An Invaluable Tip from Sahabiy (ie from a Companion of our beloved Prophet Muhammed (s.a.w):- Choose Which Optional Extra Worship You Can Handle Doing Extra The Best, As Sahabiy Ibn Masud is Said to Have Advised
فقد كان ابن مسعود قليل الصوم ، وكان يقول : ” إذا صُمْتُ ضعفتُ عنِ الصلاةِ ؛ وأنا أختار الصلاة على الصوم.”
وكان بعضهم إذا صام ضعف عن قراءة القرآن، فكان يكثر الفطر حتى يقدر على التلاوة ، وكل إنسان أعلم بحاله وما يُصلحه.
It is related that the Companion of our beloved Prophet Muhammed (s.a.w), Abdullah Ibn Mas’ud (r.a), used to say:
“If I fast, I get weak to pray (a lot of extra Prayers), (so) I choose (to do a lot more of extra) Prayer over (many extra) Fasting.”
The Narrator added that:
And some of them, if he did (extra) Fasting, he would get weak to recite (lot of extra) Qur’an. So he would not (do extra) fast on numerous occasions so that he has the strength to do Tilawah (recitation of the Qur’an). Thus, every person is best aware of his own individual case and how best to reform it.
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More Points To Take Home from This
So, not everyone may be able to do lot of extra Fasting, Prayer, or Tilawah. Rather, some may find they are able to strive more in extra of Prayer than Fasting, or extra of Tilawah at expense of doing less optional Fasting, and so on.
Therefore, first ensure to do the Compulsory, and beyond that, find what is easy for you out of the EXTRA good deeds, and strive in doing those a lot and with great care to perfect it, while still doing some of other good types of acts of worship and good deeds.
This is indeed a very pragmatic invaluable piece of advice for many Muslims in today’s times!
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