Balancing Career, Family, and Faith in a Fast-Paced World

Balancing Career, Family, and Faith in a Fast-Paced World

In today's fast-paced and rapidly advancing routines, the struggle to juggle work, family, and faith all together has become abundantly evident. The constant hustle and bustle of life has rendered us exhausted, barely holding it together anymore. Luckily Islam provides a framework to efficiently manage our day-to-day tasks in harmony, while maintaining some form of sanity. 

Though it may seem like an unfathomable concept, balancing work, family and faith can actually be really easy with the help of setting priorities, if done right. Here we will share 3 important tips on how to do just that, to help provide a useful guideline on how you too can achieve all your goals and fulfill responsibilities in a much more orderly manner. 

 Setting Priorities: Faith as the Foundation

When various tasks and responsibilities have been placed upon our shoulders, it's very normal for their weight to pull you down. Scrambling your brain on figuring out how you'll be able to juggle everything, will you be able to complete everything on time? 

Whenever such a situation occurs, where we feel like we are being pulled in all the different directions, the best and easiest way to not only stay organised but also pave a path for yourself is by setting priorities. 

Islamically as well this concept is highly promoted. Our religion teaches us to maintain balance while keeping our faith at the center of it all. Throughout the Holy Quran, Allah (SWT) has time and time again emphasised the importance of fulfilling religious duties while managing worldly responsibilities, for example, 

"Rather, seek the ˹reward˺ of the Hereafter by means of what Allah has granted you, without forgetting your share of this world..." [28:77]

This verse beautifully encapsulates our dual responsibility: fulfilling worldly duties while earnestly attempting to strive for success in the hereafter. 

Setting priorities may seem insignificant, but they have many underlying benefits. Priorities help you build focus. Priorities help provide focus- it helps you understand the amount of work needed to be done and helps structure your perception of things by shaping the importance of one entity in comparison to others, whether family ranks higher in priority than work or other variations of the same concept. Subjective to each individual, priorities help shape your focus, not only that, they also hone the ability to hold you accountable to your personal goals. This aspect of accountability acts as a motivational factor aiding you to complete your tasks, especially on low productivity days. 

Some practical ways and example of setting priorities are: 

1) setting a morning routine with intention: 

Islamically, the concept of starting your day early is heavily promoted, the most obvious example of this is Fajr prayer. By waking up before dawn and taking the time to pray in peace before the noise of the morning buzz, not only actively incorporates faith and the remembrance of Allah (SWT) but also sets a positive and spiritual tone to the rest of the day.  

It is observed, the way one decides to spend their mornings (or at least the first 1-2 hours right after waking up) shapes the tone of how the rest of your day will pan out. Since this is the case, wouldn't it be better if we start the day off on a good note? 

If we were to take inspiration from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), he was well known for preferring to start his day early and with the remembrance of Allah (SWT). The day for the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) often started before dawn, as he preferred to participate in the act of nightly worship, also known as “Tahajjud Prayer”; these prayers are performed in the last third of the night right before the Fajr prayer.

Once he had completed his nightly prayers, the Prophet (PBUH) would then head to the masjid in order to participate in the congregational Fajr prayer. The Prophet (PBUH) prioritized the Fajr prayer, making it the longest of the five daily prayers. He used this quiet time to engage in dhikr and Quran recitation. This practice not only strengthened his faith but also set a positive tone for the day.emphasizing the importance of tranquility and reflection, and he encouraged his followers to do the same.  

If we are to draw inspiration from the Prophet’s practice of waking up early and engaging in the remembrance of Allah, DEENIN has the ideal product for you. The Ebadat Prayer Rug with Backrest is designed to offer essential back support to those seeking to sit comfortably and immerse themselves in deep connection with their Lord. Available in 3 vibrant colors, the Prayer Rug features extra foam padding for maximum comfort and a foldable, compact design for easy storage. A perfect addition to your home. Quickly get your prayer rug and kick-start the addition of new habits in your daily routine.

2) Work with Purpose:

Approach your career as a means to contribute positively, not just as a way to earn a living. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said,

 “....The best of people are those who are most beneficial to people.” [al-Mu’jam al-Awsaṭ lil-Ṭabarānī 5937]

In recent times, however, "hustle culture" has been heavily advertised. This has resulted in many people experiencing an extreme imbalance between work and life. While hustle culture has its own set of benefits, it often causes individuals to forget or even undermine the importance of leisure time. Taking time out of your routine for entertainment-based activities can and should be considered time well spent. These moments not only allow you to take a breather but also enable you to return to daily life feeling more energetic and focused.

The now-popularized quote "Work to live, not live to work" serves as a reminder to find a healthy balance between work and life. Your job is a medium through which you support your lifestyle, whether that means providing for your family or funding personal indulgence and self-care activities. However, it is neither healthy nor sustainable to make work the sole purpose of your life.

In other words, your job is important—it pays the bills, puts food on the table, and helps you achieve your goals. But it shouldn't consume you to the point where you have no time or energy left for the things that truly matter, like family, friends, faith, and personal well-being.

Set a goal to work with purpose—engaging in work that not only gives you a sense of self-worth and achievement but also benefits others, as advised by the Prophet (PBUH). Doing so helps create a healthy work-life balance by establishing clear boundaries. Assigning time limits for specific tasks and taking time out of your day for "me" time has been shown to significantly improve your outlook on life and work. It keeps you motivated and reduces the risk of burnout.

In short, work hard, but don’t forget to actually live and enjoy the life you’re working for!

3. Regular self-check-ins:

Buried deep within the commotion of life. Days turn into weeks, and weeks into months, as we go through the motions of work, family obligations, and personal responsibilities, it starts to feel like we're just moving in autopilot mode. Scrambling to meet deadlines upon deadline causes losing sight of things that truly matter to become inevitable. 

Adopting the practice of regular self-check-ins can become a significant tool to periodically evaluate how you're opting to divide your time, what area you're lacking in, what area you have been subconsciously neglecting and how your actions are aligning with your goals and priorities. 

It may seem mundane and unhelpful of a task. However, that's not quite the case. Evaluating your actions and intentions not only helps you identify the area you're flourishing in, but it also facilitates you to take a step back, realize all the areas that have been abandoned and restructure your day-to-day routine in order to improve whatever you're lacking in. For instance, you realize your career might be thriving but your spirituality or family time has taken a hit. Regular check-in creates awareness of where you currently stand and the steps you must take in order to create a more balanced and fulfilling life. 

Self check-in can be practiced in the form of retreats. Similar to the practise of the Prophet (PBUH), whenever he would find himself distressed or distraught due to his surroundings, even prior to his prophethood, he would occasionally retreat to the Cave Hira to meditate and experience moments of clarity, silence, peace, and regulate his thoughts to maintain his mental wellbeing.