Motivation

Iove this written by yasmin mogahed.

I have been through some dark times in my life and I have had to make some very hard decisions. But I'll tell you what I've learned.

Life isn't supposed to be miserable. It isn't supposed to be excruciatingly painful. It supposed to suffocate or drain you. 
Are there parts of life that will make you feel this way? Yes. Absolutely. But, why? We *must* ask why. Why do we go through these things? Is it so that we  stay still and bear it stoically? Is it to passively endure and call it "sabr" or patience?

Absolutely not.

In fact we go through misery, pain, suffocation for the exact opposite reason: To push us towards *change*. Movement. Growth. "Sabr" is not standing still. "Sabr" is not being passive. Sabr is the endurance necessary to make the change needed to *move* one step closer to where Allah wants us to be.

God created pain, in both the physical and spiritual world, as a wake up call. As a motivator and accelerator towards action, movement, and change to alleviate the pain.

When a person has an infection, they feel fever. When a person's heart is clogged, they experience chest pain, or heart attack. A person can ignore fever or chest pain and call it "patience" or "sabr". But if this pain is ignored and just numbed long enough, the sickness only increases. Until it actually kills us. Pain is a warning. A smoke alarm for the sleeping soul.

If you feel suffocated, it's probably because you're not getting enough oxygen. It works the same spiritually and emotionally, as it does physically.

Be brave enough to dig deep, to be honest. And then to take the action and change necessary to save your life.

But, be careful. Never, ever take this action alone. Seek strength and guidance in God. *Only* then will you never drown or get lost.