Pursuing passion project

[Botak]

Assalamualaikum

Recently I have been listening to this lectures reviewing the book of adabus salat by Ayatollah Khomeini. Maybe I misheard or misinterpet some part of the lecture because I feels like the lecture main focus is full detachment for dunya, and having no thought except for Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى). If a person cant occupy their heart with God consistently, then they will not be suluk and they will be distracted in their salat. Therefor their salat will be rejected.

Atleast thats what I got from the video.

Problem is, I dont know what to do, I still "like" this dunya, I still likes to play games, watch youtube, etc. People said these actions are fine as long as its halal and one said bismilah. But which part of playing games count as remembering God? I am pretty sure God would be happier if I read the Quran instead.

I also have a passion project of writing stories and books. This passion project is solely due to myself, this isnt ibadat, nor is it for God. I dont know if I should continue the project now. After all, anything not for God is useless and should be abandoned, right? I am confused. 

[hamz786]

Wa Alaykum Salam,

Regarding your passion, what if you wrote stories that involve Islam in some way. 

[Botak]

18 minutes ago, hamz786 said:

Wa Alaykum Salam,

Regarding your passion, what if you wrote stories that involve Islam in some way. 

I can do that but that isnt exactly my goal here, my goal is still making stories out of ideas that I think is neat. In the end of the day I would be lying if I said "I write this for God"

[notme]

On 7/28/2024 at 9:06 PM, Botak said:

I also have a passion project of writing stories and books.

If you have a passion for writing stories, you must write stories. Just don't write to glorify haram things. Reading fiction builds empathy - if you are contributing to building even one person's empathy you are doing a good deed.  

[Shian e Ali]

On 7/29/2024 at 3:07 AM, Botak said:

I can do that but that isnt exactly my goal here, my goal is still making stories out of ideas that I think is neat. In the end of the day I would be lying if I said "I write this for God"

Even if they don't relate to Allah in any way, as long as your stories are giving out a positive message or helping people, it'll count as a good deed - a service to humanity. 

[Botak]

4 hours ago, Shian e Ali said:

Even if they don't relate to Allah in any way, as long as your stories are giving out a positive message or helping people, it'll count as a good deed - a service to humanity. 

But the niyyat would be to myself instead of God! Wouldnt that mean that God wouldnt accept it?

[Botak]

16 hours ago, notme said:

If you have a passion for writing stories, you must write stories. Just don't write to glorify haram things. Reading fiction builds empathy - if you are contributing to building even one person's empathy you are doing a good deed.  

I wouldnt exactly making empathy as my main goal here, I mean I do have plan to add lesson to my story, but thats at the end of my priority list.

I know this activity, just like playing games, isnt haram at any way. But from the lecturer video I keep thinking how one must cleanse his heart from anything that isnt God, well he didnt exactly say its a wajib, but he kept stressing it out lol.

I mean I also feels like its just logic when a person have a strong faith, I mean whats use for all of those games or whatever in the afterlife :/

[notme]

50 minutes ago, Botak said:

I wouldnt exactly making empathy as my main goal here, I mean I do have plan to add lesson to my story, but thats at the end of my priority list.

The brickmaker isn't thinking of walls or roads either. Your passion is to write fiction. It might be what you were created to do. I only mentioned that reading fiction builds empathy because you seemed to need your work to create good in the world. 

[Ashvazdanghe]

On 7/29/2024 at 2:07 AM, Botak said:

I can do that but that isnt exactly my goal here, my goal is still making stories out of ideas that I think is neat. In the end of the day I would be lying if I said "I write this for God"

Salam an example of writing educational stories is "Anecdotes of pious men " by martyr Morteza Mutahhari which his intention has been prioritizing giving lessons in form  of some religious stories when book market of Iran has been full of immoral even anti Islamic books .

8 hours ago, Botak said:

But the niyyat would be to myself instead of God! Wouldnt that mean that God wouldnt accept it?

Allah will look at heart of anyone & accepts good deeds which have been done with sincere Niyyat for pleasing Allah & preparing people for advent of final Savior .

8 hours ago, Botak said:

I wouldnt exactly making empathy as my main goal here, I mean I do have plan to add lesson to my story, but thats at the end of my priority list.

I know this activity, just like playing games, isnt haram at any way. But from the lecturer video I keep thinking how one must cleanse his heart from anything that isnt God, well he didnt exactly day its a wajib, but he kept stressing it out lol.

I mean I also feels like its just logic when a person have a strong faith, I mean whats use for all of those games or whatever in the afterlife :/

Giving lesson must be your first priority although you must give lessons in best way instead of parroting some advices at end of story .

Majority games have no purpose instead of wasting time & creating illusions or giving false information likewise "Civilization" game series which is about giving wrong lessons & spreading Zionism & NWO & fighting with Islam under guise of teaching lessons which is based on Satanic foundation which now Muslims must make & produce games for at least neutralizing such games  or give true lessons of shia Islam through games . 

[Ashvazdanghe]

Addendum

Anecdotes of Pious Men

Murtadha Mutahhari

https://www.al-islam.org/anecdotes-pious-men-murtadha-mutahhari

[Botak]

7 hours ago, Ashvazdanghe said:

Salam an example of writing educational stories is "Anecdotes of pious men " by martyr Morteza Mutahhari which his intention has been prioritizing giving lessons in form  of some religious stories when book market of Iran has been full of immoral even anti Islamic books .

Allah will look at heart of anyone & accepts good deeds which have been done with sincere Niyyat for pleasing Allah & preparing people for advent of final Savior .

Giving lesson must be your first priority although you must give lessons in best way instead of parroting some advices at end of story .

Majority games have no purpose instead of wasting time & creating illusions or giving false information likewise "Civilization" game series which is about giving wrong lessons & spreading Zionism & NWO & fighting with Islam under guise of teaching lessons which is based on Satanic foundation which now Muslims must make & produce games for at least neutralizing such games  or give true lessons of shia Islam through games . 

Oh Ayatollah Mutahhari! I like his books.

Well here is tbe thing, its not my first priority. Also I feels like you misread, I have said it clearly. This project is not for God, its for my own happiness.

Also man I like civ6

[Botak]

12 hours ago, notme said:

The brickmaker isn't thinking of walls or roads either. Your passion is to write fiction. It might be what you were created to do. I only mentioned that reading fiction builds empathy because you seemed to need your work to create good in the world. 

I feel like I wanted to make my stories to have moral lesson not because I wanted to do good deeds, but because I am pissed at the amount of edgy books.

Dont get me wrong, edgy books arent always bad, but I just dont like em. 

[notme]

Do what you are driven to do, so long as it isn't promoting haram. Anything else, you can do, but it won't feel right and you won't do it as well. 

You're worrying too much. Be a good person, pray and follow Islam, and live your life. That's how to do your best for Allah. 

[JannahLM]

On 7/29/2024 at 12:47 AM, hamz786 said:

Wa Alaykum Salam,

Regarding your passion, what if you wrote stories that involve Islam in some way. 

Salaam. Sorry, butting in, but as an aspiring writer this is what I've been trying to do. I have a few ideas in the works. Perhaps the most extensive is the historical fantasy set in the Ottoman Empire (wanted to play around with something a bit closer to my own roots). The main character is a mercenary in direct service to the Sultan and this character's companion and best friend is a Safavid Persian (and also a Shia). There's all sorts of magic (think Harry Potter-esque magic rather than Occult type stuff) and monsters. Also, plenty of elements taken from Islamic folklore, such as jinn. Unlike in our world, jinn exist more openly in this world, although there are some tensions between humans and jinn.

I also have a significantly less developed idea set in the Abbasid era. It's basically whatever the Medieval equivalent of Steampunk would be and revolves around a female inventor main character. That's about all I have for that one so far. This idea actually stemmed from an AI image I saw of a Muslim scholar standing alongside a robot.

Lastly, I've been itching to write something about Karbala. I sort of want to make the story more accessible to western Non-Muslim English speaking audiences. As an English speaking convert myself I find that a lot of the resources, stories, hadiths, etc. in our faith are simply inaccessible (Sunnis are far better about this) and it presents so many challenges, especially for Non-Muslims trying to learn about the faith. I think some sort of novel about the events in Karbala would get westerners more interested to know about us and what we truly stand for as there's a lot of misconceptions. I'm just not sure yet what exactly to do here. I'm considering making it a story of redemption told from the point of view of one of Yazid's soldiers. He witnesses the atrocities and once realizing who was being killed and why, his heart begins to turn against Yazid. Perhaps he eventually get martyred in the end for refusing to obey Yazid. I don't, maybe too cliche of an idea. 

Sorry for the wall of text. I'm just so passionate about sharing my ideas, haha.

Edited July 31 by JannahLM

[Botak]

8 hours ago, notme said:

Do what you are driven to do, so long as it isn't promoting haram. Anything else, you can do, but it won't feel right and you won't do it as well. 

You're worrying too much. Be a good person, pray and follow Islam, and live your life. That's how to do your best for Allah. 

I know... I keep telling myself this. Its not haram why should you be worried? Well the lecture does say to have want nothing but Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى) only during prayer (but he did reccomend people to do it all the time, I mean I am listening to it rn as we speak, he just talked about how anything that ist God came from the fruit that Adam as ate)

Anyway, guess ill continue, its not haram at the end of the day, hopefully God is okay with this

[Ashvazdanghe]

15 hours ago, Botak said:

This project is not for God, its for my own happiness.

Also man I like civ6

Salam if it's not for God so then why you have asked about it which even  in Iran there is many examples of making books just for own happiness not god ; which it's just wasting your time for a void work although when you do your project for god so then you will receive Halal happiness as a gift of your work but on the other hand if you just do the project just for your own happiness so then you won' be satisfied even after completing your selfish-happiness project .

Loving a game likewise civ6 is not bad although you must know that it has been based on spreading Zionist propaganda & anti Islam foundations . 

[Botak]

On 8/1/2024 at 12:36 PM, Ashvazdanghe said:

which it's just wasting your time for a void work

I know that, thats my main gripe but I often find it fun

[Botak]

idk if anyone is still in this thread, but like usual I lost a bit of passion for a while (this usually happen and the passion will be back after a while) but I have been thinking that this may be a sign from God? Like He is telling me that "Yes, the lecturer is right, you should stop all entertainment stuff."

Like, I was content and feels like if I just do good and avoid sin than God will be pleased and then when I prayed and I was asking God for help to the right path and to be more focused, a part of me said "There is your answer! Cut all your dunya you dunya lover!"

Every other day I will just write it off as usual down, but maybe its a sign? idk. Mental health has been quite unstable... or maybe I am purposefully making my self unstable to run away from the truth... hhhhh

Really need a guide... I wish I had some kind of ustadz or ustadzah or ulema or whatever that could guide me,God already guide you you are just not listening you stupid idk my therapist used to agree that I should only focus on doing things for God but then she changes opinion? Now I cant rly contact her because she is busy with her physcology study in Tehran. You are afraid to contact her because you know her answer

[Ashvazdanghe]

On 8/7/2024 at 3:50 AM, Botak said:

Like He is telling me that "Yes, the lecturer is right, you should stop all entertainment stuff."

Salam respectfully this is a wrong conclusion which according to Imam Ali (عليه السلام) every muslim  must divide his time in three fields of working & praying & having Halal entertainment which all three are related to each other which your intention in all of three must be following order of Allah which Halal entertainment can help you recharge yourself for working & praying in way of Allah which these three are not isolated activities from each other . 

[realizm]

As long as it is not haram, why even bother ?

Just find a balance. One just cannot make all his actions revolve around the agreement of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى), just think about how people move going to restaurants, play sports, tell jokes etc.

I think nobody should restrict their creativity. Again, as long as it has ethics and morals.