Balance on the Path – The Value of Success (Part 3)

Part 2 Recap

True success is not in our achievements or our wealth, or even specifically our outcomes. True success is in our consistently striving to do the right thing.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَنْظُرُ إِلَى صُوَرِكُمْ وَأَمْوَالِكُمْ وَلَكِنْ يَنْظُرُ إِلَى قُلُوبِكُمْ وَأَعْمَالِكُمْ

“Indeed, Allah does not look at your appearance or wealth, but rather He looks at your hearts and actions.” – Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) in a Sahih hadith

Success is not in our being granted success in the worldly life but rather in our efforts and in Allah accepting those efforts; regardless of their outcome.

Achieving within our means

Not everyone will be expected to do every single good deed but we should strive to do the best we can.

Doing one’s best is not the same as being the best in the world. We strive to do our best, within our means. We should aim for our personal best.

For example if we are a billionaire then giving a few million to charity may be easy. For those of that are having to count the coins more closely, giving even £10 in charity may be considered weighty in our book of deeds.

لَن تَنَالُوا۟ ٱلْبِرَّ حَتَّىٰ تُنفِقُوا۟ مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ ۚ وَمَا تُنفِقُوا۟ مِن شَىْءٍۢ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِهِۦ عَلِيمٌۭ

“You will never achieve righteousness until you donate some of what you cherish. And whatever you give is certainly well known to Allah.” — Quran 3:92

ٱلَّذِينَ يَلْمِزُونَ ٱلْمُطَّوِّعِينَ مِنَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِى ٱلصَّدَقَـٰتِ وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَجِدُونَ إِلَّا جُهْدَهُمْ فَيَسْخَرُونَ مِنْهُمْ ۙ سَخِرَ ٱللَّهُ مِنْهُمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ

“˹There are˺ those who slander ˹some of˺ the believers for donating liberally and mock others for giving only the little they can afford. Allah will throw their mockery back at them, and they will suffer a painful punishment.” — Quran 9:79

We should always try to do the right thing. Aiming to always do what is within our means, and then pushing ourselves a bit further so that we can grow.

If we’re working from home it should be easy to find time to pray. If we’re at work, it may be harder but we should still ensure we find time to pray on time. Even if it seems unlikely we will find time to pray in line with the rest of our work.

When we make the effort to try, from his boundless blessings Allah will provide for us. We will find openings where we couldn’t have imagined. We need simply to try and Allah will open doors from where we couldn’t even have imagined. Nothing is impossible for him.

مَآ أَصَابَ مِن مُّصِيبَةٍۢ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِىٓ أَنفُسِكُمْ إِلَّا فِى كِتَـٰبٍۢ مِّن قَبْلِ أَن نَّبْرَأَهَآ ۚ إِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ يَسِيرٌۭ

“No calamity ˹or blessing˺ occurs on earth or in yourselves without being ˹written˺ in a Record before We bring it into being. This is certainly easy for Allah.” — Quran 57:22

وَلَسَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَىٰٓ

“And ˹surely˺ your Lord will give so much to you that you will be pleased.” — Quran 93:5

Balancing Time

All of this striving however shouldn’t come at the expense of our other obligations. Our obligations to our communities, our families and even to ourselves.

Some of the most important rights we owe to others are the rights we owe to our parents and treating them correctly as they treated us well for years when raising us. There is also the right we owe to ourselves, taking time for ourself to rest and relax.

Even the best generation, the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) were urged to find a balance in how they spent their time.

One of the companions Hanzalah was finding that when he was away from the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) he wasn’t as close to Allah as when he was with the Prophet (ﷺ):

كُنَّا عِنْدَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ فَذَكَرْنَا الْجَنَّةَ وَالنَّارَ حَتَّى كَأَنَّا رَأْىَ الْعَيْنِ فَقُمْتُ إِلَى أَهْلِي وَوَلَدِي فَضَحِكْتُ وَلَعِبْتُ . قَالَ : فَذَكَرْتُ الَّذِي كُنَّا فِيهِ فَخَرَجْتُ فَلَقِيتُ أَبَا بَكْرٍ فَقُلْتُ : نَافَقْتُ، نَافَقْتُ . فَقَالَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ : إِنَّا لَنَفْعَلُهُ . فَذَهَبَ حَنْظَلَةُ فَذَكَرَهُ لِلنَّبِيِّ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ فَقَالَ : ” يَا حَنْظَلَةُ لَوْ كُنْتُمْ كَمَا تَكُونُونَ عِنْدِي لَصَافَحَتْكُمُ الْمَلاَئِكَةُ عَلَى فُرُشِكُمْ – أَوْ عَلَى طُرُقِكُمْ – يَا حَنْظَلَةُ سَاعَةٌ وَسَاعَةٌ “

Hanzalah Tamimi Al-Usaiyidi, then went and spoke to the Prophet (ﷺ), who said: “O Hanzalah, if you were (always) as you are with me, the angels would shake hands with you in your beds and in your streets. O Hanzalah, there is a time for this and a time for that.” [Sahih]

In his advice to them the Prophet reminded his companions that this was natural and advised them to take ” سَاعَةٌ وَسَاعَةٌ” – literally “one hour and one hour”. Meaning one hour for worshipping God and one hour to attend to their own needs.

The advice centres around balancing the time we spend in worship with time we take to recharge ourselves. We acknowledge the need in ourselves to recharge. Even downtime is an act of worship when it’s halal and done with the intention of resting and allowing us to be our best selves in the future.

A balanced life

Living a balanced life does not mean we are necessarily happy or elated at all points in our journey. Life is about more than just fulfilling our own egos (nafs), rather it is about worshipping God sincerely in all of our actions. Through that worship we find the immense tranquility (sakinah) and comfort of being close to our creator and knowing our purpose in life.

“ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا بِذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ ٱلْقُلُوبُ “

those who have attained faith and whose hearts become serene with the remembrance of Allah. Undoubtedly, it is in the remembrance of Allah that hearts find comfort.” — Qur’an 13:28

What is important is that when we look back on our lives we see that every step had a purpose. We see that even the steps that were difficult were done with purpose and in service of something greater. If something was difficult at least we can look back on it and say that we’re comfortable, and happy, that it was the right thing todo with our understanding at the time.

The aim of this life isn’t to enjoy yourself, but you may find yourself enjoying it immensely along the way. Through our journey in life, maybe we had rough days, and hard times but at every step along the way we were working towards something greater than ourselves.

As the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) tells us, it is not our good deeds that will let us enter paradise, but rather Allah’s mercy. We strive to do good deeds only because they are the right thing to do. They are what pleases Allah and brings comfort to our own soul.

أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ” سَدِّدُوا وَقَارِبُوا، وَاعْلَمُوا أَنْ لَنْ يُدْخِلَ أَحَدَكُمْ عَمَلُهُ الْجَنَّةَ، وَأَنَّ أَحَبَّ الأَعْمَالِ أَدْوَمُهَا إِلَى اللَّهِ، وَإِنْ قَلَّ “

Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, “Do good deeds properly, sincerely and moderately and know that your deeds will not make you enter Paradise, and that the most beloved deed to Allah is the most regular and constant even if it were little.” [Sahih]

Self Compassion

Even when we slip and are not able to fully complete our deeds, we must endeavour to have self-compassion with ourselves. What does it mean to practice self-compassion and to forgive ourselves?

It is to accept that we’re fallible, and that no matter how hard we may try to do something, or how high we may set our goals, we may sometimes slip or fail.

قال رسول الله (ﷺ) : “‏والذي نفسي بيده لو لم تذنبوا، لذهب الله تعالى بكم، ولجاء بقوم يذنبون فيستغفرون الله تعالى فيغفر لهم‏”

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “By the One in Whose Hand my soul is! If you do not commit sins, Allah would replace you with a people who would commit sins and seek forgiveness from Allah; and Allah will certainly forgive them.”

We can only try and if we fail, we assess what we did, try to make amends as best as possible, think of a path to improve in future and move on. Insha’Allah we will still be rewarded by Allah for our trying.

” الرَّاحِمُونَ يَرْحَمُهُمُ الرَّحْمَنُ ارْحَمُوا أَهْلَ الأَرْضِ يَرْحَمْكُمْ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاءِ “

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The Compassionate One has mercy on those who are merciful. If you show mercy to those who are on the earth, He who is in the heaven will show mercy to you.

“رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَآ أَنفُسَنَا وَإِن لَّمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْخَـٰسِرِينَ”

“Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If You do not forgive us and have mercy on us, we will certainly be of those who are losers.” — Qur’an 7:23

Summary

In conclusion we strive for success but not at the expense of other important obligations in life. Instead of defining success as our value — we see sincerity as a value we constantly seek to embody.

We take comfort in knowing that our reward is with Allah, not measured by our worldly success but measured by our sincerity in our endeavours. We are each measured by our own yard-stick on the day of judgement and not compared to others’ situations.

The most important aspect is always having pure intention and doing what we believe to be most pleasing to Allah.

We ask Allah for success as all success is from him alone:

”مَا تَوْفِيقِىٓ إِلَّا بِٱللَّهِ ۚ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَإِلَيْهِ أُنِيبُ“

“My success comes only through Allah. In Him I trust and to Him I turn.” — Quran 11:88

Other parts in this series – ”The Value of Success“:

Part 1 – Is Success A Human Value?

Part 2 – The Path to Success

Part 3 – Balance on the Path

Further reading: