When there's no time to be spiritual...
Often times, it’s easy to preach than to
practice what one preaches.
Do you find yourself in a rut, encouraging
your children to turn to Allah (SWT) and ask of Him for every basic need, while
you yourself put off conversing with Him on the pretext of ‘being too busy to
be spiritual’?
Sometimes, when the daily grind gets to you,
it’s difficult to find quiet, alone time with Allah (SWT). Prayers and dhikr
become routine and mechanical and it seems there’s never time to make heartfelt
personal duas.
And then when you hear the khutbah on how we
must spend time reading the Qur’an and deeply connecting with Allah, the guilt
sets in and it’s easy to think that we are bad Muslims because we didn’t do
what we were created for – the worship of the One Almighty Allah (SWT)!
But how can we do all our daily duties towards
our family, our society and the world at large and then still have the time,
energy and mindset to devotedly worship Allah (SWT)?
The answer to that lies in the famous Hadith,
“Actions are but by intention…”. There is a reason behind every
action a human being makes, whether or not we are consciously aware of it. In
the eyes of Allah (SWT), our intention makes the act worthy of worship.
So, as we go about our daily, mundane chores
of cooking, cleaning and looking after the family, we need to do 2 things:
1.
Purify
our intentions – this means we do what we do, no matter how mediocre and
repetitive and time-wasting it seems to us because that is what Allah (SWT) has
called upon us to do at that instant of our lives.
One easy way I found to do this is to remind
myself of this Hadith:
“…A woman is the guardian of her husband’s home and his children and she is responsible for them…. No doubt, every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock.”
(Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6719, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1829)
I find that when I think of this Hadith, I feel a sense of
responsibility towards my family more than I felt previously. I know that I
will be questioned about my doings with them, so it would be wise on my part to
purify my intentions of serving them when I don’t feel like it or when I feel
overwhelmed and need some motivation to pull along. And I know that if I act in
obedience to His commands as His Book and/or His Prophet taught us, I am
worshipping Him with every breath.
2. Another tip to turn everyday actions into
worship is to set multiple intentions.
When my difficult child makes it more difficult for me
during the day, I purify my intention of controlling myself for His sake and
then I set multiple intentions – I will behave in a calm and collected way
nevertheless, as I am setting a good example for my child/family and In Sha
Allah, earning His pleasure and rewards in the process.
When I cook for my family, I do it not just as
a mundane everyday responsibility but with the intention to provide healthy
food for hungry people who depend on me for their daily sustenance. Then I feel
as if I have attended my daily duty towards Him. I feel I have acted
responsibly to my family’s needs. And based on the above Hadith, if I have
fulfilled my responsibility towards my family (my ‘flock’), I have worshipped
Him!
So spending
loads and loads of time with your dhikr beads and the Qur’an and Salah is not
the ONLY way to worship Allah (SWT) with every breath. Sure, it may be the BEST
way. But when the season of your life is such that time is at a premium, one of
the best ways to work worship into every minute of our time is to continuously
purify our intentions and set multiple intentions.
This will
help us to engage in continuous Ibadah and also gain multiple rewards for the
Ibadah/actions that we do on a daily basis, In Sha Allah.
