Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
Pursue a suitable and beneficial career to serve Allah and benefit society, and strive for excellence with trust in Allah’s will.
Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Canada, answers your question as follows:
You don’t have to choose to be an imam or scholar of Islam to earn a halal source of living and work to please Allah. Islam teaches us that one can select any beneficial work or field and contribute to society. Once the intention is to serve Allah by benefiting His creation and the goals and means are right, you can pursue them.
So, ultimately, it all depends on what area you can excel in and contribute to the society where there is a greater need. So, find out what your aptitude is? And how can you excel in it?
If you can excel in medicine and expect to serve people through it, you should go for it. As you know, in medicine itself, there are areas where you can choose to specialize; so zero in on that to make your unique contribution.
If, on the contrary, your aptitude is for law, then go for it. But make sure to use your profession to defend the rights of the oppressed and the down-trodden.
Suppose, on the other hand, you are interested in engineering, or teaching, or writing or social sciences, then you need not consider it as inferior to the above.
Any field where you can excel and benefit the community can be chosen.
Finally, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave us guidance in a hadith:
- To strive for goals that are meaningful and beneficial.
- To put your trust in Allah and work hard to achieve them.
- If after putting in your best effort, you find yourself unable to proceed, accept it as the will of Allah and choose something else.
- Avoid regretful thoughts such as “I wish I had done this or that,” as they only feed the devil’s influence on your mind. (Muslim)
In conclusion, pursue a suitable goal, achieve excellence, and seek Allah’s pleasure by earning a halal source of living and serving humanity. And never fail to pray: Our Lord, give us good in this world and the next and save us from the torments of the Hell-fire.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Source: https://askthescholar.com/