The other “excuse” one hears a LOT is, “What’s the point? One person cannot make a difference anyway. This problem (whatever it may be) is too huge, you are wasting your time trying to solve it.”

This hadith completely refutes that excuse, in such a powerful way, really. It points out that even if it’s true, even if one person’s actions are not going to solve the problem (after all, even if you managed to plant that shoot, when Qiyamah begins all will be destroyed), you do it anyway because there is goodness in the deed, and that is the focus of the Muslim.

JazakAllah khayr for your advice. I have thought about starting my own projects and what not, but I would rather just help out with ones that are already up and running because having more organizations or projects out there isn’t going to achieve anything if we don’t work with each other, so I’d rather just help out the ones that are currently in place rather than start my own thing.

Alhamdulillah I have helped out in several projects in the past, but several other times when I offered to help out I was turned down. But as you said if we work hard on keeping our intentions sincere then we have gotten our reward even if we don’t do anything. Besides, not being able to volunteer too much isn’t that bad, this leaves some free time to seek knowledge, so either way there is good!

Since I’ve been on both sides of the fences, maybe I can offer some perspective. In short, you may have to prove yourself before an organization will approach you for help. Lots of organization look for potential candidates and they look for certain qualities. What I suggest is get involved wherever you can. One thing will lead to the other. If you prove that you are a reliable resource, I’m very sure that more doors will open. Also, there are many venues of help outside organizations. Bottow line, we all have to start somewhere. But with sincere intentions and hard work, Allah will provide us more and better opportunities. Still, if no organization wants your services, I’d say … start your own :) May Allah empower you to serve Him and His cause.

Very inspiring!

This post was mentioned on Twitter by Al_Mawaddah: The Hadith of the Palm Shoot and the Crisis of Islamic Work: In times of crisis, some people may resign to defeat…. http://bit.ly/c7Os4r…

I don’t know where to put this comment or request, so I’m going to put it here. I was wondering if on this blog, we can have a discussion on “how the prophet would’ve handled the health care situation” or if we could look at everything that goes on in society and apply to “how the prophet would handle it”. I think this would be a very interesting post(s). I think it would be an interesting idea and will definitely inform the mass.

There are several reasons why sometimes 20% of the people contribute 80% of the work, while the rest of us don’t help out. Many times, I wanted to volunteer and help out with a certain project in the community or organization, only to be turned down by those who are in charge. It seems like those who run things are sometimes afraid to let others share the work they do so that they don’t lose control over that organization. This isn’t the case with all Muslim organizations, but it has been with a few which I have tried to work with and help out. They simply turn you down when you offer to help out and they say that they have things under control and are not in need of any help.

Another reason is that those who are in charge run things as if it is a dictatorship. They do not even listen to what others around them have to say. I heard of one organization who “dismissed” the Imam that they had on their board to advise them because they were no longer in need of his services.

So it isn’t always that the people don’t want to help out in their communities, because sometimes it is those who hold the positions and are in charge are not running things the way they are supposed to. I know people will say get involved to change things from the inside, but how do you get inside if all the doors are closed?