Managing a Muslim's Life While Maintaining Balance

In today’s world, Muslims face a multitude of competing demands. Unfortunately, there is a significant gap between our current actions and the collective work required to ensure we are truly upholding our divine obligations.

To bridge this gap, our primary focus must be the pursuit of authentic Islamic knowledge. By sincerely learning and comprehending the tenets of our faith, we can align our actions with what is most pleasing to Allah. This path of devotion offers the hope of a tranquil, fulfilling life in this world and, Insha’Allah, the attainment of Allah’s mercy and eternal Paradise in the Hereafter.

We must then introduce individuals to Islam in the most appropriate and powerful ways possible once we have a firm foundation in our knowledge of and observance of our faith.

This is a huge task, given how little people know about Islam in modern society. For all of us who are sincere in our desire to forge strong links of brotherhood among the followers of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), defending Islam against those who seek to stifle its expansion and against those who mistreat Muslims is likewise a top priority. For the benefit of all people, we must improve the lot of Muslims in the modern world and reinstate the supremacy of Allah and His laws.

Of course, we need help to complete these tasks. As much as we’d like to, we also can only accomplish some of these tasks at a time. What matters most is prioritizing and creating balance in our life. The fard, or necessary acts of worship (‘ibadat) and actions (mu’amalat), come first in terms of importance. This indicates that since Allah is the One who created us and gives us everything we require for this life, He is the One to whom we have obligations first. We must obey Him because we believe that He will only give us commands that are in our best interests and would only prevent us from doing things that will hurt us.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is significant because he explains Allah’s instructions and offers advice. Although the Qur’an provides instruction for all people, it is unable to enlighten us of every aspect of our everyday existence. We can never compare to the piety and knowledge of Prophet Muhammad, but we are not required to. The Prophet Muhammad urged us to adhere to the Qur’an and then do our utmost to follow his teachings.

First, we must strengthen our personal faith and knowledge of Islam before tackling our environment. We are unable to complete everything at once, as I previously stated. We have rights over our bodies. Although getting appropriate nourishment, rest, and exercise is crucial, we devote only some time to these activities. Although we recognize that our relatives and friends have rights over us, we do not devote all of our time and energy to trying to win their favour. We acknowledge that our society has rights over us, but we do not give our lives to upholding those rights at the expense of our loved ones and selves. 

Instead of spreading oneself too thin by fighting for multiple causes at once and failing to give each one the attention and effort it requires, it is best to choose one cause and excel at it. To sum up, the fundamental priorities that Muslims should establish are as follows: 

1. Allah: obeying His directives and adoring Him
2. Following as closely as possible the Sunnah (traditions and customs) of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). 
3. Respecting and obeying your parents
4. Cherishing and safeguarding partners and kids 
5. Treating your extended family with respect and kindness 
6. Love your Muslim friends and encourage them to uphold the moral standards. 
7. Society: trying to make it better and pointing it in the direction of Allah.

Sometimes, orators and writers unintentionally give us accounts of marvelous spiritual accomplishments in isolated episodes that mislead the audience into thinking that the ancient masters were above reproach and experienced no difficulty in achieving and preserving righteousness. When you study the illustrious companions of the prophet Muhammad (allallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam; peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)’s biographies, you will see that Qurba (Nearness to Allah) is something that people genuinely struggle to achieve. They overcame temptation, faced drunkenness, confronted racism and tribalism, suffered the pain of divorce, and confessed both serious and little crimes.

Balance and moderation have always been goals of spiritual gurus in the past and will continue to be goals in the future.

The Akhira is outside our domain and looks so far away, yet the Dunya beckons with its attainable magnificence. How can we strike a balance in this situation? What should we do if what is supposed to guarantee our salvation is spiritually unethical? What if the Qur’an does not move the heart and our Salat does not provide comfort? When du’a, with all of its need and agonized complaint, appears hollow, where should one turn? Is there an alternative to pursuing the palpable, albeit transient, luxury of life at the price of the virtuously challenging route that leads to eternal comfort if the seemingly good deeds leave one in an unfulfilled apathy?

Three complementary goals can be divided into the concept of balance as it relates to our aspirations in life:

1- Steadiness is the ability to go through an unstable situation while remaining somewhat steady.

2- Stability is the process of giving two opposing forces equal weight, respect, and importance to successfully cancel them out and achieve a result of continued stability.

3- Knowing that what we put back in, equality, will balance out what we take out.

Islam seeks balance in its purest form, as demonstrated by the Sunnah, the manner of life of the Prophet Muhammad (allallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam; peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).