Refrain from
Futile Activities

The true human being is a man with a purpose. He is focused. This purposefulness produces concentration.

There is a tradition, in which the Prophet of Islam once observed: “One of the virtues of a believer in Islam is that he should refrain from and abandon those activities in which there is no benefit.” (Sunan Ibn Majah 3976)

The true human being is a person with a purpose and all his attention is devoted to achieving it. This purposefulness produces concentration. And he engages himself only in those activities which clearly relate to his purpose, and he stays away from anything which is irrelevant to his purpose.

Such a person differentiates between what is essential and what is not. Before engaging in any activities he sees what is necessary as his purpose. He thinks before he speaks. He gauges whether his words or speech are going to serve any purpose. His sensitivity about his purpose compels him to become a watchdog on his thinking as well. He does not spend his mental energy and thinking on such things as are not going to produce any positive gain either to him or to humanity at large.

The difference between a purposeful person and a purposeless person is that the former leads a well-considered life, while the latter has no clear goal before him. He leads his life without any destination right up to the point when he leaves this world.

A true human being is one who is a person of principle. The activities of such a person are governed by his principles rather than by his personal desires. Such a human being reins in his personal desires and looks at things on their genuine merit. Such a person naturally accepts only those things which are important in principle. He keeps away from those things which are not important in principle, no matter how attractive they may seem.