Lately I’ve been thinking about what goals, passions, life achievements one should have in life. Does one aim to do what they love? Or do what they should? I sometimes flip-flop between the two.
But I think when you hear about the scholars of the past who achieved so much with comparatively so few resources, their grand plan didn’t seem to be to achieve great feats or spend their entirety in living life to the fullest, rather it was literally just their day-to-day survival and maintenance of their Deen and the Deen of those immediately around them to the point where they culled their desires and bread and water was enough to sustain them. Their lives poured into research, study, preaching, learning, contemplating, labouring every single day, just to make sure they could do it all again the next day and the day after. All of that just with the pure belief that it will mean something when they meet their Creator, and with the hope that, through His Mercy, they are granted the ultimate playground of Paradise.
Perhaps passions are overrated. Maybe simple survival is the ultimate objective.
One day at a time, with enough foresight and planning to keep you going until tomorrow and the day after.
Perhaps this is what the Beloved ﷺ meant when he said “Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveler.”
Or when the Almighty ﷻ says:
O believers! Be mindful of Allah and let every soul look to what ˹deeds˺ it has sent forth for tomorrow. And fear Allah, ˹for˺ certainly Allah is All-Aware of what you do.
And Allah ﷻ knows best.