Planning

God has made each one of us a responsible being. We simply cannot leave what is critical to someone else. By adopting these action items and other ideas that you can think of in your personal capacity, while motivating the rest of the family and relatives to join in, you can become an engine of change yourself. 

For me, life started getting faster when I was in grade seven. Today, each year is like a quick turn of the page. Each month, almost like a blur. This is why planning is so important. 

Free people control their time and money. Slaves control neither. Let’s take charge of ourselves by planning for lives because there is a purpose for our existence beyond the mundane routines of earning and consuming.

We’ve all got goals we want to reach in the coming year, and the new year is fast approaching. One thing many of us never stop asking for is success. We know there is always room for improvement, in ourselves and in our professional lives. 

Take advantage of five things before five others happen: your youth before you grow old; your health before you fall sick; your money before you become poor; your leisure before you become busy; and your life before you die.(The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said as recorded by Tirmidhi).

This outline is just a guide. Feel free to modify it in any way you like. Anything which you think you must do should be planned for here. The Quran invites us to think, evaluate, and achieve for the best of this world and the best of the hereafter.

While striving towards personal development, we must also consider what we can do for Islam on a collective level and what exactly we need to do, mapped out in small but concrete actions. Here are a couple of ideas for the coming year.