Career on one side, the hereafter on the other. That is the quiet bargain many of us have made. To get ahead in this world, we tell ourselves, religion will have to move a little to the side; and whoever wants the hereafter will have to give this world up. We have decided that gaining this world costs the hereafter, and gaining the hereafter costs this world. Success in both worlds, we have told ourselves, is not on offer.
There is nothing like that. Success in the hereafter and success in this world are on one path, and the Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them) showed it to us by living it. Hazrat Uthman Ghani (may Allah be pleased with him) and Hazrat Abdur Rahman bin Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) were among the richest people. They were also among the Ashara Mubashshara, the ten whom the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told, in this world, that Allah SWT will take to Jannat-ul-Firdaus (mafhoom: Tirmidhi 3747). Successful in this world. Successful in the hereafter. The same two men.
Success in both worlds: where we picked up the other idea
So where did the bargain come from? From the same place most of our decisions come from. Each of us has done our own study, our own analysis, and reached a conclusion. That analysis is built on information, and the information comes, usually, from social media, from television dramas, from friends. Whatever information we received, we made our life decisions on it. A decision built on information from other human beings is never the ideal decision. Sometimes it is right, sometimes it is not.
We take those decisions into our homes, our offices, our careers and our businesses, and when the failures come we are convinced: I treat everyone well, nobody treats me well.
It is the same with the books. We read personality books, self management, time management, gratitude, every author we can find, because we want to progress. Our personality and our behaviour, and the success or failure that follows from them, come mostly from our environment, and the biggest part of that environment is home. If the home is favourable, we can become good team players, good leaders, successful people. Home is the foundation of our progress.
The definition Allah SWT gave
The only definition of success worth building a life on is the one given by the One who wrote the whole software. Allah SWT swore seven oaths in the Quran and then said that whoever purifies the nafs, the inner self, he alone succeeds (mafhoom: Surah ash-Shams 9). That tells you how important purifying the nafs is.
And when Allah SWT uses the word success, it is not only the success of the hereafter. It is the success of this world too. It comes as peace in our homes, as love in our relationships, as progress in career, in job, in business. Why? Because the command is from the One who made the whole software and wrote the whole software. When He has told us that this command gives this result, we should believe, one hundred percent, that this result will come.
So, since success lies in this, the first task for success is to move the nafs out of the state called Nafs-e-Ammarah, the self that commands you towards wrong. Whoever takes his nafs from Nafs-e-Ammarah to Nafs-e-Lawwamah, the self-reproaching self, and through Nafs-e-Lawwamah to Nafs-e-Mutma’innah, the contented self, Allah SWT loves him and waits for him. That state is the key to our success.
Which brings us back to the two men we began with. Whatever picture we have built in our heads from what we hear around us needs some thought. It needs, honestly, to be whitewashed. If you want success, set a goal of success in both this world and the hereafter. The thought that this world requires leaving the hereafter, or the hereafter requires leaving this world, should not enter your mind at all. There is one condition: this world has to be lived by the ways and the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He never forbade us business. He never forbade us good provision. Earn it all, inside the Sunnah.
And the same at home. Whatever role you hold, father, son, daughter-in-law, daughter, mother-in-law, live it by the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and the commands of Allah SWT. That is where the blessing is, and that is where the peace is.
Who are we doing it for?
One side point, and it matters. We say: I treat everyone well, nobody treats me well. Look at the intention. If we are good to someone, our son, our daughter, in order to comfort them, to please them, or to be called a good person, then that is a paid off activity. We wanted to be called good, they said thank you, the account is settled.
But if you do the same act because it is the command of Allah SWT and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, with your children, your siblings, your parents, your wife or your husband, any good deed done with the intention that I am doing this only and only for Allah SWT, then Allah SWT wastes no one’s good deed.
One thing to do today: wherever you keep your goals, on paper or in your head, write success in this world and success in the hereafter on the same line. Not on two.
May Allah SWT give us the ability to understand this and to act on it, me first, then all of us. Ameen.
Full video: https://youtu.be/vdrAAnO6WIY
This piece in Urdu: https://falah.org/?p=4039
The first piece in this series, Change Yourself First: https://falah.org/change-yourself-first-the-one-person-you-can-reform/
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