Self-evaluation

The one thing I am always reminding myself of is to make sure that I am living today better than yesterday. I try to make sure I am growing, improving, learning from the experiences that come my way, and doing things that will allow me to take steps in the right direction day after day. I always remind myself that every aspect of life is supposed to continually improve and get better. Granted things may not always go the way we planned, but in one way or another everything should be progressing and moving you forward.

Are we making the best use of our 24 hours every day? There are so many possibilities we have each day to improve something about ourselves, change our perspective, learn something valuable, take another step forward, and accomplish something.

Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.)) said, 'The intelligent (success) was the One who (evaluate) himself, as well as the charity for the life after death. While the weak are those who follow their lusts and daydream to Allah”. (Narrated by at-Tirmidzi).

7 lessons about self-evaluation to be learned from this hadith:

1.   As a Muslim, we should always do self-evaluation in every activity of our lives, both related to aspects of the world (aspects of the job) and also aspects of the life hereafter. Muhasabah or evaluation can be done every day, every week, every month, every quarter, every semester, or once a year.

2.   Self-evaluation is very important in the life of a Muslim. Due to the evaluation, one can know the running portion of worship to God, whether related to others (muamalah and work), as well as directly related to the relationship to God.

3.   Self-evaluation is the key to one's success in this world and in the Hereafter, - as mentioned in the hadith above - that people are intelligent (read: successful) is a person who evaluates himself and do good for the life after death.

   

4.  Self-evaluation is like two wings of a bird in flight, both wings should move balanced. Balanced in both aspects of the life of this world (employment, income, goals and so on) and our worship to Allah. The concept of worship in Islam is misunderstood by many people. Worship is commonly taken to mean performing ritualistic acts such as prayers, fasting, charity, etc. This limited understanding of worship is only one part of the meaning of worship in Islam. That is why the traditional definition of worship in Islam is a comprehensive definition that includes almost everything in any individual's activities. The definition goes something like this: "Worship is an all-inclusive term for all that God loves of external and internal sayings and actions of a person." In other words, worship is everything one says or does for the pleasure of Allah. This, of course, includes rituals as well as beliefs, social activities, and personal contributions to the welfare of one's fellow human-beings. Islam looks at the individual as a whole. Islam, being a way of life, requires that its followers model their life according to its teachings in every aspect, religious or otherwise. This might sound strange to some people who think of religion as a personal relation between the individual and God, having no impact on one's activities outside rituals. As a matter of fact Islam does not think much of mere rituals when they are performed mechanically and have no influence on one's inner life. 

5.  Evaluate in the aspects of employment and acquisition of rizki. Check our self in term of bribe practices, neglect mandate, taking something that is not our rights, manipulation of attendance, lick the boss and subordinate stepping. Rasulullah SAW reminds us that one day on yaumul hisab, all will be questioned by Allah SWT, including the acquisition of fortune about us. The scholars say that one of the characteristics of people who is cautious "Be careful" in the lawful and illicit fortune. The above hadith shows that who could not explain his fortune he earned in his life on earth, later he cannot move the soles of his feet before Allah Almighty.

6. Evaluate in the aspects of social life (the relationship between human beings. This aspect is also a very important aspect to be evaluated. Because humans are social beings, who always need someone else to carry out activities of daily life. We need to evaluate with regard to our relationship to others.

7.  In addition to the evaluation or muhasabah, every Muslim also needs to cultivate the vision in his life, that his orientation is for life after death. Thus the hadith above illustrates, that an intelligent person (successful) is the one who evaluates himself and do good for the life after death". So that real vision of every Muslim is not only limited to 5, 10 or 20 years to come. But the vision of a Muslim is his world through all the dimensions of life, to the dimension afterlife (life after death). If such a vision is embedded within every Muslim, it is certain (inshaAllah) that the works, activities, worship, and in all activities his life, he would only have focus to Allah SWT alone. And this is the actual implementation of the word that we keep on repeating in the beginning of our salah (prayer): Say: "Verily, my prayers, my worship, my life and my death are for Allah, the Lord of the worlds” (al-An'am: 162).

So let us start now, to do self-evaluation and embed dimensions of life through the vision of the world, to the dimensions of our afterlife.

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said to a man while he was advising him:  "Take advantage of five matters before five other matters: your youth, before you become old; and your health, before you fall sick; and your richness, before you become poor; and your free time before you become busy; and your life, before your death."