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Sometimes my job makes me feel like a programmed machine. Working as an editor in a high-paced news wire environment means that when I say I work 10 hours or more each day, I mean that I dedicate 600+ minutes every day toward tasks that demand uninterrupted concentration and precision. It can be draining and quite frankly, mind numbing.
Sometimes my job makes me feel like a programmed machine. Working as an editor in a high-paced news wire environment means that when I say I work 10 hours or more each day, I mean that I dedicate 600+ minutes every day toward tasks that demand uninterrupted concentration and precision. It can be draining and quite frankly, mind numbing.
I often envision what I would rather be
doing because, while I do gain fulfilment from my work and the success I’ve
achieved over the years, it isn’t my passion. Writing on this blog is the
closest I’ve come to discovering what my passion is. In the past 19 months,
this page has given me a platform to express my discoveries of what it means to
be Muslim in my very typical, often repetitive and banal daily routine. I
strive to write in a simple, accessible manner, using the skills for expression
that I gained as a journalist. I always wish I had greater time to dedicate to it.
One of the main reasons why I’ve had to cut
back on my blog entries this year is the incredibly hectic pace and long hours that
my day job demands. This has left me with very little creative energy in the
evenings and weekends, so I sometimes daydream about a time when I will be able
to commit my days to writing about Islamic spirituality. I imagine devoting all
of this energy toward writing books or short stories that would enrich
both my faith and productive life.
In the midst of these thoughts and wishes,
however, I sometimes stray from the truth: that the very sources of my inspiration
are indeed the circumstances of my life here
and now. It is, perhaps, because I scramble through most days for brief
pockets of time to self reflect, that I am better able to describe how Islam is
applicable within the real, modern-day struggle to strike a work-life balance.
I’m not writing from a bubble, I don’t have
countless hours to reflect and pause each day, I don’t claim to be a scholar or
an expert, nor am I secluded from the world. I am, in fact, a very hard-working
professional who struggles to perform my best in the workplace, care for my
family and maintain some close friendships. Being Muslim means I try my best to
do all of these things with God at the centre of my consciousness at all times.
So, when I open a feature article to edit tomorrow (Insha’Allah), I will call
on Him first for guidance: “In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of
Mercy.”
Islam, a state of mind where the worshipper
lives in complete devotion to God, gives an order to, and an escape from, my
daily toil that I appreciate. It’s a thread that weaves all of the chaos
together and keeps me balanced through a combination of regular prayer,
fasting, giving charity and continual remembrance and thankfulness of the
Almighty.
My hectic days must never interfere with my
prayer schedule, to the extent that a non-Muslim colleague will sometimes
remark if I delay my 20-minute break for the noon prayer, duhr, that I should head down soon. Since I also pray the optional sunnah prayers, I rarely take a lunch
break because it wouldn’t be feasible with the volume of work I have to do.
Instead, I save another 10 to 15 minutes for the asr afternoon prayer.
