Deen - the perfect template for how our lives should be lived, the code of conduct that Muslims should adhere to, the obedience towards the religion of Islam - simply, it is the term used to refer to a Muslim’s behaviour in everyday life. With the pressures of school, the stress for success and striving to become academic beasts, it is very easy to stray away from our Deen. On the contrary, it is also possible to flip the coin. If we solely focus on our Deen and the Akhira, success in the Dunya will merely become a figment of our imagination.

So. What do we do? How do we tackle this? In order to succeed in every aspect of life - religious success; financial success; success in terms of health; success regarding family and relationships - a balance must be obtained. Is this difficult? No.

“Allah desires for you ease, and does not desire for you hardship” – Quran, Surat Al Baqarah, 185

There are a multitude of lifestyle changes and habitual practices that can exponentially help with finding the perfect balance between the Deen and the Dunya. In this article, however, I aim to focus on the goal of balancing school life and our Deen.

Let’s start with compulsion within the religion of Islam. In particular, the 5 daily prayers and fasting during the blessed month of Ramadan. Every initiative must be taken to ensure prayers are prayed during school. In my School, for example, there was never a specific room or area for Muslims to go and pray in. However, as a collective community, we took the initiative and spoke to the headmaster to solve this issue. With the current climate of the world and the pressures on society to be fair and open to all cultures, religions and beliefs - it should not be a difficult task to organise such a thing. Remember - when there is will, there is a way. Pressing upon this point, religion should never be sacrificed. Picture this. You have an important exam the following morning and you stay up late to revise. Sleep is vital for memory retention and brain functioning. Therefore, you decide to not set an alarm for Fajr but decide the best thing to do is to sacrifice praying on time, in order to sneak in extra sleep. It is evident that this is the wrong thing to do. The blessings from Allah is a treasured gift that one must strive to obtain in order to succeed.

Another example could be Ramadan. Let me share a personal example here. Last year I sat my GCSE exams, and they started 2 weeks after Ramadan ended. Now, I could have sacrificed fasting in order to muster up more energy to revise. I could have also sacrificed playing cricket. I could have decided to commit fully towards the educational aspect of my life and sacrificed everything else. But I didn’t. See, I decided to find a balance. I woke up for Suhoor but instead of going back to sleep, I stayed up to revise. I utilised the times where I had the most amount of energy to focus my revision on. Nothing was easy but this was how I created my version of a balance. On numerous occasions, I wanted to give up and chill and stop and relax, but now, I feel nothing but satisfaction and gratefulness. This term is called delayed gratification. Those who sacrifice instant gratification to attain delayed gratification are amongst the most successful individuals. Hard work and sacrifices now will always make the future easier and better.

I am a strong believer that planning your day and having a vision for success is the best way to go about life. Write your goals, create a plan of action, structure your days, manifest success and make Dua for strength, determination and discipline. Discipline is the single most important attribute that successful people have. Waking up on time no matter how cosy your bed is, following the code of conduct of Islam, grinding revision no matter how boring or tiresome it may be. These are just a few examples of what separates people at the top with people who stray behind.

It’s all up to the individual. The motivation and advice will always be there, it’s about having that discipline and striving to find the perfect balance between success in this life and the hereafter.