In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Do you think that you were created and put on this earth without a purpose? Of course, this would not make sense...to those who believe in Allah and His Messenger (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).
Allah Almighty says,
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ ٱلْجِنَّ وَٱلْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ ﴿٥٦[Qur'an, Adh-Dhariyat 51:56]
And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me. (56)
We are not created to amass this world, nor we are created to eat, sleep, procreate and have fun. We are created to worship Allah. And don't think people who worship Allah don't have fun. They do, very much, but their fun is in worshiping Allah.
As believers, we have something precious that was given to us, a gift of iman (faith). Why don't we share that with people?
"None of you will believe until you love for your brother what you love for yourself." [Bukhari & Muslim]
Part of worshiping Allah is to make His words paramount. So we should make it our life mission to make His words paramount, and not spend our time in useless talks and useless things or chasing after this world. We learn the Qur'an; we learn how to make wudu' properly, how to pray properly, how to fast properly, and other personal obligatory knowledge, and the halal and haram; we strive to purify our hearts and we sacrifice whatever we can – even if it is our souls – to teach people and call them to Allah. At the same time we stop ourselves from competing with people over worldly things – this is the methodology of the believer.
Difficult to do? For most of us...yes, but you have no excuse not to do it because people before us have done it and more, under worse conditions and circumstances that we are now, and Allah is ready to help you if you ask.
When Allah ordered Prophet Musa alayhissalaam to go to Fir'aun and invite him to worship Allah, he did not try to get out of it or give excuses as to why he shouldn't perform or rely on his own self and on his own ability. Instead, he asked Allah to grant him five favors.
1. Give calmness in his heart -- to expand the ability of his heart to enable him to receive all the knowledge and wisdom of prophethood, and at the same time to bear with the slander of those people who will oppose him in his mission.
2. Make the task easy for him -- having been granted Prophethood he realized that it is not the human ability and skill or other apparent causes which make affairs easy or difficult. In reality, things become easy or difficult as Allah wills.
In a hadith the believers have been advised to seek Allah's help in their affairs:
"0 Allah! Be kind to us and make our difficult tasks easy because it is easy for You to make every difficult thing easy."
3. Untie the knot in his tongue so that people may understand his speech, calm his heart and make his mission easy.
4. Make for him assistance from his own family (Harun) -- this relates to the assembling of means which would facilitate the successful completion of his mission, and the most important among these was the appointment of a deputy or a helper, who would assist him in this task.
He specified the person from his own family because the behavior and conduct of a member of the family is known. Besides, there is mutual affection and understanding between the members of the family which greatly helps towards the accomplishment of the mission. But it is essential that the person selected should be competent and in possession of the merit necessary for the performance of his duties so that his selection may not be attributed to nepotism and favoritism.
Nowadays when there is a scarcity of people of integrity and dedication, the ruler who appoints his own close relatives to be his deputies renders himself liable to public criticism. When, however, the standards of probity and integrity are high, such appointments are considered normal and are, in fact, conducive to the more efficient performance of sensitive assignments.
Although Musa had the power to appoint his brother Harun as his deputy on his own, but he petitioned to Allah to confer the appointment on his brother in order to seek His grace.
5. Increase his strength through his deputy and let him share his task
Allah granted all his requests.
In this there are great lessons for us.
Allah has chosen Prophet Musa to do da'wah to the worst tyrant. Musa was the kind of person who cannot stand to see injustice. He could easily get angry and take matters into his own hands. Someone like Fir'aun could easily make Musa nervous and/or angry. When you do da'wah, you cannot be nervous and/or angry. You need to be calm in your heart. Musa asked this of Allah before he embarked on his huge mission.
What gives us calmness in the heart is lots of dhikr. Through dhikr, we will remember that Allah is present, watching, seeing, hearing and in complete view of our circumstance. We cannot lose sight of that or our emotions will have control of us. Good companions and a conducive environment definitely contribute towards the better performance of worship and dhikr (remembrance of Allah.) A person whose friends are negligent about Allah cannot devote himself to His worship with the same quality and quantity as the person who is blessed with the company of pious men and righteous friends devoted to Allah's worship and dhikr.
When you see someone who is disobeying Allah, especially your loved ones or close friend, you can easily get angry, upset and even depressed because you might feel that you have failed or you have not done enough. Remember, people next to you is not Fir'aun. You shouldn't be stressed or nervous about doing da'wah to them. They may say obnoxious thing or reject you completely but they cannot be as bad as Fir'aun. You shouldn't be angry or depressed. Make the du'a of Prophet Musa and remind yourself that your job is to put in your best effort and Allah will help you and give barakah (blessing) to your effort.
If you didn't accomplish what you set out to do, maybe that you didn't put enough effort, so Allah didn't give the barakah (blessing); or maybe you put the effort, and Allah didn't give barakah and maybe that is better for you. We have to trust Allah with the outcome of our efforts. Go in your mission with positive attitude and Allah will make it easy for you. Don't start something with a negative or defeated attitude.
When Allah chose Musa to confront Fir'aun, there was no better candidate than him to do the job. Even so, Musa still asked Allah to expand his breast with assurance and ease the task for him. He realized that it is not the human ability and skill or other apparent causes which make affairs easy or difficult.
We have to realize that our qualification, as good as they are, is never enough. Allah has to make the task easy for us.
There is no Muslim who should accept himself doing mediocre work or less than perfect job. In whatever you do, it should be the best. There is no reason why it shouldn't be the best. Allah created us in the best form. He gave us the intellect, good work ethics and ability to get work done. We should use these gifts to accomplish our task towards perfection. If you are a student, you should work to your potential to be the best; if you are a doctor, you should be the best doctor; if you are a taxi driver, you should be the best taxi driver. This should be an attitude of a Muslim going in any task or job. And always remind ourselves that our accomplishments are not because of our own doing and effort but they are because Allah give us that ability to accomplish those tasks. This would keep us away from arrogance.
May Allah enable us to take advantage of the guidance and wisdom in His Book, and to live for the religion He has chosen for us (Islam) and to make the best of this world for His religion. May Allah grant us tawfiq to the highest station. Ameen.
Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.
And Allah knows best and is Most Wise, and He alone grants success, and to Him is the final return of all.
Wassalaam
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