This week in the Green Stairs Leadership Academy, my homework was to review the Islamic Salat page in Arabic and English and write a thousand word essay on what I learned last class. I completed my homework. I walked into class at around 7:30 AM and started my school homework as the official class didn\u2019t begin until 9:30. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the lecture started, the first topic we discussed was QHA, which stands for Qur\u2019an, Hadith, accountability. Essentially, this means that the first source we should direct ourselves to when interpreting the legality of something in an Islamic context would be the Qur\u2019an, and the second would be the Hadith (declarations\/commandments of the Prophet PBUH). Thirdly, we should always remember that at the end of the day, we will be held accountable for our actions and the decisions we make. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At this point, I had left the class and had begun having a discussion w S, one of the co-teachers of the class regarding materialism. S is a very accomplished businessman who has achieved great feats throughout his life, especially considering the tough circumstances that he had dealt with as a youth in a third-world country. I was talking to him about how over the years, I have come to realize that the material things of this world will not make me happier, and will only lead to the desire for more. Worst of all, this pattern is exponential. He gave me anecdotes of his life when he was only a few years older than me, hustling on the streets of his home country making a killing, and being able to finally afford the comforts of this world, which allowed him luxuries that he had never experienced before. He told me of his former dream car; a Range Rover. When he had the means to afford the car, however, he had realized that it wasn\u2019t even something that would improve the quality of his life, it was just a desire of this dunya (world). He also mentioned the guilt that he would feel driving such an expensive car, only to pass people on the street who didn\u2019t even have $10 to their name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
His words definitely resonated with me; every time me or any of my brothers start gawking over some new phone, car, etcetera my mother always told us that these things didn\u2019t matter. Did I listen? No. You see, although I am aware of the useless nature of such items, I still chase after them. If I have the money, I will go and buy those new sneakers, that jacket, or any other useless thing because it gives me that temporary satisfaction. I know it\u2019s wrong, but I won\u2019t stop. It sounds horrible to say this, but it\u2019s the only real motivation I have to do anything. I\u2019m a straight A student taking the hardest classes available to me, but I don\u2019t care about school. Why do I do it then? Besides my parents being typically Desi parents who deem anything below overachievement to be disgraceful, it\u2019s because my main goal at the moment (and for quite some time now) is to be very rich when I grow up. I\u2019ve become a slave to consumerism. In Kanye West\u2019s song \u201cAll Falls Down\u201d he depicted the American struggle of addiction to retail. In one line, he said \u201cWe\u2019ll buy a lot of clothes but we don\u2019t really need \u2018em, (these are) things we do to cover up what\u2019s inside.\u201d Only two lines later, he said that he wouldn\u2019t even attempt to act \u201cholier than thou\u201d as he is guilty of doing the same thing\u2019 he spoke of a time where he visited a high-end retail store and spent over $25,000 on merchandise, all before he had even bought a home for himself. A lot of the time when we do these things, it isn\u2019t even for ourselves, we just want to prove to others that we have the means to be frivolous with our wealth. For now, however, I think it\u2019s good for me to have some sort of attachment to material things because quite honestly, it motivates me to work harder than everyone else. I\u2019ll eventually grow out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I got back to class, the first topic we discussed was slacker, cruiser, and hacker. Essentially, the three aforementioned groups are archetypes for people in this world. There are slackers, who do below the bare minimum, and end up with subpar results in life. Next are the cruisers, they do what is required, but don\u2019t go above and beyond and for this reason, they will generally live a good life, but not a stupendous life. FInally, we have the hackers; these are the people who will learn the system, and exploit it to accomplish everything ten times better and faster than everyone else. These are the people who reach the top. This is who I want to be, I want to be financially free, I don\u2019t want to be 40 years old mopping up Wendy\u2019s. There\u2019s nothing wrong with it, it\u2019s honest work and it\u2019ll pay the bills, but I want more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next thing we discussed was the story of Prophet Noah (PBUH) and the story when he was swallowed by a whale. When inside the whale, he made dua to be freed, and he eventually made it out alive. This anecdote depicts the immense power of dua (prayer) and how we should always make dua.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next thing Teacherji went over was the fact that no matter how good we are at something, we should never get too smart for our own age, as this will lead to an inevitable downfall. You see, when one gets to the point when they believe they are too good to acquire more knowledge, multiple things happen. The first of which would be the fact that it results in an ego, which God dislikes. Shaitan was once \u201ctop dawg\u201d in Heaven, he was such a good guy that God had elevated him to the level of an Angel. Due to the fact that he became arrogant, however, he was banished from his former glory. The next thing that happens is that you become complacent. An excellent example of this would be the Blackberry phone company. At one point in time, the Blackberry was the staple cellular device for businessmen, it was a status symbol at that time in the same way that an iPhone is today. Although they were very successful, they stuck to their old-school methodology, and refused to innovate. As a result of this, Apple (followed by LG, Samsung, Google, and other competitors) came along and beat them in the race. Today, the company is struggling because they were too smart for their \u201cage\u201d and believed themselves to be hot stuff when they were as susceptible to being knocked off as anyone else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite what I mentioned above, it is important, however, to have confidence in your ability to do something, you just need to be able to back it up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next topic we went over was the concept of sheep and goats. The way Teacherji explains it, there are two types of people in this world; sheep, and goats. Sheep follow the crowd, don\u2019t stand out too much, and keep to themselves. Most of the world\u2019s population consists of sheep. Goats, however, travel alone, and speak their mind (just like how a real goat would do). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
An excellent example of this would be Jeff Bezos, one of the biggest goats in the world today. When he first had the idea of Amazon Prime (Amazon\u2019s premium expedited shipping service) he faced a lot of backlash from people who said his idea would be too difficult to implement. Rather than backing off, he fought to accomplish what he believed in and now many of the world\u2019s largest retailers are looking to Amazon for inspiration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our next topic was bullseye, which we also discussed last week. Essentially, rather than only going for the center \u201cbullseye\u201d when playing darts, it is better to go for the smaller points as you will have a greater chance of racking up more points by going for the easier to score targets. We shouldn\u2019t get too technical when practicing Islam. An example would be Domino\u2019s Pizza. When the workers cut the pizza, they use the same utensils they used on the pepperoni or sausage pizza, so doesn\u2019t that make the pizza haram? Even if it doesn\u2019t contain haram meat? Technically, yes, but focusing on something like that is above our paygrade. It would be more productive to focus on something we can actually control. Moral of the story: don\u2019t aim for perfection, unless you\u2019re the President, it\u2019s not your job to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last topic we went over was the fact that we live in a world that is inherently flawed. We don\u2019t live in a utopia where everything is perfect so trying to make it so will inevitably prove itself counterintuitive. Human nature isn\u2019t moral, it\u2019s opportunistic, we have to train ourselves to be moral. Many people fail to train themselves to do so, which is why our world is so messed up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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