Your Contribution to Humanity

Your Contribution to Humanity

One of the questions that many of us may have been asked as children was: “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?”  And maybe to a certain extent, many of us still ask that question of ourselves.

 

Choosing a career path is certainly not an easy matter for your career choice could impact everything in your life – your health, your family, your relationships, your financial status – and even your faith.  So many people have ended up in careers they are unsatisfied with because they never took the time to really think about it and plan for it.

 

As a Muslim, what should you base your career choice upon? Let us first take a step back  and remember our ultimate purpose on earth.  Allah (swt) tells us: “And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me” (Quran 51:56) and “When your Lord said to the angels: ‘I am placing on the earth a caliph…” (2:30).

 

So when thinking about a career path, it’s important to remember how that will help us serve our purpose of worshipping God and fulfilling our role as caliphs – or in other words, as builders and protectors of this society.

 

Once we’ve understood our ultimate purpose in life, the next step is to start thinking about our strengths and talents.  Everyone has a talent – you may have just not been able to identify it yet.  Here is a sample list that can get you to start thinking about your talents:

 

Numbers         

Words             

Creative thinking        

Athletics         

Making things happen

Sensing needs              

Mechanical                  

Artistic                       

Working with people

 

Memorizing things                 

Decision making         

Building things                       

Accepting others

 

Writing           

Speaking         

Listening         

Computer Skills

 

To further help you narrow down a career path, you can also ask yourself these four questions, adapted from Sean Covey’s “The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make”:

 

 

1)What are you really good at? This is talent

 

 

2) What do you love doing? This is passion

 

 

3) What does the world need that you can get paid to do? This is need

 

 

4) What do you feel you should do? This is conscience

 

For example, you may have a talent in interpersonal skills and it is your passion to help people excel.  You see there is a need to start holding personal development seminars and deep down inside you value helping others reach their potential.

 

After identifying your talent, your passion, and thinking about what needs to be done, you could spend some more time on what you feel you should do by identifying your values.  For example, do you value leadership, financial independence, a harmonious and stable family life or do you value travel, adventure, and the opportunity to better the lives of others?

 

Since your values are the things that matter most to you, they are instrumental in deciding upon your career.  Here is a checklist that can assist you in measuring your values.  To use the checklist, go through the values listed (and any you add), and rank them using the following system.

 

1=extremely important to me/a central value

2-sometimes a motivator for me

3=lesser contributor to my choices

 

Don’t rank anything that doesn’t contribute in a meaningful way to your choices.

 

Value*                                   

  • Advancement of Knowledge: to grow in knowledge and to contribute to what is known
  • Respect and admiration: public acknowledgement of your contributions
  • Family relationships: affectionate and secure intimation affiliation
  • Peaceful world: to contribute to more harmonious and cooperative international relationships
  • Independence: freedom from control by others
  • Enjoyment: to have fun, get the most from every moment
  • Security: consistency, order, reliability
  • Adventure: excitement of the unknown, risk-taking and challenge
  • Leadership: ability to direct, manage and guide others
  • Creativity: innovation, developing your own unique approach
  • Expertise: to be acknowledged as a leader in your field, among the most knowledgeable
  • Inner harmony: spirituality, strong faith
  • Social service: to assist others in meeting their needs
  • Friendship: to be part of a circle of loyal, supportive friends
  • Other: (add your own)

 

*Adapted fromUniversityofWestern OntarioCareer Centre

 

Another tool I would suggest is the Myers-briggs test which after assessing your skills and interests provides you with a four letter indicator of your personality which can guide your career choice, as well as provide you with insight into other aspects of your life including relationships.

 

Once you’ve completed the self-assessment process, you can start to narrow down your career options by setting some short term and long term goals.  So if a certain career, such as authorship for example, is your long term goal, your short term goal may include speaking to authors, taking some writing classes, and reading regularly in the genre you’re interested in pursuing.  You can also learn more about your potential career by visiting websites, joining clubs, volunteering, or applying to work in that field or doing some job shadowing.  You may not realize how much you enjoy a certain field until you try it.

 

I would also encourage you to dream big and to not let anyone or anything convince you that you can’t do it if you have chosen a career path that is agreeable with Islamic principles.  It is surprising to see that less than 5% of people actually reach their potential.

 

An equally plausible option is to create your career.  We are certainly in need of more Muslim entrepreneurs.  If there is something you’ve always dreamed of doing, and if you enjoy managing your own affairs, then you may enjoy becoming an entrepreneur and starting your own business.  Alhamdullilah, we live in a country that offers plenty of support for entrepreneurs in the form of funding and guidance.  Two organizations that offer support and funding for entrepreneurs are the YMCA-YWCA Youth Entrepreneurship Program (at least for theOttawaarea) and the Young Entrepreneurs Program: Summer Company.

 

It’s also important to consider all your options and not limit yourself to the traditional careers that many Muslims tend to choose.  With all due respect to our dear Muslim brothers and sisters who are physicians and engineers, which there isn’t a shortage of alhamdullilah, our ummah is in much need of journalists, public relations specialists, social scientists and scholars in humanities.

 

There are many different careers out there, but once again, here is a list that can get you started thinking:

  • Publishing/media
  • IT/computers
  • Education
  • Healthcare
  • Engineering
  • Law
  • Science
  • Community/Non profit
  • Business Administration
  • Arts
  • Academia

 

Finally, think about the legacy you would like to leave behind.  Think about how you want to be remembered after you’re gone and what you would like to take with you as you stand in front of Allah on the Day of Judgment as your contribution to society.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Suffering in Silence...No More...

I had a sister recently email me with a situation that I hear and have seen often yet don’t see very much done about.  She’s a sister who moved to a new city after being married,  became pregnant soon thereafter and was blessed to become a mother, yet she is struggling in her marriage, she feels lonely and she wants to get her life back in order. I feel many sisters will suffer in silence and subhana’Allah, although to some it may seem like there is really nothing to complain about when a sister these days has even had the opportunity of being married and was blessed again with the gift of children.  Yes, we should be thankful in times of goodness and patient in times of tribulation and always turn to Allah (SwT) first and foremost, yet we know Allah (swt) says: ““And the human being was created weak” (Surat al-Nisa, 4:28).  Although our faith in Allah (swt) should give us tremendous strength and perseverance, at the end of the day we are human beings and we will...
Read more

Living on Purpose and with Purpose

Alhamdullilah, as Muslims, we are given the gift of understanding our purpose on earth, which people will spend a lifetime searching for, in the Quran in the following verses: “I have not created mankind and jinn except to worship Me” (51:56) “When your Lord said to the angels: ‘I am placing on the earth a caliph” (2:30) These two verses would need pages and chapters written to reveal their full depth and meaning.  Very briefly though, ‘worship’ in the first verse is not limited to our prayers and fasting for example but can truly encompass everything we do in our lives when we do it with the intention of drawing nearer to Allah.  So it can include our eating, sleeping, spending time with our loved ones, studying, working, etc. As for the meaning of ‘caliph’ – this term is used to define the one who will take care of this earth, help build it, make a positive difference and fulfill the role of leadership that Allah (Swt) has placed them in – whatever that role may be – from a Hea...
Read more

The Story of "Mrs. Normal"

Many people will spend years or even an entire lifetime not living the life they really want – one that is filled with  success, happiness, and fulfillment .  They will settle for mediocrity and live a ‘normal’ life. Have you heard the story of  “Mrs. Normal”?   Mrs. Normal grew up in a ‘normal’ family, received a ‘normal’ education, married a ‘normal’ man, had ‘normal’ children, and then, died. The story of “Mrs. Normal” is probably the story of 95% of people and some may ask,  but what is the problem with being ‘normal’ ? Normal is fine alhamdullilah and growing up with a family, receiving an education, being married and blessed with children are all in deed good things in theory. But is solely achieving these series of steps considered  amazing or outstanding ? Is it living our life with true   ihsan  (excellence) as Allah (Swt) asked of us? Is it fulfilling the role Allah (Swt) assigned as in the Quran as caretakers ( khulufa’a)  of this earth whose responsibility is to make a posi...
Read more