The Visionary

Heba Alshareef

At first it’s a trickle. Then it begins to flow steadily, progressing, until he finally acknowledges it and brushes it away from his brow with the back of his hand. But almost as soon as it is gone, it comes again. The sweat springs from his body as if he stands upon the midday desert sun itself. But it is the sands that he stands upon. He will ignore the aggressive perspiration, he decides, just as he will ignore the taunts. And he gets back to work.
He gets back to building his “vision”, tying together wooden planks from trees that don’t grow in deserts. He gets back to building something in a shape that he’d never before seen.
He gets back to work.

Scholars say that it took the prophet Nuh (S) a total of 100 years to build the ark. Allah (SWT) had decreed that there would be a great flood in a barren desert and only the believers and a male and female of each animal would survive. Nuh (S), having lived for hundreds of years calling people to the worship of Allah alone would be the catalyst for the change. And he would also be the one who was entrusted with the monumental task, the hard work task, of actually constructing the ark.

If we were to ponder the situation, we might wonder why Nuh’s lord didn’t just send down a ship from the sky. We might think that surely there could be an easier way to destroy a people – at least one that would require less effort. And we might certainly question the sheer amount of time it took from conception of the ark to the actual event that would make it move with its purpose (one account says that Nuh (S) had to wait over a hundred years from the planting of the seeds that would produce the wood bearing trees to nurturing their growth until they were able to provide the materials necessary). But then we might be like those who mocked him and refused to believe that the flood was coming. May Allah protect us.

Indeed the take-away lessons from the story of Nuh and the great flood are so many, not the least of which is the necessity of planning and working…for your vision.

Sarah (not her real name) is a wonderful real life example of this lesson (although she’d laugh off the suggestion). She’s not had the easiest of lives; she married young to an abusive man – had three children, left only after he physically threatened them (she’d endured the abuse on herself for years), lived in a shelter, forced to go on public assistance, and …the list goes on.
But not too many people know this about her. In fact, if you were to meet her today, you might think she’s worthy of envy. She has a top job in the public sector, with private companies vying for her talents on a daily basis. She owns a really nice home and her own car. She volunteers in the Muslim community like someone with loads of time on her hands. Her children are lovely, and she is happy.

“I got my miracle from Allah (SWT),” she tells me, gratitude pouring out of her like rain gushing from an open sky.

Her miracle did not come in the form of Prince Charming, or a huge monetary windfall, but rather, it came from her determination, her mapping skills, her efforts, and her ability to surrender and trust that her Lord would give her that miracle.

If you can empathize with Sarah, then you might be holding out for something amazing to happen in your life. Still, if you cannot, it’s almost certain that you have things you’d like to accomplish, phenomena you’d like to witness. Maybe you’d like to dig yourself out of a hole, or build an orphanage in a developing country. Maybe you’d like to lose some weight or find some treasure.

For any vision that you’d like to see come to fruition, you need to have a plan. You need to follow through with the work necessary to see that vision happen. You need to find ways to measure what matters as you are working on that plan. And through it all, you need to trust that one way or the other, so long as you are operating from the position of slave of Allah, He SWT, will make your miracle happen.

Here is a good way to lay it all out:

Design Your Blue Print

Nuh (S) didn’t know what an ark looked like. Allah (SWT) inspired and showed him.
At first, Sarah didn’t know what she wanted, but then one night, in that shelter, while her young children slept next to her, she was moved to lay it out. In her journal, she wrote: Free by 2009. She then detailed how she would go back to school and finish her degree. She mapped out the ideal job that she’d target and get. She made ‘safe abode’ a top priority.
What will your blue print include? What tasks and goals need to be accomplished to make it happen? What’s your plan? Take out your journal and start playing engineer of your own vision.

Go, Go, Go!

Nuh (S) was a prophet on a mission revealed to him by Allah SWT. Sarah was beginning to understand that she was a part of something greater than her own insecurities and she had a legacy to live up to. As she worked to bring to life her vision – taking it from concept to tangible result, she strived to keep her eye on the prize, to continually work, no matter how desperately bad the odds against her looked.
For Sarah, that meant seeking out any and all resources that could help her. She was applying for bursaries and grants, studying when she should have been sleeping, and working when she should have been studying. For 3 years, she says, she had no time to even think about the odds against her, yet alone allow them to bring her down.
Once you’ve committed to putting in the work you too should inherently know that stopping and sleeping on the sofa when you should be doing what needs to be done is not an option. You just keep doing it. And then doing it some more. It’s the sure way to see your vision happen.
What are you prepared to sacrifice in order to continually get the job done?

Weigh what has bearing

Nuh (AS) spent hundreds of years calling his people to surrender to Allah. Unfortunately, not too many heeded his call. When Allah SWT decreed that the ark be built – Nuh’s focus turned to that task. He (AS) was constructing something tangible, the progress of which could be seen on a daily basis.
At first, Sarah would spend hours researching the best schools– knowing full well that logistically only one was suitable. She thought she was working on her goals – but in fact, she was wasting her time.
As you move forward with the work of making your vision happen, remember to measure what matters when it comes to progress. So often, we start doing the research on our plans, thinking that we’re making leeway, when in reality, we’re just going around in circles. We become like the rocking chair that moves back and forth, but goes nowhere.
Continually evaluating and measuring tangible progress towards the completion of your vision, not only moves things forward, but also keeps you on track and ensures that you end up working smarter.

Trust that your Vision will happen

I repeat this so often that the line has achieved “broken record” status, but at the risk of sounding like a nagging mother, here it is again:
“Work as if everything depends on you, pray as if everything depends on Allah.”
Hopefully, you’ve got the working part covered, now comes the praying part.
When you place your trust in Allah SWT, certain of the fact that HE will heed it, you’ll for sure get what you ask for. It’s about knowing that HE will provide as HE sees fit, and surrendering yourself to that reality. In this way, you detach yourself from an outcome that may or may not be up to you. You just focus on the work at hand.
Your task for this one is to pray, pray, pray. And even as you’re working, pray.
That is how Allah turns our work into legacies.
That is how Nuh (AS) got his.

“So We opened the gates of heaven with water pouring forth. And We caused the earth to gush forth with springs. So the waters (of the heaven and the earth) met for a matter predestined. And We carried him on a (ship) made of planks and nails.” (AlQamar: 11-14)

Chop, chop, daughters of Nuh! What vision will you start building today?

Heba Alshareef is the author of Release Your Inner Queen of Sheba! Check out her inspirational website at http://iamsheba.com/

Photo Courtsey: Flickr ~W~