Food for Soul (Dish 2)

I'm gonna start by stating a disclaimer. I'm in no way feel that I am more educated than you in Islamic religion. I'm just sharing my thoughts on certain things. I can be right, but I also can be wrong. It is said that if we do ijtihad and we're right, we'll get two merits. But if we're wrong, we'll still get one reward. Why? Because we utilize the brain God gave us.

I'm also a procrastinator. Big time lazy person. I hope when I write this, I'll put myself in my own way of check and balances, to at least not procrastinate my shalah.

Remember when I wrote put everything in its place? If you haven't, check the previous post.

https://www.jalanfarah.com/post/food-for-soul-dish-1

Here I wanna share one thought following that statement.

Put Your Shalah on Its Place

In Al-Qur'an, it is stated in Surah Adz-Dzariyat (51) verse 56, "Wa maa khalaqtul jinna wal insa illa liya'budun," which means Allah doesn't create human and jinn except to worship Him. In other words, the main purpose of God creating human is to worship Him. If not the sole purpose.

If that is the main purpose of our creation, then what is the main thing we should do? Yes. Worship Him. How to worship Him? Many ways. We know the five pillars of Islam: syahadah, shalah, zakat, shaum, and hajj for those who's able. Syahadah, of course, is the entry of worship. How can you worship Allah if not testifying with your soul that Allah is THE GOD, the only one who can dominate you, denying other things to dominate you, putting Allah above everything else. Also, you testify that Muhammad is His Messenger, stating for sure that you're following Muhammad's teaching, and in this article context, particularly on how to worship Him fully. Zakat, shaum, and hajj, maybe we'll talk about that some other days. I'll talk more about shalah here.

Shalah, or shalat, or solat, or namaz, or any other translation on that in the Islamic world throughout the globe, is a direct order to Muslims when Isra' Mi'raj happened. It is told that Allah started by ordering shalah 50 times a day. Long story short (maybe I'll follow you up on this in other time), it is down to 5 times a day: shubh, zuhr, 'ashr, maghrib, and 'isyaa. So basically God said that He create us to worship Him, and one of the ways worshiping Him is by doing shalah, five times a day.

Then what it has to do with procrastination? Now let's hear me out. How many times in one day, when your God calls you to pray (whatever your religion is), and you thought, wait a minute I'm going to this first, or that first, and then that, and then this, before you finally answering the call. Maybe the excuses are important, such as I'll shower first, and I'll clean myself first, I'll put myself respectful first, before I pray to God. It is okay because you're making yourself good to pray to Him. And it can be okay if you're extra hungry so you wanna eat something first so you won't think about food while praying. But many times the excuses are actually not that important. Small examples are I'll finish watching this episode first, or I'll listen to few more songs first. What is the important of finishing that series compared to do the main purpose of our creation? The black and white here is clear.

But what about the "grey" area? Such as, maybe I'll do the meeting first. Maybe I'll do my work first. Maybe I'll do my job first. All are important for your life, no joke here. And you think because there's more time frame for some certain shalah, you can do it later on and there's nothing wrong with that. Especially when Islam gives so many ease on worship.

I'm not sure for other religions' ways of prays and worships, but for my fellow Muslims, if we put things on its place, don't you think that we should always put Allah first and above everything else like what is our syahadah said, like what God said in QS. Adz-Dzariyat:56?

Some of the things I did (not gonna said many of us did, although I believe some of you did this as well), was having mindset of "while waiting for the meeting start, I'll do shalah first." Do you see what's not right in that? It's that I made shalah as a secondary activity that I will do while I'm waiting for something else.

One day, I don't know how my mind came into conclusion, I thought, wait a minute, if God is above everything else, then why I put my shalah as secondary? Why don't I put my shalah as primary activity, and put everything else as secondary activities. So I put everything else as a "sideline" activities while waiting for the next praying time starts. Instead of I'll do namaz while waiting for the new episode of some dramas, I'll do shalah and then watch the episode while waiting for the next praying time starts. Instead of I'll do shalah while waiting for people come to the meeting, I'll do shalah and then meeting while waiting for the next shalah time arrives.

Does it really matter? It does. For me. If you're following issues on how mind works (no matter you're a religious or an atheist), you know that your mind control your mindset, your behavior, and so on and so on. By putting your sole purpose (which is worship God, in this context doing shalah) as the primary in your mind, you'll send signal to your body system to put it first before anything else. What is the benefit? For a Muslim, like me, I believe in the Almighty trait of Him. When I put my shalah first, out of awareness that it's the right thing to do and everything else are the second, I find myself surprisingly can do it all. You can say that time goes slow, I do everything faster, etc whatever. But I feel like time is bent for me, it gets longer. Allah is The Almighty, He can do whatever He wants, including bending time 😎 So somehow I have time to work, cook, eat, do some cleaning, write, having fun, watching series, and many other things I didn't get to do when I was putting my shalah as a sideline activity. You can say that I no longer procrastinate. Yes, maybe. But I end up not doing more procrastinations because I don't procrastinate for shalah. So somehow by putting shalah first, it sets your body, mind, and soul, to a certain mode, a powerful one, enabling you to do many things in a shorter time. Or maybe Allah just bend the time for you, as a reward for putting Him first above everything else 😄😎 But that's me. Maybe it's different for you.

If you're a Muslim, you should give it a try and let me know what you experience. If you're not a Muslim and follow other religious belief, put your pray as a primary thing and let me know what you're going through. If you don't follow any religious belief, maybe you can share what's your thought on this. Comments below 😄