1st Prize Winner of English writing contest 2021

The first thing came to my mind was surah Asr and four precise principles in it. As Imam shafii said. “This surah alone is sufficient for human beings for their success’.

1. Having Strong Iman (He said: Messenger of Allah, what is al-Iman (Faith)? He said: That you affirm your faith in Allah, His angels, His Books, His meeting, His Apostles, and that you believe in Resurrection and that you believe in Qadr (Divine Decree) in all its entirety.)[1]

2. Doing Good Deeds and Asking Others to Do the Same.

3.Practicing Honesty (haq) and inviting others to haq (islam).

4. Being Patience: Facing the hardships in practicing these principles and when any bad thing happens with patience, hope and strong faith.

1.Performing our obligatory ibadah at right time and with all due care.

2.Starting every small and big thing with good intentions. Following Sunnah in doing daily routine and reciting related Musnoon duas.

“Some prominent researchers believe that our intelligence, creativity, and imagination interact with the energy field of intention rather than being thoughts or elements in our brain.”[5]

3&4. Being Kind and Patient Dealing with Others:

Kindness is not just an action we do for right reasons, in fact this thought, and action has a positive effect on our health, and on our spiritual wellbeing.

When we are involved in actions of kindness, hormones which boost serotonin, the neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of well-being and satisfaction are released.[2]

David Hamilton writes, “on a biochemical level, it is believed that the good feeling we get is due to elevated levels of the brain’s natural versions of morphine and heroin, which we know as endogenous opioids. They cause elevated levels of dopamine in the brain and so we get a natural high, often referred to as ‘Helper’s High’.[3]

Volunteer Your Time, Skills and Resources.

A study that followed women for 30 years found that 52% of those who did not belong to a volunteer organization experienced major illness compared to 36% of those who were a part of a volunteer organization. [4]

Managing our Time Effectively by Changing our Focus and Priorities: since we all get the same 24 hours, the highest achievers manage their time exceptionally well. Good time management requires an important shift in focus from activities to results. being busy is not the same as being effective. [2].

These four precise principles are the best to shift our focus for success here and after.