First of all, I just want to say that I have so much respect for man like you for striving to be excellent in your worship and doing what majority of people are not comfortable doing.. an example, growing your beard. Wouldn’t it be great if all people your age have that level of dedication! God, that would change a lot of things in society.

I don’t think you should stop with what you had passion for previously. May be learn to look at these endeavours from a different perspective. If you get great at something that you love, you’ll inspire an entire generation to come after you. Look at the examples of Muhammad Ali. Bro, there are so many examples. Please have a look at http://mspiration.wordpress.com.

I like the way you think in terms of success and charity :)
You know, if you find peace and contentment through what you’re doing… it’s all good. All praise be to the Creator who’s blessed us with so much.

And I totally agree with you on your last point. I just want to share this insight that I gained sometime ago.

I think I remember Sheikh Hamza Yusuf saying that in this life, you’re either tested with major trials and tribulations or you’re blessed(tested) with a comfortable life. If you’ve been blessed with a good life without any major trials or tribulations, then God will send those that are being tested heavily, to you.. to see if you’ll help them with what you’ve been blessed with or if you’ll turn them away. In that lies our test. (What I remembered from the talk, my apologies for not being able to find the original talk.)

This 45-min presentation by Scott Harrison seems quite relevant here. One of my inspirations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLdDMDkwK1s

Stations of Gratitude by Sheikh Hamza Yusuf. An amazing talk on Gratitude
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5-1AGEn8Ew

I don’t actually even know what I really want in, shall we say, “the dunya”.

Ever since I turned to Islam I’ve just lost my love for a lot of things but found inner peace. I read your article and I’ve realized I’ve also lost ambition to be ‘great’ in this life. Example: before this, I’ve always wanted to compete in a powerlifting competition, but now I just do it to stay fit because Islam tells us to take care of our body. Not trying sound all “holy” or anything but for the past few weeks the only thing I truly have passion for is anything to do with Islam. Stopped playing the musical instrument I’ve been playing for years and years completely, and many things I enjoyed doing I see as pointless now. As for staying in the comfort zone. I just don’t mind not excelling here because it’s all finite. For Islam, I’d go past my comfort zone though- as a 17 year old male living in the west, let me tell you, growing a beard is somewhat uncomfortable !

However there is a pretty good solution to make up for the lack of ambition in my studies- if we muslims succeed in our studies, we’ll earn a lot of money (atleast thats the basic idea haha). If we earn a lot of money, not only can we provide for our families through a totally halal income, but also because we can give a lot of charity, and with that we can grow closer to God.

So yeah, just like the article you linked sums up, you could say that God placed me in a state where I’m content with the dunya. Not very related, sometimes I wonder what we even did to deserve God’s mercy for letting us be born well off- I’m sure very few of us had to ever worry about our next meal. I think that understanding the importance in Islam that mankind gets food and shelter (and there was something in the Qur’an about this very concept regarding the needs of the sons of Adam), we can say we should all strive to reach a state where we can help the needy, so on the day of judgment we cannot be questioned for selfishness. Just my $0.02.

Walaikum salam warahmatullahi wabarakatu ASE,

Wa iyakum. Thank you for your feedback and suggestions. God willing, I will be writing my future articles on similar topic. I’m all about empowering ourself so that we can be better suited to overcoming any challenges.

One of my favourite quotes from a mentor of mine is this: “Life is not about getting rid of problems, it is about becoming who you need to be to overcome the problems”.

Part of becoming who we need to be is to have the right mindset, ability to master emotions, knowing ourself well enough to be able to inspire ourself, ability to communicate and connect with different types of people etc., basically, self leadership skills. So, I hope to do my best and touch on each area through a series of articles iA.

Thank you Taha for your comment and sharing your thoughts. It’s awesome that you’re doing well in your studies :) as well as maintaining a well written blog. You have fantastic ideas mashaAllah.

I agree with you, It’s so true that when you’re striving to get closer to God, everything gets easier in comparison.

Your comment got me thinking and I’m really curious, what does a peaceful and stressless existence really mean for you? Does that mean being content? Does that mean staying inside your comfort zone?

I hope you don’t mind me asking because I think my job as a contributor here is to question the status quo and ‘rock the boat’ a little bit so to speak.

Here’s a great article by br Abu Productive that I benefitted from.
https://productivemuslim.com/reconciling-contentment-versus-ambition/

I really want to thank you again for your comment because it made me realise so many things that are important to think about as ProductiveMuslims. Jazakallahu Khair.

Walaikum salam, Iram. Thanks for your feedback. I’m glad that it helped you to get into ‘action’ mode.

I recently saw this quote floating around on FB, ‘Hustle while you wait’ and I like it.

I’m guilty of that as well… and have to constantly remind myself to do what matters and don’t let things that I have no control over take up my time and energy.

Andleeb, what specifically would you like to see?
There is no right or wrong answer. It’s your reality and your answers are different based on your experience and the situation you’re in. Just go through the questions and do your best to answer. I trust that helps.

Amen, Umrah. Wa iyakum. Thank you. I appreciate your feedback :)

If you have any feedback, questions or comments, feel free to post them here (or contact me via email/facebook/twitter).

I really want to hear from you – so that I can incorporate your suggestions to suit your needs and better serve you in my future articles, iA. :)

Keep striving for excellence!