we pray to god so that we are strong enough to face the obstacles along our journey towards our goal. we pray so that the path for us to success will be easier. we pray so that the people around us will be easy to lend us a helping hand whenever we are in a predicament. we pray so that there will be a guide for us to follow towards success instead of blindly walking along the path of life. it doesnt matter what religion one follows, one can always pray and ask for blessings and guidance. well, unless one dont believe in god or higher entity then one will not pray.
then come the usaha part which is straight forward. you reap what you sow. enough said. the bounty we get is usually proportional to the amount of the work and dedication we give.
the last part is tawakal which is berserah. i dont really know how to describe this word in english actually. it's like leaving it to god. so after we pray to god and after we try our best to achieve what we want we leave the outcome to god. this is the part that a lot of people use the word tawakal wrongly. we always see people say they tawakal/berserah je la when they give up in trying to pursue their dream or when people dont even bother to try to work for it in the first place and say i leave it to fate/god to determine my future. that is just plain wrong. see to me, tawakal is regardless of what the outcome of our actions, works or situations, we make peace with it. we accept it as it is and be grateful to god. we dont dwell in the past sulking about it or we become proud/arrogant from our achievement in the past. tawakal is believing in god to give the best outcome He thinks you deserve based on your work and prayer. tawakal is not a substitute for usaha/work nor it is a shortcut in order to get success. lots of people give up halfway trying to get success and said one leave it to fate but when the outcome is bad they become dissatisfied and blame god or unfairness in this world of why other people are more successful. please, dont try to abuse the system. we will just make a fool out of ourselves.
god has given a lot of fortunes in the world and it is everywhere for everyone to get them. everyone doesnt mean just for the followers. it literally mean every living being in the world. as long as we work to get and collect the fortune we will get them. so dont compare ourselves to others saying why they get a better life when they dont pray to god as much as we do. they work to get the fortunes and they get it. we cant get things done if we only pray and leave it to god without even move a finger to get things settled. it doesnt work like that. god is fair. see it is not wrong for us to work to get the fortunes in this world. Islam dont forbid you to collect all the wealth in this world and it is totally wrong for us to look at fortunes as something bad.
so overall we work for our aim and at the same time pray to god to get blessings and help along the way and we be grateful with the outcome regardless of how good/bad it is. we dont grumble or despair with bad outcome nor do we show off and look down on others with good outcome. we accept it and make full use of it for our future undertaking. we reflect on ourselves what we did wrong or what we lacked so that we can improve ourselves to be a better person. we look at our strengths and what we did right and think of how to do things more efficient or how we can use those strengths to benefit others; family, friends, society. we keep improving ourselves and be grateful to god along the way.
let's say in relationship, we don't blame people with good looks and wealth to get good looking partner or also wealthy partner. it's not in our place to say that it's not fair they have an easy life while you dont. do you know how hard their ancestors work to get their family to live a good life? do you think it is fair for someone who plan carefully, work hard, and grab every opportunity coming in one way to secure a good life for one's family only to have their descendants live like a pauper or commoner? in relationship yes we pray that we will get a good partner. good in term of physical, attitudes, manners, wealth, and well basically complete package. nevertheless, do we work for it? getting partner is not as easy as getting mate in animal kingdoms. we need to prepare ourselves with the knowledge, ways to support our own lives when we are in relationship not to mention the work needed to attract other people. we work on getting a good physical. it's the first thing people judge regardless of what others say. if youre hideous people wont like you. make ourselves look clean, smart and attracting. get good education, read, baca, iqra. fill ourselves with knowledge because knowledge is sexy and with education you can land yourself a good job thus securing your wealth and stability. in laws dont want to see their children living in a pitiful condition not being able to support the family improve our mentality/behaviour/attitude/manners. people dont get attracted to bad manners.
again we cant dictate the society not to be superficial and materialistic for one can only control one's own body. what we can do is to make ourselves better to be able to compete with the others meanwhile we ourselves try not to be materialistic and superficial to other people. values can be preached but not forced on others.
Yeah what a long rant.
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