Dear diary,

I hope to find you again in a very happy and an enjoying mood since I am in one, alhamdolilah. Today, I feel like reflecting upon the things I have felt and experienced in my life more than I want to talk about Swindon. And I would really like you to be with me in spirit right now 🙂

How is the weather on your side? Over here in England, it  has reached a maximum of nearly 30 degrees and I find it absolutely perfect except that the goras think it is soaring hot! The temperature scale showed ‘Very Hot’ written besides a 24 degree room temperature today in the school I am volunteering in as a teacher (details later) to which I was particularly surprised. The talk of the town these days is, yes you guessed it right, the weather!

On the brighter side, it reinforces to me the lesson of how Allah SWT accustoms us to a particular setting and then the human mind calculates everything in relativity. Whatever I studied in Economics, Accounting, Organizational Behaviour, and even in many other subjects, I remember myself thinking about relativity all the time. I especially thought about relativity when I was studying the mathematical formula of Equity theory to calculate an abstract term such as ‘job satisfaction’ in Organizational Behaviour . It is actually very interesting so I am going to share it with you here:

 

As long as individual finds the other’s inputs/output ratio in the same proportion as his, he will be satisfied with his job. (input can be hardwork and output can be anything such as monetary rewards) If anything increases or decreases, then the equation will not remain in the same proportion and will end up in job dissatisfaction.

Interesting isn’t it? This is only one of the very top of the mind example I am sharing with you here but I have realized how deep rooted relativity is in our minds.

Even as a student, I would never look at my marks in totality and would always compare myself to the rest of the class to know where I stood. So if we take a larger perspective, relativity is also related to competiton. We have this innate nature of comparing ourselves, our belongings, our relationships etc with others and this is the very competiton that drives us to be better than others all the time.  Sometimes when I try to close myself into my own world to cut off from everyone in terms of comparisons, I find little or no growth actually. I end up limiting  myself to knowing what my own potential is.

But then I think, if relativity is so important, then am I supposed to compare myself, my things with others all the time? Am I supposed to compare how much more money, status, honour, beauty I have than the rest of the people I know. Wouldn’t it be too frustrating if I have less of something than somebody else I know? Everything of this world that we desire will never be given to us altogether in this world because the world is not jannah. Only in jannah will all our desires ever be fulfilled. Not here.  So then why the race? why the comparisons? Why the relative mind?

I then wonder from the Islamic perspective and it is only here that I find the answer: that this drive of thinking in terms of relativity and comparisons has been given to us by Allah SWT for a reason.  And that is not to compare ourselves in terms of dunya with others but infact our deen. The Sahabah used to race each other in terms of their taqwa! And we are supposed to behave in the same way. The Sahaba would rush to dedicate their time, money, even their lives for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa talala.

The golden rule that I have learnt is: ‘ Always look at people above you in matters of deen and always look at people below you in matters of the dunya’  I think it is a wonderful principle to follow and if you are just confused what is deen and what is dunya so the simple rule that was explained to us by Shaykh Hashim at a guest speaking session at IBA was

If you want the fruits of something in this life —> Dunya

If you want the fruits of something in your hereafter — > Deen

I wish to share so much more with you but then I don’t want to end up boring you. So I will stop. Which reminds me, I have to share about the Islamic School where I am volunteering to work as a teacher for 4 and 5 years old! The little children are so cute and I have already learnt so much from them that I think I will write you in detail in another post.

Until next time we meet.

Assalamoalaikom

– Nida

 

 

http://www.calltowardslight.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_6551-1024x682.jpghttp://www.calltowardslight.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_6551-290x290.jpgZauja Muhammad AlifeaturedSwindon DiariesAllah,comparisons,deen,dunya,Reflections,relativity,SahabahDear diary, I hope to find you again in a very happy and an enjoying mood since I am in one, alhamdolilah. Today, I feel like reflecting upon the things I have felt and experienced in my life more than I want to talk about Swindon. And I would really...The Diary of a Muslimah