How can one combine a career with serving one’s faith?

Whoever finds happiness in serving God and people is not making a heavy sacrifice. They simply spend their free time on what makes them happiest.

Some people work at their jobs during the day and then give almost all their free time to their community and to others. From the outside this looks like a great sacrifice. How do they keep it up?

The answer lies in what makes a person happy. When paid work is done, everyone wants to relax and be content. One person seeks this in entertainment, another in serving a higher cause. Whoever has found that helping those who suffer, or serving God, fulfils them more deeply than any distraction does not feel this service as a burden. In truth they are doing what brings them the greatest joy.

So no outside pressure is needed. The drive comes from within. At large gatherings, thousands of volunteers often work day and night. No one pays them, and some even pay their own travel costs. Yet they would be unhappy if this work were taken away from them.

The verses above show that Islam sees no conflict between work and faith. One should not neglect one’s share of the world, should go about one’s work after the Prayer and remember God while doing so. Those who are praised are precisely the ones who trade and yet do not forget God.

This devotion to goodness is what humanity needs most today.