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Assalaau'alaykum,
I had five tempting offers on my table, five well know organisations that wanted to work with my event consulting company, but my gut instinct was not to pursue any of them.
In fact, I rejected them all and closed down my company, at its peak!
People thought I was crazy, to be honest, a part of me thought I was too. The self judgements were rife,
“You’ve not got good business sense.”
“You don’t have stability in your work.”
“Why can’t you stay the course?”
But deep inside, I knew my reasons. I knew if I said YES to these tempting offers, it would come at a price. It would mean long unsociable hours in the evening and weekends.
It would mean less time for family, less time and energy for spiritual growth and most definitely would mean greater demands on my health, during a time when burn out was already a cycle I was used to.
I had to reflect deep within my soul and ask myself, is this career path aligned with the ideal life I envisioned for myself? One that seeks the path to earning Allah’s pleasure, one that meets the criteria of a well balanced life and one that brings me inner peace and contentment within.
The answer was not an easy step to take, but with tawakkul, I took that leap of faith, fully trusting that Allah will guide my way.
I chose to walk away and to date have never looked back, Alhamdulilah.
As they say hindsight is 20/20.
Now looking back, I can clearly see it was the best decision I was guided to. It’s what led me to coaching and waking up every day to work that feels more purposeful and God-centered.
There are many points in my life, even in recent weeks where I’ve taken that small or bigger leap of faith, such as…
Letting go of deadlines I had set for certain personal goals, still making duaa, still working towards them but by dropping the deadline and trusting Allah, I feel an immediate sense of relief KNOWING that Allah will give me what’s best, when it’s best.
Taking time off work to prioritise health, rest and recharge, even though it meant turning away business, with the intention of fulfilling the rights of my body…
Some of these “leaps” were relatively easy to make, others were met with internal resistance, scrutiny and self-doubt because in reality, it’s not always the comfortable path to take.
It’s not always easy to jump, when you can’t see a ledge or soft landing. We crave certainty and we want to see tangible outcomes, but what we sometimes fail to see is that we’ve become shackled to those desired outcomes.
We develop a great need and dependency on these worldly matters but they tend to be littered with false promises.
I have felt the immense freedom that comes with taking that leap of faith.
When you let your inner spiritual compass guide you and fully place all your dependency and trust in Allah, even if it means going against the grain of what’s popular or expected.
There’s no value you can place on that sense of freedom.
There’s no way He SWT will let you down.
With every leap, I have felt His mercy, His love and khayr (good).
This is His promise to us:
“Then, as for those who believed and did righteous good deeds, their Lord will admit them to His Mercy. That will be the evident success.” (Qu’ran 45:30)
When was the last time your inner spiritual compass made you turn away from something outwardly appealing and take a giant leap of faith in the opposite direction?
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