Striving More for Deen

Hazrat Shaikh Moulana Muhammad Zakariyya (rahmatullahi ‘alaih) mentioned in Fazaa’il-e-A’maal:

There are many verses of the Qur’aan Majeed in which the world has been compared to the Hereafter. The purpose of all these verses is to show that those who prefer this world to the Hereafter are in great loss. If you do not know how to deal with both lives (earning for this life or earning for the next), and you have to choose between the both, then certainly, only the Hereafter is worthy of being given preference to.

I do not deny the fact that while living in this world, a person is greatly in need of acquiring worldly necessities to fulfil his needs. Simply because a person needs to go to the toilet to answer the call of nature, it does not mean that he should sit there the entire day, and if he sits there the entire day, then no person with a sound temperament will regard it acceptable (therefore, a person needs the world, but he should use it according to need).

If one ponders deeply over the wisdom of Allah Ta‘ala in the manner He has commanded us to lead our daily lives, then one will realize that in the Shari’ah of Islam, everything has been accorded its proper time and place. Allah Ta‘ala has made everything abundantly clear for man to understand.

The distribution of the salaah times has indicated to the fact that half the day is for man to fulfil his needs – it is left to him to see whether he wishes to spend it in rest or earning a livelihood – and the other half is for Allah Ta‘ala. According to this plan, half the time should be spent for our worldly needs, and half the time should be spent for our deeni needs.

If one has given more than half the day to his worldly needs, whether it be in earning a livelihood or in resting, then he has definitely given preference to the world over the Hereafter.

(Fazaa’il-e-A’maal [Urdu] pg. 615)