APM: Dangerous Work, The Unburdening, and Don’t Bite the Bullet

Allah

DANGEROUS WORK

There are many hazardous occupations, but none more so than meaningless labour from which we are disconnected.

Health research has found that serious heart attacks are more likely to occur on Mondays. Most of these studies do not offer definite reasons and refer to it as a curiosity.

However, there exists enough independent research to suggest that purposeless work may be one of the primary contributing factors to why most cardiac arrests happen on Mondays. The spike in stress is profound for those having to return to a hollow occupational existence. The stress is even more pronounced when the working environment is unnatural.

Humans are no different to animals that become stressed when removed from their habitat. Animals have a purpose, and so do we: “Not without purpose did We create heaven and earth and all between” [38:27].

It is thus obvious that our bodies would feel stressed if we lived out of our natural environment.

Whatever our employment, breathing meaning into our work must become our primary occupation. And if resuscitating our work is not possible, we must seek God’s guidance and grace before urgently searching ourselves for our purpose and finding the means to breathe it into the world.

The Prophet (s)

THE UNBURDENING

Epictetus, a Roman Stoic slave, once said: “No man is free who is not master of himself.”

Apart from the shackles of our desires, we also straitjacket ourselves with our emotions. When we gain the ability to regulate both, we are on the road to freedom.

Taufiq is the primary regulator, and the practice of aligning my will with God’s and behaving and acting in ways pleasing to Him. But the understanding goes deeper. It also means believing that my alignment with God is only possible through His immense grace. Thus, taufiq is a manifestation of God’s immense favour and succour. Placing my trust fully in God is essential to the practice and leads to integrated servanthood.

Our desires and emotions are both innate and, therefore, not to be shunned. Even anger is essential for a healthy personality. It is when anger is excessive or unexpressed that we go awry. Our goal is to find the sweet spot. The Prophet (s) said, “Whoever is deprived of gentle feelings is deprived of goodness.”

Resentment (secondary emotion), the daughter of protracted and unrestrained anger (primary emotion) – even though toxic due to its enduring nature – is not the problem but only serves as a sign and symptom of deeper issues, which returns us to taufiq, the means to regulate our emotions.

Taufiq deficiency inhibits healthy emotional expression and acuity. Without it, we also risk gaining resentment as a close companion.

When overcome, taufiq allows me to trust God to cradle my vulnerabilities.

The Prophet’s life teaches us that the highest ideal in human intercourse is to make the ends with those I engage a means for spiritual development. Primarily for myself, but ideally for both of us. If I’m harmed, I can trust God, show patience, forgiveness and humility, and, in my spiritual state, address the wrong.

Alternatively, if someone does me a good, I can respond with gratitude, friendship, loyalty, and reciprocate the good. Both ways free me from unhealthy emotional restraints.

Epictetus gives us the ideal but not the means. Islam and the Prophet (s) teach us that there’s only one way to master ourselves and our emotions, by surrendering our will to the Will Supreme.

Don’t Bite the Bullet

There is no merit in suffering any hardship in and of itself, except when done for Allah’s sake.

Until next week, InshaAllah

Zaahied Sallie

Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme

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