Success tips for 2018
Successful indeed are the believers…(Q23:1-7) ear brethren, when the Arab-African sociologist and theorist, Ibn Khaldun, said that ‘the past resembles the future just like water resembles water’, he was probably goaded into reaching that conclusion after a close contemplation of the slippery features of human life and the contradictions in our existence. What Ibn Khaldun is saying in essence is that that nothing in today’s world is new.
What is new is probably the new heights humanity has attained in their egregious pursuit of material comforts. What is new is probably the ability of the creatures of the Almighty to commit multiplicity of infractions against the divine order and yet have the temerity to go the mosque or church and shout glory be to Thee!
Brethren, though we are in the fourth month of Islamic lunar calendar, today marks the fifth day in the month of January in 2018. If you happen to be the perceptive type, you would have discovered that the passage of time from yesterday to today, the passage of one year into another, is like the passage from life into eternity. In other words, nothing extraordinary usually takes place to herald the ‘birth’ and ‘death’ of a year. The same way darkness pervaded the horizon last year, the same it does till this day. What has actually changed is you and me. What is changing is the clock; the unseen clock which ticks inside me and you. I looked at my hair the other day and I discovered I have more grey hairs than I did last year. I contemplated my face in the mirror I discovered some miracles. Somehow the Abdul Hafis of today looks completely different from that of yesterday.
Now dear brethren, of all lessons life keep teaching me is that for me to be successful not only on a yearly basis but on a daily I must constantly be in touch with my creator. The line connecting me with Him must be active. It should be a direct line; a line which admits of no intermediary or intervention. To be connected to the Almighty means I must avoid all frivolities and shun vain talk. To shun vain talks implies pitching your tenth with the truthful. This, no doubt would be a very difficult virtue to imbibe particularly in this clime and time. The truthful, in this clime is usually an enemy of earthly principalities; the truthful in this time is often a loner, the wretched. The truthful usually finds the doors of the rich and powerful ever unattractive and loathsome. He is seen as an enigma if not someone suffering from dementia. The truthful amongst human beings would most likely not be found in the circle of the politicians, he would most likely not be a comrade to the moral Lilliputians who luxuriate on a daily basis in the vanities of the temporality of earthly positions and the illusions of bodily enchantments.
To be successful in life you need to guard your loins. You need to be faithful to your partner. One of the greatest sins and in fact the major source of human perdition is the sin of the loins - the incontinence of the phallus, the infidelity of the bearers of the womb.
To be successful in life means I should be patient with my creator. Lack of patience is responsible for the way Nigerians change their centre and places of worship on a daily basis. Do not be surprised to hear some among our compatriots talk about “changing the change’. The other day someone looked at 2014 nostalgia at a time I contemplated the years before it with amnesia, I immediately remember that the difference between us and the children of Israel under the care of Prophet Musa (a.s) is very insignificant indeed. All men and women born of the womb are fashioned after forgetfulness; we are very quick to forget our bondage; we can demolish the town in order to become kings in the village.
To be successful in 2018 and in life, you need to keep up your prayers. Cultivate the virtue of observing tahajjud (night prayers). (Q73). If you desire to succeed and overcome the turbulence of this year you need to cultivate the habit of waking up at night when everyone else is asleep in order to connect with your Creator. The Prophet says: “the Almighty has said: “… My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more loved by Me than what I have made compulsory upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with nawafil (supererogatory prayers) until I loved him and when I love him, I become his hearing with which he hears, and his eyes with which he sees, and his hand with which he grasps, and his foot with which he walks, and if he were to ask of Me, I would surely give it to him, and if he were to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it” May the Almighty continue to be your refuge and mine as we move ahead to meet our destinies.
D