/she is applauded.
However, when we grow old we create a false competition of As, Bs and Cs, income and test scores etc. amongst us. What we fail to realize is that when we deal with Allah swt the whole story is based on effort as there is no grading.
The IT people have trouble if an outside data set is brought to them because it is difficult for them to work on the interphase of two incompatible sets of data. But it is indeed amazing that Allah swt allows us to interact with Him even though we don’t share a single characteristic with Him e.g. Allah swt never slumbers and we need to sleep and other such characteristics that make us different and dependent on our Creator. But He still allows us to interphase with Himself through bowing down, prostration etc. and the only requirement for that is the state of wudu.
What is wudu? It is a mechanism through which we purify ourselves but the question is that are we really ever free of impurity? There is always impurity in our body: blood is impure and it is flowing in our bodies, even if we get rid of our waste, there’s always some stool and urine in our intestine and bladder. But we only make the effort of making wudu and doing istinja and Allah swt rewards us and allows us to communicate with Him through sujud, ruku`, talaawah, tawaf etc.
Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) p.b.u.h. was commanded to sacrifice his son, Ismail. He brought his son to the altar and when he was about to sacrifice Ismail p.b.u.h, Allah placed an animal in place of him. Prophet Ibrahim p.b.u.h. was ready and willing to sacrifice his son but he did not have to. The challenge was to sacrifice his son but Allah swt uplifted the difficult circumstance from him and gave him and E for effort.
Another example is of them building the Ka’abah or the House of Allah. If you are going to build a house and the house is going to be for Allah that will last until the day of judgment, you are going to build something grand and elaborate. But in fact what did the father and son build? They just built a simple square box yet Allah swt accepted their effort in such a way that people clamor and cry to get there and once they are there, they forget whatever is happening in the world. And all of this was based on the effort of Prophet Ibrahim and Ismail p.b.u.h.
From day one of Islam we are taught that the reward is based on our intentions:
From the Commander of the Faithful Abi Hafs ‘Umar Ibn Al Khattab, who said : I heard the Prophet of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) say :
However, when we grow old we create a false competition of As, Bs and Cs, income and test scores etc. amongst us. What we fail to realize is that when we deal with Allah swt the whole story is based on effort as there is no grading.
The IT people have trouble if an outside data set is brought to them because it is difficult for them to work on the interphase of two incompatible sets of data. But it is indeed amazing that Allah swt allows us to interact with Him even though we don’t share a single characteristic with Him e.g. Allah swt never slumbers and we need to sleep and other such characteristics that make us different and dependent on our Creator. But He still allows us to interphase with Himself through bowing down, prostration etc. and the only requirement for that is the state of wudu.
What is wudu? It is a mechanism through which we purify ourselves but the question is that are we really ever free of impurity? There is always impurity in our body: blood is impure and it is flowing in our bodies, even if we get rid of our waste, there’s always some stool and urine in our intestine and bladder. But we only make the effort of making wudu and doing istinja and Allah swt rewards us and allows us to communicate with Him through sujud, ruku`, talaawah, tawaf etc.
Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) p.b.u.h. was commanded to sacrifice his son, Ismail. He brought his son to the altar and when he was about to sacrifice Ismail p.b.u.h, Allah placed an animal in place of him. Prophet Ibrahim p.b.u.h. was ready and willing to sacrifice his son but he did not have to. The challenge was to sacrifice his son but Allah swt uplifted the difficult circumstance from him and gave him and E for effort.
Another example is of them building the Ka’abah or the House of Allah. If you are going to build a house and the house is going to be for Allah that will last until the day of judgment, you are going to build something grand and elaborate. But in fact what did the father and son build? They just built a simple square box yet Allah swt accepted their effort in such a way that people clamor and cry to get there and once they are there, they forget whatever is happening in the world. And all of this was based on the effort of Prophet Ibrahim and Ismail p.b.u.h.
From day one of Islam we are taught that the reward is based on our intentions:
From the Commander of the Faithful Abi Hafs ‘Umar Ibn Al Khattab, who said : I heard the Prophet of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) say :
“Actions are but by intentions…”
This hadith requires that each person has to looks at him/herself and makes their own effort. To enter jannah there’s no criteria that you have to fit in 99th percentile but if you are in the 97th you won’t be able to enter it. It’s only in this world that we get gauged like this but not in the hereafter. If I spend 70 years of worship then I should only get 70 years in jannah but that is not the case because Allah swt says:
وَالَّذِيۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا وَعَمِلُوا الصّٰلِحٰتِ سَنُدۡخِلُهُمۡ جَنّٰتٍ تَجۡرِىۡ مِنۡ تَحۡتِهَا الۡاَنۡهٰرُ خٰلِدِيۡنَ فِيۡهَاۤ اَبَدًا ؕ
“And as for those who believe and do good works, We shall make them enter Gardens underneath which rivers flow - to dwell therein forever” Quran 4;57
Likewise, the Prophet saws also dealt with his companions in a similar way. He was willing to accept their smallest deeds because he realized their efforts. He told them that one date as sadaqah would be equal to the value of Mount Uhad in gold and when a person who gave one date when they had two or at time when only one, Allah swt accepted their effort and rewarded them with an immense reward.
So what do we learn from all these examples:
Likewise, the Prophet saws also dealt with his companions in a similar way. He was willing to accept their smallest deeds because he realized their efforts. He told them that one date as sadaqah would be equal to the value of Mount Uhad in gold and when a person who gave one date when they had two or at time when only one, Allah swt accepted their effort and rewarded them with an immense reward.
So what do we learn from all these examples:
Everyone has to make an effort and we have to understand that our effort will be different than someone else’s effort. Pleasing Allah is so easy that even if we try to color and miss the page, we will still get the reward.
The Prophet (S AW.) said: ” Whoever says La ilaha illah Allaah (sincerely) will enter Paradise.” (Reported by Bazzar and declared authentic by Al-Albani in Sahih AI-Jami)
Hence, it all depends on our individual effort and we should never despair of Allah swt’s mercy. All we have to do is to register for the class and Allah swt counts us amongst those who graduate. But we should make whatever little effort we can to improve ourselves no matter which stage of personal development we all are at. If it means that you don’t pray, just be conscious of one of those prayers. If it means improving your wudu, then invest some time in correcting it and several such actions that require our attention.
"Take one step towards me, I will take ten steps towards you. Walk towards me, I will run towards you." [Hadith Qudsi]
We just have to turn our faces towards Allah and He will give His attention to us. Especially during these blessed days before Ramadan we should sit and reflect that “What can I do in my life?” “What’s the next step that I can take?”
Just as we expect Allah swt to accept our efforts, we should accept other people’s efforts as well as long as they are sincere.
Prophet saws was very accepting of his companions. Anas r.a. was the servant of Rasulallah saws for 10 years since he was a child. According to him, the Prophet saws never said to him that why didn’t he something this way or the other although the task of Anas r.a. was assisting the messenger of Allah whose job was to uplift the whole humanity and establish the religion of Allah. If I was serving a person of such a status, I would be constantly making mistakes even though I am adult but Anas r.a. was a child and still the Prophet saws never complained!
If we accept that Allah will accept our efforts, as long as others have sincerity we should even accept their efforts. In today’s world the fundamental disagreement between parents and children is that either the child did not accept the effort of parents and wanted perfect parents or the parents did not accept the efforts of their children. The same is the case with spouses. When we start having demands then everything falls apart. We forget to think that “Allah is accepting me despite my deficiencies, then why should I not accept others?
Unfortunately we get caught up with our ego and say “I’m fine!” or “Why doesn’t X, Y or Z doesn’t do things like I want to?" It’s Shaytan (satan) that gets us caught into human beings and leads us to complain again and again, “How come this is not perfect?” when in fact we should focus on Allah and ourselves and say, “I am imperfect,” “I am imperfect,” “I am imperfect.”
Rather we should take our ability of making 100 critiques and critique ourselves instead of criticizing others.If we critique this and criticize that, we will only end up making ourselves and those around us bitter. By being judgmental and not accepting of others deficiencies, we create more anger and frustration around ourselves that cause neither us nor others to be happy.
The Prophet (S AW.) said: ” Whoever says La ilaha illah Allaah (sincerely) will enter Paradise.” (Reported by Bazzar and declared authentic by Al-Albani in Sahih AI-Jami)
Hence, it all depends on our individual effort and we should never despair of Allah swt’s mercy. All we have to do is to register for the class and Allah swt counts us amongst those who graduate. But we should make whatever little effort we can to improve ourselves no matter which stage of personal development we all are at. If it means that you don’t pray, just be conscious of one of those prayers. If it means improving your wudu, then invest some time in correcting it and several such actions that require our attention.
"Take one step towards me, I will take ten steps towards you. Walk towards me, I will run towards you." [Hadith Qudsi]
We just have to turn our faces towards Allah and He will give His attention to us. Especially during these blessed days before Ramadan we should sit and reflect that “What can I do in my life?” “What’s the next step that I can take?”
Just as we expect Allah swt to accept our efforts, we should accept other people’s efforts as well as long as they are sincere.
Prophet saws was very accepting of his companions. Anas r.a. was the servant of Rasulallah saws for 10 years since he was a child. According to him, the Prophet saws never said to him that why didn’t he something this way or the other although the task of Anas r.a. was assisting the messenger of Allah whose job was to uplift the whole humanity and establish the religion of Allah. If I was serving a person of such a status, I would be constantly making mistakes even though I am adult but Anas r.a. was a child and still the Prophet saws never complained!
If we accept that Allah will accept our efforts, as long as others have sincerity we should even accept their efforts. In today’s world the fundamental disagreement between parents and children is that either the child did not accept the effort of parents and wanted perfect parents or the parents did not accept the efforts of their children. The same is the case with spouses. When we start having demands then everything falls apart. We forget to think that “Allah is accepting me despite my deficiencies, then why should I not accept others?
Unfortunately we get caught up with our ego and say “I’m fine!” or “Why doesn’t X, Y or Z doesn’t do things like I want to?" It’s Shaytan (satan) that gets us caught into human beings and leads us to complain again and again, “How come this is not perfect?” when in fact we should focus on Allah and ourselves and say, “I am imperfect,” “I am imperfect,” “I am imperfect.”
Rather we should take our ability of making 100 critiques and critique ourselves instead of criticizing others.If we critique this and criticize that, we will only end up making ourselves and those around us bitter. By being judgmental and not accepting of others deficiencies, we create more anger and frustration around ourselves that cause neither us nor others to be happy.
Hence we should make use of these days before Ramadan and make an effort to draw near to our Creator and try hard to accept others’ efforts. Indeed, getting eternal success is sooooooooo simple only if we have the sincere desire to move closer to Allah swt!
“Whoever says La ilaha illah Allah will enter Paradise.”
Most of the article has been transcribed from Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar's talk called "An E for Effort."
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