My New Year's Resolution

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Comes new year, many people will declare their New Year’s Resolution to lose weight, exercise, quit smoking, build their business or something they have been putting off. Statistics show despite all the good intentions, only a tiny fraction of us keep our resolutions; University of Scranton research suggests that just 8% of people achieve their New Year’s goals leaving 92% to fail.

I have not made a New Year’s Resolution in my life and I will tell you why. Most people make lofty resolutions that are too big to tackle or very abstract and they set out with good intentions only to throw in the towel for some within a week, a few make it a month or two. Instead I make a daily intention to be all I can be. To do whatever it takes to be successful in the next life because that is the only real life and this life is perishing. Every day is a choice and I choose Allah because He is my Master and only Helper.

Choose Allah this year. Choose to love Allah more than anyone, anything. To take care of your body that He gave you more than the phone that you hang out with all the time. To use your muscles so they won’t have atrophy and be healthy for years to come so you may worship Allah well. To smile every chance you can because you have so much to be grateful for since you are here on earth.

Follow the Islamic guidance to reprogram yourself on a daily basis without setting yourself up for failure. Don’t wait for the end of the year to decide to live your best life, do it daily!

As Muslims, every day is the first day of the new first year of the rest of your life. When it is night, prepare for death, for, don’t you see how closely sleep resembles death, in spite of all the differences you may cite.

And when the dawn arrives it brings with it the stirrings of new life everywhere. So, every day is the beginning of an entire new life for you, if you only knew and understood it.

So, fear Allah during the night. And prepare to serve Allah and His creation during the day. For, He watches over you during the night and He monitors your every movement during the day.

Resolution to make for the fist day of the rest of your life and for the remainder of your life should include this...

"Of course Lord, You are my Lord and Master. You don’t need anything or anyone and You certainly don’t need me. But I am Your creation and I am entirely and totally dependent on Your mercy and grace for everything in every single moment of my life. So Lord, I do hereby resolve, commit and undertake to spend the rest of my life in knowing You; and in learning Your commands; and in serving Your creation in every possible way that I can. And in so doing Lord, I resolve to work tirelessly to improve my own life as well as the lives of those around me and to make this world a better place for all of Your creation. So help me my Rabb, please help me, guide me, and not leave me alone even for a blinking of an eye."

And you will plead and cry before your Maker.

May Allah grant us success in this life and the next. Ameen.

And Allah knows best and He alone grant success.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wassallam.

Wassalaam