Practice focus and overcome distractions and temptations （Abdullah Cheng )
Dear brothers and sisters,
We are now living in an extremely fast-paced world, a world full of distractions and temptations and information all over the place, causing us to often overlook things that are worth our focus. Even though sometimes we may feel that we are missing out on many opportunities and resources, for example, not being able to get a comfortable house you want, not being able to get the job offer you want and so on, when we compare ourselves to just our grandparents and our great-grandparents, the people in the past were still able to live a proper life without all the luxuries and conveniences that we have today.
Many of us would give excuses for not being able to study our own religion properly, just because they couldn't find the perfect teacher, or they couldn't find the books they want to read, or they couldn't find the perfect app to learn the Qur'an, or they couldn't travel abroad to study, and this, and that.
What we need to realize is that Allah has already given us the Aql, the mind and the ability to be able to study the religion, and He is not going to account for us and hold us responsible for the opportunities that we are not given. The problem is within ourselves: with so much information and distractions in front of us, we tend to forget that what we need is actually already in front of us.
Allah keeps on reminding us in the Qur’an:
اعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ
Know that this worldly life is no more than play, amusement [57:20]
It doesn’t matter how far it gets and how better our life quality becomes, the reality that this world is only a short period of amusement is a fact that doesn’t change over time.
وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ
the life of this world is no more than the delusion of enjoyment [57:20]
As good as it may seem, at the end of the day, if the enjoyment we get in this life doesn’t bring us a good result in Paradise, then all that enjoyment is only a delusion.
From that we understand, the road to Paradise is filled with such distractions and delusions, and if we are not being guided by the Qur’an and Sunnah, then we humans will simply take a path of self-destruction.
Most of the things that are prohibited in the Qur’an are actions that are repetitive, addictive, and distracting. These actions are not actions that only happen once or short term, but they are extremely likely to occur again and again until we don’t feel any guilt for committing them. Alcohol, gambling, zina, Haram relationships are all addictions that people may take years to overcome. Not lowering our gaze, not covering our Awrah, not speaking well to our parents, these are also sins that don’t just happen once, but they take a long period of time to overcome. These are among some of the serious matters that perhaps many of us might not feel relevant, but they are everywhere, and maybe even to the point that we are so used to it that we are not even aware. One of the newest types of distractions that people of today’s day and age are suffering is the distraction of social media and the Internet. Allah says in the Qur’an:
وَمِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ مَن يَشْتَرِى لَهْوَ ٱلْحَدِيثِ لِيُضِلَّ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍۢ وَيَتَّخِذَهَا هُزُوًا ۚ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌۭ مُّهِينٌۭ
There are some people who purchase the amusement of speech, only to mislead others away from the Way of Allah —without any knowledge—and to make a mockery of it. They will suffer a humiliating punishment. [31:6]
It is mentioned that some of the pagan Arabs used to make use of singing, dancing, and chanting as their tactics to distract people’s attention from listening to the recitation of the Qur’an. Today, this is a problem that is still going on, and even more so, if not less. The ‘buying’ or ‘purchase’ of amusement mentioned in the Ayah is not necessarily a monetary purchase, but it also includes exchanging something good for something evil, sacrificing the good that we have in order to receive something evil.
When it comes to social media and the Internet, this is exactly how our precious time gets exchanged and wasted if we do not have any restrictions to control ourselves. The algorithms of these social media are trying to please us and make us stay on the app as long as possible: if we are tired of the same content, we can simply drag and refresh to get fresh new content so that we can get distracted for another round.
The goods in life such as social media, luxury, and money are not evil themselves, as our Prophet (SAW) said:
نِعْمَ الْمَالُ الصَّالِحِ لِلْمَرْءِ الصَّالِحِ
“Lawful wealth is excellent for a righteous man” [Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 297]
Which means that if used in the right way, it is something excellent. However, these things can also easily cause us to lose our balance and distract us from focusing on what we need to do, and this is also the reason why today especially, people are distracted way more than the people in the past because of how much our quality of life has increased, even to the point that most of us are living a better life than kings of the past.
The distraction is also dangerous for our Khushu’, the humility of our Salah. There are many times when we are so used to prayer, that we are not even aware of which Rak’at we are praying, which Surah we recited, or even which prayer we are praying. When we lose the Khushu’, we lose the quality of prayer, and risk our prayer not being accepted by Allah. To overcome that and increase our Khushu’ in prayer, there are 3 simple steps that we can take:
Before we go to pray, let’s try to disconnect from everything about this Dunya for a few minutes. Let’s not use our phones or chat with someone else for at least 3 minutes before praying even the Sunnah prayers. Instead, we can do something related to the prayer itself, such as reciting the Qur’an or doing Dhikr
When we are praying, try to read slowly, and make sure that each letter is pronounced clearly, especially while reading Surah Al-Fatihah, because Allah responds to our recitation after each Ayah. [Sahih Muslim 395]
Try to learn the meaning of the words that we recite, so that we can reflect and ponder about them
May Allah help us attain humility and serenity during our prayers, may Allah accept our good deeds, and may Allah keep us steadfast in His religion.