Sunaa’ al-Hayah

- Life Makers -

Episode 4: Proactiveness – Part 1

Our beloved brothers and sisters;

The first three episodes of this program have wrapped up the introduction.  Our goal was to encourage the revitalization of all Muslims and Islamic countries.  We started to instigate an internal feeling of hope that we can change and that this revitalization is possible.  I believe that everybody is now ready for the practical talk.  What are we going to do? What is our role?

Today, we start the practical talk; today, we take the first step.  This step, however, cannot be taken by one person, we will all do our share to take it and start ‘making life.’

Before we start, I would like to remind you of this imaginary image that we derived from actual life.  It is the image of a sad, depressed young man, sitting in a small depressing room, with cobwebs covering the walls.  On a nearby sofa, there is a praying mat thrown carelessly.  On his desk, there is a Qur’an covered with dust.  Outside the room, the world is full of light.  When we asked him to get up and come into the light outside, he answered, “No, this is impossible.”  We replied, “But, it is possible.”  He tried to move but could not; he felt that he was shackled down with all sorts of chains.  One chain shackling his left hand: it is called ‘passivity.’ One chain shackling his right hand: it is called ‘lack of seriousness.’  One chain shackling his neck: it is called ‘ignorance and lack of knowledge.’ One chain shackling his feet: it is called ‘no target in life.’  We told him, “If you want to get up, you have to break these chains and we will help you to do it.”

Let us break the chains together.  This is the first stage of this project.  Today, we will untie the first chain; the most dangerous one of them all.  By the way, there are ten chains in all, that shackle people, meaning youth, adults and elders.  Imagine if we break all these ten chains.  Imagine if hundreds of thousands of youth became proactive and started to perfect all types of work they did: starting with praying and worshipping Allah (SWT), passing by doing well in their exams, and ending with perfecting the final products that they produce.  Just try to imagine if all these chains have been broken.  What will happen? Revitalization will have to take place.  The most dangerous of chains that we have to break in order to see a big improvement in our situation is called ‘passivity.’  That is why this episode will be about having a proactive attitude or ‘being proactive.’ 

Proactiveness can be divided into two types:

• The first type is when you see something wrong happening and you try to correct it by informing the authorities or sending a complaint.
• The second type is very important and it is when you think of something good that could be done and you are able to do it, then you do it yourself without even mentioning it to anyone.

This is the type we are aiming for in ‘Life Makers.’

How big is the difference between the two types? A huge one.  The reason is that when I ask you to complain to somebody about some thing you see is wrong, you will feel unable to change it yourself.  When you do not see any change happening in spite of your proactive attitude, you will get disappointed, depressed and helpless.  That is why we will concentrate on the second type because it is within our capability.  That way, we will feel constructive and able to work and produce; leaving a footprint that would make a difference.  That way, we will feel that what we are trying to do is not impossible.  We will then become hopeful, start to succeed and break this very first chain.  I will present a few examples of proactive things to do:

·        The garbage in the streets.  Get rid of it yourself.

·        The pothole in front of your house.  Fill it yourself.

·        The broken glass at your house.  Replace it.

·        The leaky water tap.  Learn how to fix it or call somebody who can.

·        Give private lessons to your neighbors’ children.  Teach them languages or show them how to use computers, etc.

·        At your college, if the laboratory is lacking some instruments, collect some money from your colleagues and buy those instruments.

·        Cleaning the mosques; do not be ashamed to do it yourself; your proactive attitude will give you courage.

·        Teach an illiterate person to help reduce the percentage of illiteracy.

·        Housewives, join in to start a project to help women and widows by teaching them a skill that they can work with instead of waiting for financial support from others.

Being proactive means being effective, filling society with proactive actions every minute by adding to every field or area: your family, school, college, university, work, etc.

Say something like, “I’ll present constructive suggestions to my boss at work or to my father at home.”  Starting today, all the following expressions have to disappear, “Why should I care about it,”  “I cannot,”  “Am I the one who is going to change the universe?”  Yes, definitely, you are the one who is going to change the universe.  Who else can change it if not men and women?  Do not be ashamed because being ashamed is a kind of weakness.

To be honest with you, we have got used to being passive.  Do you know the difference between someone with a passive attitude and another who is proactive? It is the difference between the number zero and the number one; between night and day; between life and death; between the chair and the person sitting on it.

The proof to that is right from the Qur’an.  In Surat an-Nahl (The Bees), Allah  says what can be translated as, “And Allah puts forward (another) example of two men, one of them dumb, who has no power over anything, and he is a burden on his master; whichever way he directs him, he brings no good.  Is such a man equal to one who commands justice, and is himself on the straight path?” (TMQ, an-Nahl:76)[1].

This ayah calls the passive person ‘a burden’ and the proactive person ‘one who commands justice.’  Would you like to stand before Allah (SWT) on the Day of Judgment as a dumb burden?

Why did the ayah specifically say ‘one who commands justice’ and not just ‘proactive?’  That is because proactiveness could be very easily aimed at corruption and injustice; hence, it could harm the society instead.  The ayah raises a few questions. Are they the same?  Are Muslims of nowadays the same as those who lived during the golden days of Islam?  Gentlemen, we are going to stand before Allah (SWT).  Are you willing to accept Allah (SWT) saying to you, “You were a burden.  You were a zero?”

Also, in Surat an-Naml, Allah (SWT) gives us an example of efficiency using a small creature, the ant.  Do you not feel ashamed of not even reaching the ant’s level?

My brothers and sisters, we want to be an addition everywhere: in the house, in the street, at college, at work.  We want to correct things and let people wonder, “Who did this?” No one will know except Allah (SWT).  Only then, you will be able to stand before Allah (SWT) on the Day of Judgment, knowing that you changed yourself and that you were beneficial to society. 

There is a full Surah in the Qur’an that tells us about proactiveness, a Surah that the Prophet (SAWS[2]) asked us to read every Friday morning; Surat al-Kahf (The Cave).  The reason behind asking us to read it on Fridays, which is usually our day off every week, is to teach us how to have a proactive attitude so we would apply it during the following week.

Surat al-Kahf tells us about the following:

·        A group of young men who left their country and took refuge in a cave

·        Musa (AS) (Moses) traveling with his boy-servant. Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as (Musa telling his boy-servant), “Truly, we have suffered much fatigue in this, our journey.” (TMQ, al-Kahf:62).

·        Musa and al-Khidr with Allah (SWT) referring to them repeatedly as what can be translated as, “So they both proceeded…” (TMQ, al-Kahf:71).

·        Dhul-Qarnain moving back and forth from one place to the other with Allah  saying repeatedly what can be translated as, “Until, when he came to the rising place of the sun” (TMQ, al-Kahf: 90) and what can be translated as “Until, when he reached between two mountains” (TMQ, al-Kahf: 93).

This Surah presents us with examples of proactiveness on various levels:

-         The youth advising the king (people of the cave).

-         The man advising his friend (owners of the gardens).

-         A teacher teaching his student (Musa and al-Khidr).

-         A leader guiding his people (Dhul-Qarnain).

Similarly, all Islamic rituals teach us proactiveness; for example, Sa’i (walking between al-Safa and al-Marwa[3]), in which we copy what Hajar did when she was looking for water for her son, Ishmael.  She could have just sat beside Ishmael crying, or she could have walked between al-Safa and al-Marwa once and said, “I tried enough.”  She could have collapsed and cried like we do.  On the contrary, Allah (SWT) made her a symbol of proactiveness and what she did became a ritual to teach us never to give up or loose hope.

Allah (SWT) has placed another example in the form of rules that govern the whole universe starting from the small atom and ending with the big galaxy.  There are powerful cores that affect everything revolving around them.  The atom consists of a proton and a number of electrons revolving around it.  Similarly, each galaxy consists of a sun and a number of planets orbiting around it.

The same rule applies on mankind.  There are proactive people who act as power centers affecting the lives of many others, and there are passive people who do nothing.  That is why I would like you, based on this episode, to be a power center affecting other people, making use of every minute of your life.     

Examples of people who were proactive:

Salman al-Farisi participated in the Battle of al-Khandaq (the Trench) and suggested digging a trench to prevent the disbelievers from approaching Madinah.  When the Muslims won the battle because of his idea, both al-Ansar and al-Muhajireen were trying to link themselves to him until the Prophet (SAWS) said that Salman was like a member of his own family.[4]

Al-Habbab Ibnul-Mundhir[5], who, in the Battle of Badr, advised the Prophet (SAWS) that the Muslim army should camp near the Well of Badr to prevent the disbelievers from reaching water.  The Prophet (SAWS) listened to him and said, “You’ve given the decisive advice.”  The Muslims did what he suggested and they won the battle although he was only 19 at the time.

In the battle of al-Qadisiyah[6], the Persian army on their elephants attacked the Muslims on their horses, which made the horses panic and run away against the will of their riders.  One of the Muslims, whose name is unknown to us, came up with an idea.  He made a figure resembling an elephant out of clay and put it in front of his horse.  The horse first panicked, and then attacked the figure.  When he entered the battlefield, his horse did not panic and he said, “Why not die if it means that the other Muslims would live.”  When the Muslims saw him, they did the same and won the battle.  A very simple idea but it made a difference in history.

Asma’ Bint Zayd was the first to ask the Prophet (SAWS) to specify a special day every week to lecture women and teach them religious issues.  The Prophet (SAWS) gave her what she asked for and she was the first one to initiate the concept of religious lessons for women.

Tameem al-Dari noticed that the Prophet’s mosque used to be dark at the Fajr (dawn) prayer and the Isha (night) prayer, so he brought some lamps to light it, which made the Prophet (SAWS) say a prayer for him that any one of us would love to have said to us, “Oh, Allah, make him happy in this life and the hereafter.”

Frankly, the person who is proactive is courageous while the other who’s passive is a coward.

One more example by a person named in history after his good deed: Saheb al-Nakab (the tunnel maker).  This man dug a tunnel under the gates of the fort where the Persians took refuge and managed to crawl through it and open the gate for the Muslims, so they got in and won the battle.  No one knew who he was until the army leader insisted on meeting him, so the soldier came hiding his face and refused to give out his name or take any reward for what he did because having this proactive attitude is a reward in itself.

If you really want to be religious and get your great reward on the Day of Judgment then be proactive.  

Solaiman’s[7] (AS) (Solomon) hoopoe (type of bird) informed Solaiman about the ‘Queen of Sheba’ and her nation who used to worship the sun.  Due to this hoopoe’s proactive attitude, a whole nation converted to Islam.

We need hoopoes for this nation, don’t we?

The ant in Solaiman’s story, not selfish enough to hide away by herself; told all the other ants to get inside their homes so they would not be crushed by Solaiman and his soldiers.

The Prophet (SAWS) said that whoever brings happiness to a Muslim home has to be rewarded with entering paradise.

All these examples are not just stories that we narrate; they are practical examples to help you and motivate you to break your chains.  I am not addressing the youth only; I am also addressing housewives.

Here, I will present some statistics that were mentioned in a thesis attaining a doctorate about the Prophet’s wives and his followers’ wives and the number of people (men and women) they educated:

• Aisha taught 232 men and 67 women.
• Umm Salamah taught 78 men and 23 women.
• Hafsah Bint Omar, who was first illiterate but learned from Umm Salamah, taught 17 men and 3 women.
• Asma’ Bint Abu-Bakr taught 19 men and 2 women.
• Asma’ Bint Umais taught 11 men and 2 women.
• Ramlah Bint Abu-Sufyan taught 18 men and 3 women.

Can you imagine these numbers? What did you do?

Perhaps it would be easier to see the difference when I present you with a contemporary example of a person who did something similar to these statistics.  He is a computer engineer, a proactive engineer, and one that we can call a ‘life maker.’  He started a project to teach the youth how to use computers for free in order to provide them with the basic skills as long as they are serious enough to learn.  His name is Engineer Ahmad Sami and he decided along with ten of his colleges to start a computer-training center that would train others at no charge. One year after beginning their project, they had trained 200 young men, who in turn, started to train others.

Why do we not do the same? What that engineer and his colleges did is not supernatural or difficult to copy.  They did this to be examples of proactiveness. Their example is not a unique one like that of Khaldun’s, which is a difficult one to imitate.  This is a normal example, possible to copy.  When we hear some idea, we do not feel convinced enough until we see them embodied before us, then we get a strange feeling of envy in our hearts and minds.  Why could we not do the same?

Another example from real life is for a trader in Halab (Aleppo), Syria.  He was a simple man who noticed that there are lots of widows who needed a source of income so he started to collect money from the neighbors on a monthly basis to cover the widows’ expenses.  After a while, he noticed that the monthly amounts that the neighbors used to pay started to decrease, so he decided to start a project.  He started to deliver to the neighbors their needs of vegetables and groceries against a 10% increase.  His motto was, “the truthful and the honest.”  The number of his customers increased, his sales increased and he started to buy the food for a lesser cost, consequently his profit increased.  After a while, he managed to buy a motorcycle, then a truck, and then a fleet of trucks.  Afterwards, he started to go to the widows offering them to work in cleaning and cooking the vegetables.  That way, through his proactive attitude, he managed to end the unemployment problem for these widows by providing them with an opportunity to work instead of waiting for financial support from others.

To be more practical, we’ve located a certain product that requires a lot of cheap labor but does not require advanced techniques or huge assets.  This industry is the children’s toys.  Having learnt that there was an exhibition in Germany for all children toys and games, we visited that exhibition only to find out that Europe, during the year 2002, imported toys for 11 billion dollars from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Many countries participated in that exhibition from all over the world: 227 companies from China, 204 companies from Hong Kong, 102 companies from Taiwan, 23 companies from Israel, and 3 companies from the whole Arab world.

One of the toys that were in that exhibition was a teddy bear, sold for $1.08 each.  They were made in China, which is about 40 days away from Europe by sea, whereas the Arab world is only 3 days away from Europe.

This is only an example for a simple product made out of fibers, fabrics and buttons.  It is a sample study that tells us how we should learn to be proactive.

Two men (Yosha’ and Kaleb) of those who feared Allah (SWT) and on whom Allah (SWT) had bestowed His Grace were mentioned in the Qur’an where Allah  says what can be translated as, "Assault them through the gate; for when you are in, victory will be yours; and put your trust in Allah if you are believers indeed." (TMQ, al-Ma’idah: 23).

Do you understand the meaning behind this ayah? Take a step forward; move!

I will tell you a secret.  I met one person last week and he told me, “Do you think that, with one or two episodes, you could change the behavior of someone who has been stumbling for years?” I answered, “A strong will could revive a nation, and my will cannot be deterred.”  He said, “That’s not enough.” I replied, “The people want to change. If you go on the website, you will see for yourself the number of youth waiting to take action.”  He said, “That’s still not enough.”  I said, “The people do not want to hear just stories.  The proof is that after the first three episodes, they are telling me to stop with the theories; they want to work.  Therefore, we are going to give them practical examples of people who succeeded in life to see how ideas can become reality.  This will motivate them to copy those people and every episode from now on will end with a practical project to test the percentage of people who reacted and proceed with the actual work.”  He then said, “We will see, maybe.”

I am asking you now, what do you think? Are we going to see a reaction? Maybe or definitely?

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