Often times, most of us misunderstand the concept of worldly life versus the spiritual life due to the following verse of the Quran:
“I did not create the Jinns and the human beings except for the purpose that they should worship Me”
[Quran: Surah Adh-Dhariyat: Chapter 51, Verse 56]
Majority of us have this misunderstanding that practicing the principles of Deen, or being religious means to leave the worldly/materialistic life and just cut ourselves off from normal society, which is totally not the case… ‘We can live our normal lives while being God-Conscious.
First of all, the verse above does not mean to just keep praying Salah or reading Quran 24-hours, if that would be the case, Allah SWT would not convey us through our Prophet SAW to pray salah only 5 times a day, in fact HE would have ordered the muslims to pray Salah(s) the entire day.
Worshipping not only means Salah and Quran recitation but it also means, leading our normal lives keeping Allah SWT in our consciousness all the time, getting a good degree, working for your dream job, having professional goals, seeking productive skills.
Our Deen is following he principles of the Quran and Sunnah in our day to day activities, treating people with respect, performing our duties on job with honesty and dedication, becoming a problem-solver who ever comes for help, treating friends and family with love, not undermining people who are a bit lower in financial or professional status than us, avoiding inappropriate gatherings and gossips which would might take us away from the consciousness of Allah SWT. And the list goes on…
– Rabia Tariq