Dean’s List Vs Deen’s List

“Congratulations, you’ll be honoured with the Chancellor Award!”.  What a wonderful world would it be, if only the award is bestowed to us, with all the honourable endowment and being acknowledged as the top student, for getting Dean’s list in all semesters. Dean’s list! The cherished desire of every students, whom are always trying to give their best by sacrificing their time, money, enjoyment , so they will achieve ‘superb’ results in every examination. Talking about sacrifices, have you ever heard about those people who are willing to devote whatever they possess, to get Deen’s list instead?

“And of men there is he who would sell himself to seek the pleasure of Allah; and Allah is Compassionate to His servants.” [Al-Baqarah, 2:207] 

Deen’s list, or in other words, Allah’s list. An award of innumerable value, if compared to the Dean’s list. Not every student would be willing to strive in obtaining Deen’s list. And perhaps not everyone has even  ponder to sacrifice whatever they are blessed with, to be bestowed with this award. Why? Granted, this wondrous ‘golden star’ is very hard to achieve, preposterous! But it would never be impossible.  The same thing goes to a person’s dream to achieve both Dean’s and the Deen’s list.

How to acquire the Dean’s list, and at the same time, to capture real list of Him? Here we go :

i. Wicked time-management
Wicked? The term ‘wicked’ here does not imply the evil or nefarious meaning, but it is a kind of being masterful in your own time planning. Yes, that’s it! M-A-S-T-E-R-F-U-L . This keyword signifies that our methods in arranging our time and scheduling is very important : How much we can divide our time, so we can optimize it for both Deen’s and Dean’s stuffs?  As the Arabic proverb says,   “Time is like a sword: if you don't cut it, it cuts you. Or in other words,  "If you don't make use of your time, it will make use of you" .

ii.  Never Jumble Up your PRIORITY
              Undoubtedly, we as Muslims must put our Deen as the first, of our priorities.  Let me give you a simple phenomena : Someone is doing his assignment, with full concentration, wishing that he can finish it up as soon as possible. Few minutes after that, the Azan is heard. What should we do? Continue with our assignment or come back to it later after fulfilling our duties to our Allah first? Do not let the assignments and studying to be an excuse, from     fulfilling our duties to Allah S.W.T.,  the one most prioritized.
 
iii. Do not Let your Niat Lose Track
            Let us look back into our hearts, and observe  our niat.  For whom do we live for, why do we try to struggle in our studies. Indeed, we must  always straighten our niat, everything is for Him. Not only in our prayers or  fasting but in whatever we do. Insya-Allah.

“Surely We have revealed to you the Book with the truth, therefore serve Allah, being sincere to Him in obedience.” [Az-Zumar, 39:2]

Indeed, SUCCESS is a MUST for a Muslim

What does the word success mean to you? According to Oxford Dictionaries (2013), success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. While in archaic term, success is the good or bad outcome of an undertaking. As we can see, people nowadays are prone to misunderstanding of the actual meaning of success. Most of them when asked, will simply answer that success is the precious time when they manage to conquer the prosperity of this world. Either the success in their studies, or career, in form of wealth!

It is undeniable that everyone in this miraculous world wants to succeed. Nevertheless, as Muslims, we should understand the actual meaning of ’success’ in Islam. Islam treats the term of ’success’  in a much deeper and vast meaning than simply attaining something as temporary as wealth, fame or position. Instead, Islam treats these as distributions of the bounty of the Allah S.W.T The Most Merciful  to any amongst his servants His slaves He pleases, NOT a barometer of success.

What is the life of this world but play and amusement? But best is the home in the hereafter, for those who are righteous.  Will ye not then understand? 

[Al-An’am, 6:32]

In Islam, we have to strike a ’boom’ in both the world and hereafter. Achieving the prosperity in the academic or corporate world does not mean that we can be delinquent  in  our  duties  to    attain   His    maghfirah    and mardhatillah. Certainly, the journey to reach our finishing line is a hard-fought battle. Attaining His pleasure is not a simple task. We have to be obedient to Him, and the most important thing, be sincere to Allah.

Sometimes, though we have reached the ‘high’ in achieving our goals, we still feel that we are unsatisfied, and not in peace. We feel like our life is desolated. Why? Reflect back to our intention in life. For what reason do we live for? Why do we struggle in this counterfeit world? For whom? Is it true that we live for Allah?  

Let us perceive this verse :

"I have only created 

jinns and men,
that they may serve Me."
[Az-Zariyat, 51:56 ]