A wisdom from Ibn Ata’illah:
“Give yourself a rest from managing! When Someone Else is doing it for you, don’t start doing it for yourself!
Your striving for what is absolutely guaranteed to you and your laxness in what is required of you are evidence that your inner eye is dull.”
Here’s my take on this gem of ancient wisdom:
What is “absolutely guaranteed to you” is your provision: your shelter, food, money, all of the things that Allah provides to you were guaranteed to you before you were even born. (This comes from the Islamic understanding that your provision is written for you at the time that your soul enters the body, while you’re still in your mother’s womb.)
The same One who provides for the birds happily chirping outside every morning is providing everything for you. Yet we, with our “dull inner sight”, believe that we are personally responsible for our own provision.
The moment we take on this false belief, we start getting stressed out about how much we’re working and how much we’re earning.
“What is required of you”, is devotion and service to the One who’s providing everything for you: prayer, fasting, being kind to those around you, everything that Allah and His Messenger command in the Quran and Sunnah. And of course, doing ‘the work’ – your actual job, whatever that may be in your context.
It’s strange.
I’ve spent most of my life and career thinking that I was in charge – that it was my job to manage my business.
But as this wisdom points out, when Someone Else is doing it for you, why in the world would you try doing it yourself?
The vast majority of the things that result in success in business are outside of our control and fully in Allah’s control:
I can create blog posts, but I can’t make anyone read them. I can offer programs, but I can’t make anyone buy them. I can provide a great service, but even that doesn’t guarantee any referrals.
This doesn’t mean don’t do your work. It means don’t pretend to yourself in your imagination that the outcomes and results of your work are within your control.
The moment we emotionally detach from the outcome and focus instead on simply doing what is required of us, things start to flow. We immediately let go of all the stress and angst we have around our work.
And the moment that happens, we’re suddenly free to enjoy the process.
I firmly believe that if I take care of you, Allah will take care of my business for me.
If I surrender to Allah and simply serve people, He will do the rest – always has, always will.
And the fact of the matter is, this isn’t a huge leap of faith.
It’s pretty obvious, when you look around. I’m responsible for doing my work, but for none of the success (or failure or setbacks!) that results from it. What a relief!
If you want a different, perhaps slightly deeper perspective on productivity and results, you might like to check out the “Productive From Fajr” web class.
It’s available now at www.mamoonyusaf.com/PFF
