I was contemplating on many things over the last few days but a discussion with a very close friend of mine triggered a train reaction of thoughts which I wanted to share.

Wherever we are, whoever we may be, we all tend to live in some kind of a “box”. This box represents our current lifestyle, with its ups and downs, opportunities and disappointments, hopes and fears, and a glue-type element that make us want to stick to the box. Some boxes are good, some are bad but we all live in them.

Whenever we’re in one of these boxes (whether it’s a “good” box, or “bad” box), people are of 2 types: Some always want to get out, always want to leave, they want to “free” themselves from the box, they want to unstick themselves from it and find “freedom” elsewhere. Other people, love the coziness of the box, they love to relax therein and fear that if they even dare to peek outside the box, something detrimental will happen to them.

The first type, little do they know that if they leave their box, they’ll soon find themselves in a new box, and the "freedom" they were looking for is simply another box. Once they find themselves in a box, they’d want to leave again only to find themselves in another one, and so on. They carry on living their lives never satisfied with the boxes they are living in and constantly hoping between a box to another.

The second type, never leave their boxes, never develop or grow or try something new, they’ve created this phobia against moving out of their comfort zones that unless they are forced to, they won’t move out! These people will live and die in their box, never ready to take up a challenge or try something new.

Which do you think is better? Or more importantly, which one you think you are?

They both have their positives/negatives, for the first type person, the constant hoping between boxes keeps them fresh, alert, creative and “thinking on their feet”, but sometimes they might be in a very good box but they may want to hop for no reason, e.g. think of people who have a very good job/or happy marriage, but because of their constant hopping nature they’d want to move and can’t stay still hence getting themselves intro trouble.

The second type, although will not have the same opportunities as the first one, but he/she will be relaxed, calm knowing where everything is and you’ll find them “settled” quite well in life.

I sat for a long time thinking which is better, which one I would want to be? And the answer only occurred to me a few days back.

I realised that we do not choose our boxes, but they are given to us by Allah’s decree, therefore it doesn’t matter which box you’re in, what matters is what you do in that box and with that box!

I realised that we need to make the most of each box given to us by Allah, and by making most I mean making sure you please Allah within these boxes. And how do you please Allah in EVERY single box? You implement 2 ideals: Sabr (Patient) and Shukr (Thankfulness) in every single box. Or, my famous advice, "have good intentions and work hard" in every single box.

It doesn’t matter if you’re type A, or type B person. If you like hoping or like sticking around, those who like hoping, you can hop from one decree of Allah to the next, and you may keep running thinking things are better on the other side but my advice would be before you hop ask yourself have I pleased Allah in the box I’m hopping from, have I done everything possible in that box? Do you really want freedom? Then freedom is with obeying Allah and enslaving yourself to His commands, only then would you be truly free from the boxes!

And those who like sticking around, remember that the water that doesn’t run will become stale, and sometimes we need to move out of our comfort zone in order to please Allah, and you know what, you won’t be left alone to stay in the box forever, things will come to you (especially the more you get closer to Allah) that would push you to get out of the box, are you ready for that? Or will you still stay and make excuses?

What does this have to do with ProductiveMuslim?? On a personal level, this is a post reminding myself that I should make most of whichever box Allah has given me and that’s how you achieve success. But for all you ProductiveMuslims/Muslimas out there, I ask you a small homework from you: figure out which type of person you are, are you the constantly jumping from one box to another box OR are you the person who sticks around and never gets out of their comfort zone? Once you’ve done that, those who are constantly jumping I want you to look into a box you’re about to jump from and seriously ask yourself if you’ve done everything to please Allah in that box. And those who are in their comfort zone, do ONE uncomfortable thing that would please Allah TODAY. This could be anything, talking to your neighbour about Islam, changing from a haram career to a halal one, just one thing that would get you out of your comfort zone and enjoy the thrill!

Let me hear your comments below!