Young Muslims of Australia Forum

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Repel Boredom With Work

[Shaykh Aaid Al-Qarni]

Those who have nothing to do with their lives are the same people who spend most of their time spreading rumours and falsehood, mainly because their minds are devoid of beneficial thoughts.

"They are content to be with those [the women] who sit behind [at home]. Their hearts are sealed up [from right guidance] so they understand not."
[Surah At-Taubah – Ayah 87.]

When you find yourself to be idle, prepare for depression and despair, because idleness allows your mind to wander in the past, the present, and the future, with all of their difficulties. Therefore, my sincere advice to both you and me is to perform fruitful acts instead of being idle, for idleness is a slow and hidden form of suicide.

Idleness is like the slow torture that is inflicted upon prisoners in China: they are placed under a tap, from which a drop of water falls only after every hour. During the period of waiting for the next drop many of them lose their mind and are driven to insanity.

Being inactive means being negligent of one’s duties. Idleness is an expert thief and your mind is the victim of this perpetrator.

Therefore get up now and say a prayer or read a book; praise your Lord, study, write, organize your library, fix something in your house, or benefit others so that you can put an end to your inactivity. I say this only because I sincerely wish for your betterment.

Destroy boredom by working. When you apply this simple precept alone, the doctors of the world guarantee that you have travelled fifty percent of the way toward happiness.

Look at farmers, carpenters, and bread-makers, and observe how, when they are working, recite words as melodious as the singing of birds, because they are content.

Afterwards observe yourself and how you toss and turn on your bed while wiping away your tears, always miserable, always torturing yourself.

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"Except the one who comes to Allah with a sound heart"