Prayer for a partner

In the story of Musa 'alayhi salam, after Allah tells him to go to Pharaoh, Musa makes the famous prayer:

قَالَ رَبِّ اشْرَحْلِى صَدْرِى

[Musa] said: My Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance]

وَ يَسِّرْلِى أَمْرِى

And ease for me my task

وَ احْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِنْ لِسَانِى

And untie the knot from my tongue

يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِى

That they may understand my speech

Surah Taha : 25-28

Right after this, though, he makes a prayer, that's not so well known.  He asks Allah to appoint a minister from his family, his brother, Haroun.  And this is what Musa asks Allah for in this partner:

اشْدُدْ بِهِ أَزْرِى

Increase through him my strength

وَ أَشْرِكْهُ فِى أَمْرِى

And let him share my task

كَىْ نُسَبِّحَكَ كَثِيرًا

That we may exalt You much

وَ نَشْكُرَكَ كَثِيرًا

And remember You much

Surah Taha : 31-34

What a beautiful description of a partner and the purpose that they aim to achieve together.

People fuel

Have you ever seen people contribute enthusiastically towards a project and then lose that enthusiasm until they're only doing the bare minimum to get by?  It's like they had tons of fuel and then it ran out, making any further progress painful and slow.  Previously enthusiastic team members start resenting the project and, sometimes, even each other.

I watched this unfold recently and I started wondering what happened?  What went wrong?  How can someone who is normally so helpful and generous become so reluctant and stingy?

My theory: people need fuel to work.  In particular, they need respect and appreciation.  Imagine working in a group where people are disrespecting you and ignoring your contributions.  How much extra work are you going to contribute?

It's not hard to give respect and appreciation.  It's a matter of listening to people's opinions and giving them due consideration.  It's giving people responsibilities commensurate with their abilities and resources.  It's answering emails -- even if the answer is 'I don't know'.  It's trusting people and not second-guessing them or asking them to defend every single decision they make.  It's thank you's and recognition of their contributions.  It's amazing how far people can go with a little fuel -- and how difficult it is to move forward when that fuel is missing.

Useful - not used

A good leader makes people feel useful, without making them feel used.

Seventy excuses

One of the great early Muslims, Hamdun al-Qassar, said, “If a friend among your friends errs, make seventy excuses for them.  If your hearts are unable to do this, then know that the shortcoming is in your own selves.”

I use this one a lot.

I love working in the community where the efforts of a group of people combine to create something greater than the sum of its parts.  But, as in any enterprise involving people, mistakes will be made.  The ball will be dropped (sometimes by me, which is another reason why I use it a lot).  And often, things will not go exactly as planned. 

When this happens, rather than attribute the error to malice, carelessness and disrespect, we make excuses for our friend.  We don't even need to make seventy.  I find once I get to two or three, I start feeling better already. 

I've always thought of this tradition as a good way of maintaining social relations.  And it is.  It keeps us from planting seeds of ill will against each other.  But besides that, it also helps us maintain a good emotional state within ourselves.  For as much as the way we see the world might affect how we treat other people, it really affects ourselves the most.

The Small Stone

This story is from a poem by a famous Arab poet.

There once was a small stone that was part of a big dam, which secured a village from flooding. 

One day, the stone started to think of its role in life. 

It questioned whether it played an important role at all in the dam since it was surrounded by big rocks who were doing the bulk of the work.

After much thought, the stone came to the conclusion that it wasn’t an important part of the dam at all. 

So it jumped into the stream. 

In the place where it once sat, the small stone had left a tiny leak.  

It was a trickle at first.

Then slowly but surely, the trickle grew and more stones, first small ones and then larger ones were also washed into the stream.  

Until finally the dam collapsed and the village flooded.

All because of the small stone.

The Leaky Bucket

My friend forwarded this to me in an email...

There was once a man who had two buckets, which he used to carry water from a well to his house. One of the buckets had a crack in it and the other didn't. Each day, the one with the crack would leak almost half its water along the way.

After some time, the imperfect container said to the man "I apologize for leaking half of your water every day". The man said "I knew that so I planted flower seeds along the way. It is the water that was leaking from you that has been supplying these flowers with water and helping them grow every day."

The Molecules in a Hurricane

About team work, from a lecture by Dr. Yaser:

Did you know that the individual molecules in a hurricane are moving at about the same speed as the molecules in perfectly still air? The kinetic molecular theory postulates that the average kinetic energy of gas particles depends only on the temperature of the system. So, since hurricanes are about the same temperature as the air around them, their molecules are moving at about the same average speed as the still air in the vicinity.

So what's the difference then?

In still air, these molecules are moving randomly so their net motion is zero. They cancel each other out. In a hurricane, the molecules move together in the same direction so they exert an enormous force on their surrounding environment.