Muhammad S. Rabiu (Senior Lecturer in the department of Mass Communication Nasarawa State University Keffi) in commemoration of his birthday on the 3rd of January, 2016.
Isn’t the Lord good? God is Good. Allah is the Almighty, the Beneficent and the Merciful. Today is the eve of my birthday.
Tomorrow, Sunday, January 3, 2016, the great and glorious king adds one year to my life. I hereby thank Him for His provision and protection upon my soul. I testify that the grace of providence has mercifully favoured me bountifully.
The pocket economy of a teacher is, inevitably, impoverished. But, perhaps impressively, he can share ideas and insights that can transform lives. Ideas are the most important things on earth. Indeed, great accomplishments of man have resulted from great ideas.
When one thinks of wisdom, the preacher and Ecclesiastical teacher, King Solomon, the son of David, the King of Israel, gets high marks.
According to him, it is much better to get wisdom than gold. And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver, said he.
Moreover, over the years, I have come to know that students are always in need of a regular dose of motivational words.
And, since encouraging young people is my passion, it will be quite in order to give words to nourish their minds, believing that youths can be moulded into winners. It is said that advice is the second mother of the child. And God uses people to raise people. Furthermore, every potential that God invests in you is not for you alone but to affect others’ lives. You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give. Accordingly, knowledge unshared is knowledge wasted. In this connection, let there be light in life. So now let’s scatter sunshine around. This conversation is on the themes of life, work, challenges and successes.
On life. Here, we shall share tips and tricks about time and life. Life is the period between birth and death. Therefore, life is time, and time is life. Life is a journey and there are four categories of travellers in it.
There are crawlers, walkers, runners and fliers. Where do you belong? Life is an experience. It is full of contradictions and incongruities, which literature captures as paradox, the paradoxes of life. Like the conflict, clash or disagreement between what preachers preach and what they actually do.
In life, nothing is as it seems. And you must be deep to understand the deep. The key word in life is faith. Thus the most important nutrition, in living, is the word of God. You must turn you back to the deep valley of vanity. Energy.
Effort. Determination. Dream. Happy are those who have DREAMS and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.
The purpose of life is a life with a purpose. A life without a purpose is like an unsharpened pencil without a sharp point.
Therefore, you need to power your life. Life is a painting and you are the artist. Life is an adventure, and you are the writer. You have the same 26 letters of the alphabet – the same ones used by Milton and Shakespeare. You have it all. Use it to its full potential.
Life is football. You must score goals to succeed. When a dream and a plan get together, the result can be a goal. Dedicate yourselves passionately to your work. Your work should be a challenge, not a chore; a blessing, not a bore. Make a plan for the path you need to follow to accomplish the goal. Be not only a top talent but a pinnacle performer.
Life is a trust from Allah and we will all give accounts someday. Therefore, in all you do, have a sense of refinement and modesty. Be young but not yielding. In all you do, aim for what is noble, honourable and acceptable.
Being youthful and full of energy, you should burn the midnight oil. You must be awake while others are asleep, if you must get to the top. In life, if you procrastinate (delay), you stagnate. As students, you must have intellectual doggedness. Don’t put a cap on your capabilities. Soar like the eagle. Trials and tribulations of life can only make you strong. As gold is special among metals, diamond among stones and eagle among birds, so shall God make you special among people.You need a little more risk taking in your life. Don’t be a mere passenger in the bus of life. Make contributions and conquests. Life is a stage. Perform well before your exit. Make the best of every minute. You have the ability to make things happen, and so don’t be a liability in life. Wealth can be found in ideas and in work, and in adding value. If you want to find yourself, lose yourself in the service of people.
We now turn to the topic of work. Strive hard and your sweat will be turned to sweet. Do not mind the pressure of life, consider the pleasure to come. Do not mind the cry,
consider the crown. Challenges are supposed to make you, not mar you. Be a limit breaker. Excellence can be yours only if you can see the invisible, feel the intangible and strive for the impossible. All successes are built upon the ruins of earlier failures.
Life is labour. There is no victory without labour. All work must be beneficial to humanity. It is never too late to begin your life’s work. Focus on your objectives, not obstacles. In
life, you must direct your attention on your core aim. If you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks at you, you may never get to your destination. Therefore, be immune to
distraction.
Opportunity always comes dressed in work clothes. In all things, pursue perfection because in the pursuit of perfection, you will surpass excellence. Successful people view work as a giving process; serving for the sake of serving; giving for the sake of giving. In other words, their work is seen as a calling. Your work paints a self-portrait. It shows your worth. Therefore, do it well. Work with all your might. Blessed are those who have found their work.
The next subject matter in this discourse is challenges. In life, the problem is not the problem. The history of humanity is a study of peaks and valleys. A problem-free life is an illusion. Therefore, the problem is how to overcome the problem. Accordingly, your attitude to problems determines your altitude in life. After all, problems are to pass, not to last. The challenge of life is to overcome. To be the master, you must raise your game. Don’t magnify your problem.
Magnify your God. He has got you covered. It takes a little patience and it takes a lot of faith, but it’s worth the wait.
Maintain control in spite of the hazards of life. Drive on despite challenges. After all, challenges make champions.
Zeal, the determination to make a difference, and the spirit of excellence should propel you every day. There is a world of difference between certification – the piece of paper called certificate – and education, the skills acquired to grapple with society’s problems. It is like acquiring a driver’s license while you can’t drive. Academic success cannot just be measured from Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) only. The CGPA is untested in the wider working world. The graduate must prove his worth to show that he was not overrated or underrated.
Therefore, your scholastic success is evaluated by your engagements after school. Clearly, you marketability is dependent on your self equipment.
At this juncture, we arrive at the last sub-head, success. The key to accomplishment is wisdom.
Attainment is not necessarily material in value. Whatever appears difficult is where true success lies. Life is about determination to succeed. Failure will never overtake you if your resolve to succeed is strong enough. Think. What you need to triumph is insight, not capital. Think. Remember that laziness is an enemy of fulfilment. Distinguish yourselves by being hard working. Dare to reach forward. It is contrary to the Law of Nature for humanity to stand still. None of the secrets of success will work unless you do something. Innovate and lead. Break the norms and take a risk. That is how heroes and heroines are born.
Life asks:
“How much risks have you taken?” “How many high hurdles have you crossed?” You must risk something to reap something.
People who never take a chance, never get ahead. If you don’t venture, there will be no success. Taking risks is as
essential to success as breathing is to life. Therefore, go beyond the affordable and comfortable zone.
Work harder because where you are now is not good enough for tomorrow. Until you work, nothing works. You will be remembered for what you actually do, not what you wish you had done. Get ready to explore life and the potential of your mind power.
The mind is like a battery. How do you get the battery of your car to generate power? You charge it up!.
And you must not disappoint God. He has loaded so much into you. Every human being has a treasure within. A man’s fortune is not what is in the safe or in the bank. It is what is. inside him. There lie a man’s valuables. Those jewels, whendiscovered, determine each man’s placement in life.
Remember that everyman has something to sell. For a lasting success, take the staircase (hard work) not the elevator (shortcut, cheating, fraud etc). Success is a process, a journey, not a sprint. Shortcut cuts you short. It is flavourless and unprofitable. And you can’t also jump to success. Things of value take time to achieve. And that is part of what gives them so much value. The tripod of success comprises plan, work and prayer. God is the key that opens all doors. You must pay the price for success. All good things in life have a price tag. The key to wealth is to add value. No
one can be truly rich without enriching the lives of others.
Let’s all endeavour to finish life magnificently. Greatness is when performance meets opportunity. When all is said and done, each of us will leave only four things behind:
memories (thoughts that others have of us), souvenirs (proof of our existence), trophies (records of our achievements) and legacies (everything you are and possess
today). In life, everything you can count will finish (money, houses, cars…). It is the uncountable that endures (knowledge, ideas, kindness, good works, blessings…).
Philosophers say a good example is the best sermon. Accordingly, exemplification is better than eloquence. Keep on working hard. Better days are coming. We don’t know what tomorrow holds but we know who holds tomorrow.
Allah has a perfect timing. Never early, never late. You are not hopeless until you are lifeless. The room for improvement is the biggest room in the world. Accept your faults, your short comings and your imperfections. Then rise above them. Everywhere in nature, it is the clash between positive and negative, good and evil, the purist and the player.
Your life can sizzle but you don’t have to allow your dreams to fizzle. God’s delays are not God’s denials. Nothing is terminal in life. Everything is transitional. Don’t let phases faze you out. Phases are passages and passages are never dead ends. What looks like the end of the road (blind alley, dead end, cul-de-sac) may turn out to be a bend.
The great business of life is to be, to do, to do without and to depart, according to John Morley. The race of life is not about how you start it but how you end it. Success is the preserve of those who are steadfast (persevering, unshaken, whole-hearted) in their desire. When you follow your passion, success follows you. Therefore, fuel your rise with
hard work. The world of success can never be over crowded.
There is enough room in the sky for all stars to shine. May Allah lift us from the level of survival and success to significance. The world is your stage; your career is your play. Make impact. Affect others. Life’s most persistent and urgent question is:
“What are you doing for others?” You must touch the lives of multitudes. You must be substantial and influential. To be rich means to reach out. Riches without outreach is reproach (blame, disapproval, condemnation).
For those who work in the academic line, according to the volume and value of your service, you progress from an academic to a scholar to an intellectual. And a good intellectual marries the town (people, generally in the community, town, city, state, country or the entire world) with the gown (academic gown, which symbolizes his academic exertions and excellence).
Conclusively, I say: find your edge. I wish you the best, all the best. On this occasion of my anniversary, let me thank the human agents Allah has used to shape my life: family members, all my teachers in my educational odyssey, colleagues, students, friends and face book friends. I hold and hail you all dearly.
Thank you.
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