Thursday 13 January 2011

Non-Religious Professionals

While going through a bunch of online profiles of professionals in the same field as me as well as other fields, I was surprised to find how many of them don't pray salah on a regular basis. It's disappointing.

Sunan at-Tirmidhi (Jami-al-Tirmidhi) Chapter No: 1, Taharah (Purification)
Hadith no: 4
Narrated: Jabir bin Abdullah
narrated that Allah's Messenger (SAW) said,"They key to paradise is the salah and the key to the salah is ablution." [Ahmed14668]

Is it necessary to compromise your deen in order to have a great career? Or to even do well in it? Or it just the way the world works now? A dedicated worker cannot be a family man/woman, actively working on their imaan and leading a healthy lifestyle? If we have to give up one thing to accommodate another, I have to wonder who made up these rules in the first place.

10 comments:

AlabasterMuslim said...

Most Muslims work with non-muslims, and since the kaffirs are the majority (depending where you are i guess) they often times feel too shy to let their boss know they will need to be taking a break to pray. Its sad though. But I definitely believe that if you have your priorities straight, you can be a hard worker and work on your imaan. However if you have to work on one more than the other, Islam comes first.

Fatou Thioune said...

they dot pray salah at work or just not pray at all?

single4now said...

Alabaster - I can understand it being uncomfortable to explain but it's not about skipping prayers at work. It's about praying whenever you feel like. And your boss can't stop you from praying. I think you can manage to take a few minutes break to pray. But I've seen this problem more among the highly educated Muslims. It seems the more educated you are, the less religious you end up being. I'm sure there are exceptions.

Toush - I think if a person is just not regular with their prayers, they are probably not praying at work. Perhaps they only give importance to jummah.

Anonymous said...

Which website would you suggest, or that you are currently using and finding okay?!

single4now said...

I would rather not name a specific website. I think this might help you in deciding:
http://halfthedeen.blogspot.com/2010/05/choosing-matrimonial-site.html

I wouldn't want to recommend a particular site. But I've heard good things of singlemuslim & halfourdeen.com. Depends on who you are looking for and what suits you best. I had made a post listing matrimonial websites as a general note, not as recommending any to anyone. Then I started receiving advert comments from sites trying to promote themselves. Since I know nothing about those websites, I didn't want to approve the comments.

A word of caution - make sure your parents are involved in the process and they approve.

* said...

...it's not about praying though, it's about living Islamically. If it's not separated then there is no discussion about it.
Prayer (5 x) daily is our life.

single4now said...

How do you live Islamically, if you do not pray? Maybe I missed a point?

BrownS said...

It's just another manifestation of Shaytan's traps for us. He makes us pursue the dunya, and this view is positively reinforced when you get "success" in the workplace.

Another factor is an inferiority complex - many irreligious people may have succeeded in the worldly sense, but they become our inspiration for more than that. For example we like some things about the West, but we unquestioningly swallow a lot of other things from them as well.

Finally there's a certain self-sufficiency that comes with high positions in big companies. You feel less inclined to seek help and support from Allah because you somehow feel you don't really need it. Shaytan, again.

Sara said...

Assalaam Alaikum sis,

I understand where you're coming from, but I wouldn't go so far as to attribute this trend solely to professional/those who are highly educated in secular fields. Even those who may not be very educated at all, yet have indulged a great deal in this dunya, find their prayers to be of little importance (Astaghfirullah).

Alhumdulillah, I'm blessed to be part of a highly educated, yet at the same time religious family as well (of course we're all striving to do our best). It all depends on how much understanding one has of the deen and how much Allah guides a person.

Ultimately, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us all toward becoming believers.

single4now said...

BrownS - mashaAllah beautifully put. Couldn't have explained it better.

Sara - that's true. This problem doesn't just affect professionals but somehow I felt it was more common among them. I assumed that their work consumed so much of their time that it left little for the remembrance of Allah (swt). MashaAllah, it's great that your family raised you with the ability to maintain a balance.

May Allah guide us all to the straight path and make it easy for us. Ameen.