The 2 Rakk'ah Solution

An old man walked in on Sheikh Khaled Al Jubair(1) and asked him to help him out with a problem he was having. He was 70 years old and smoked for a half a century. He wanted to quit smoking now but he didn't know how.

The sheikh fell silent, deep in thought. He then proclaimed, "Follow this prescription and God willing you will quit. Every time you smoke a cigarette, I want you to immediately wash up for prayers and pray 2 Rakk'ahs to Allah(2)."

The man exclaimed, "I smoke 40 cigarettes a day! Do you want me to pray 80 Rakk'ahs.?"
"Yes. That's my solution to you. Its up to you to take it or not. If you decide to take it, come back tomorrow to inform me of what happened."

The old man went and came back the next day. "So what happened yesterday" asked the Sheikh.
"I only smoked 5 cigarettes yesterday." The old man was excited. "Every time I would take out the cigarette, put it in my mouth, and watch the flame burn up the tip, a voice in the back of my head reminded me that I would have to pray 2 Rakk'ahs immediately afterwards. My enjoyment slowly withered as the voice grew louder and louder. By the 5th cigarette, I began dreading what I knew would come next."

The sheikh asked him, "Do you know what that voice in the back of your head is? It is the Shaytan. He nagged you to stop smoking so that you wouldn't continue to pray."

The man implemented the system for a few weeks and slowly, but surely he had quit smoking cigarettes.


This system is derived from the Prophet Muhammad's teachings:

"ما من رجل يذنب ذنبا فيتوضأ ويحسن الوضوء , فيصلي ركعتين فيستغفر الله عز وجل إلا غفر له"

"Whoever commits a sin, then washes up and prays 2 Rakk'ahs and asks Allah for forgivness; he will be forgiven."

I call the system, the 2 Rakk'ah solution. It works with anything you want to do or quit. I tried it out myself and so far the results have been real favorable. I had a problem waking up for Fajr prayers. Today is my 4th day on the system, and so far my record is 3 out of 4.

Try it.


*Notes:

1. Sheikh Khaled Al Jubair is a Saudi heart surgeon which has dedicated his life to treating the hearts of people both medically and spirtually.
2. Rakk'ah literally means bow. It refers to a full unit of prayer.

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Life's Short

I stood on the balcony on the 11th floor of my hotel room, and gazed out into the Meditereanean Sea. The water gleamed with the sun's reflection, truly a beautiful and tranquil sight. The Alexandrian breeze lifted my daughters hair and she turned to me and said "upa upa" demanding to be carried. As I stood there with my daughter of 2 and a half in my arms I began to ponder the situation.

Thoughts began to rush to mind... It was very probable that my parent's had stood in this exact spot and looked at the same sun glazed sea. At that time I was the one demanding to be carried though. The days had passed and now I was the one doing the carrying. When I returned home, I spoke to my parent's about this notion. They confirmed my thoughts. More than 25 years had gone by. It seemed like yesterday that my mother had watched me off to my first day of elementary school. It was just the day before, when my parent's watched with a gleam in their eyes as I took my first steps. When they thought back of it all, it felt like a blink of the eye. The point is: Life is Short.

When you think back on your life, you may find that you lived a busy and full life. But what is it that you left behind for humanity? What is your unique mark onto life? That's what really matters. Never belittle your accomplishments. No matter how big or small your contibution is, one should exist.
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Yes Man

I watched the movie Yes Man a few days ago. The idea of the movie was really inspirational and eye opening. I really was excited and thought I was going to give it a try. But the more I thought about it, the more I started seeing some serious shortcomings. I'm still really psyched by the idea, that's why I'm taking a jab at tweeking the idea so that it can actually be applied.

The Yes Man idea in brief is that you should be open minded to everything and try new things. Say yes to everything that encounters you, and you will set yourself free by experiencing new and diverse situations. The character in the movie goes from being a self centered introvert to an outgoing spontaneous guy.

There are a few major problems with the idea though. You become reactive and slowly destroy your personality. You await people to run their ideas by you and then accept blindly without regard for your principles or preferences. You don't initiate anything. You don't innovate anything. You simply become a pawn in the game of the first person who approaches you.

The Yes Man idea can be really powerful, if someone is stuck in life and can't seem to get things rolling. The idea will take you out of your comfort zone, and into a broad world of opportunities. When someone presents you with an opportunity, before you say YES, first weigh it against your principles to see if it is acceptable to you. If all checks out, say YES. Once you have a full plate of events on your schedule, you will have to start filtering the things you say YES to. You can do that by weighing new opportunities against your goals. If an opportunity gets you closer to one of your goals, then say YES.

So now your exposed to new exciting opportunities, but you are not proactive yet. You are not in the driver's seat. You're not taking initiative to do things that are important to you. So now all you have to do is figure out what it is that is important to you. Once you know what it is that you want, say YES to it.

For example, if you decide that you want to become more social, your objective is: to become more social. Ask yourself, how can I become more social? If you decide you'll get there by attending more social events, your goal is: to attend more social events. So now you know that to achieve your objective all you have to do is achieve your goals. The next step becomes simple, actively seek your goals. Don't hesitate. Just say YES. Or in Nike terminology, Just Do It.

I'm going to start the Yes Man and let you know what happens.



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