Moving Forward: The End Of Complaining
Photo courtesy of: Margan Zajdowicz
Let us make a pledge this day, that we will not complain.
Because if we work intelligently to solve our problems then insha'Allah our Ummah will prevail.
And if we fail to do so, we will only continue to reprimand ourselves into oblivion.
How can we accomplish this?
By never writing, nor speaking, nor calling out to an audience except that we offer them a solution to the issue we bring forth. Doing so will be very difficult; as offering a solution requires knowledge, experience, unique ideas, and is also heavily time-intensive. Yet, this is the only way to overcome our Ummah's challenges.
How To Prevent Yourself From Complaining
Restraining yourself from releasing frustration and emotion into complaining is an art-form. As I said in my introduction, complaining is very easy, which is why the vast majority of what we hear and read consists of a mere re-informing the ummah of it's problems and vices. For example, “Until people changes themselves and return to Allah, we will continue to be humiliated”.
Now perhaps that statement offers a motive for change, namely humiliation. What the statement is lacking though is a methodology for people to change themselves, a step-by-step instruction-kit, if you will. For instance, if a da'ee is frustrated at the lack of people praying at the Masjid, the da'ee could take the regular complaining route or he could:
1. Give a positive motive:
Meaning that if you pray regularly, then your reward will be such and such. By contrast, usually we only hear that if we don't pray, our punishment will be such and such.
2. Remind the audience of your own struggle, if you had one.
For instance, if you had difficulty praying at work and managed to overcome that, then remind the audience that you are human. If you sometimes feel apprehensive from attending taraweeh because you cannot understand the Arabic, share that struggle with your audience and give them hope that they can overcome that as well.
3. Offer a first step that is achievable:
For instance:
a. If you do not pray at all, try making one prayer in the morning before you go to work.
b. If you are combining all of your prayers when you get home, at least try to combine Dhuhr and Asr within their time.
c. If you pray five times a day, come to the Masjid for Isha after work as you will get the reward of half a night of Qiyam.
4. If you rushed your preparation, re-examine your motivation for complaining.
I have noticed personally, that if an article or speech in not carefully thought out, allowed to mature, and re-edited several times then most likely the outcome will be fruitless. A call to action requires deep thought and preparation, like a general preparing for the morning's battle, always calculating two to three steps ahead.
To conclude, I will not claim self-righteousness in never having fallen into the pit of easy complaining before. What is important is that we continue to catch ourselves and filter out what we can. Remember, the goal of any article or speech is to make a positive contribution to society. It should also offer some semblance of solutions, and something that will benefit the author as a continuous charity on the day of judgment. You may only have one opportunity to get your message across, be sure that what you say has the effect of causing that change, and pray to Allah that he accepts your effort and causes your project to be fruitful.
Next on Part II — The End of Deconstructive Criticism
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