Mastery: Perfecting Our Submission to God Alone

Mastery. Greene, Robert. Penguin Publishing Group. “In order to master a field, you must love the subject and feel a profound connection to it. Your interest must transcend the field itself and border on the religious. “  [6:161] Say, "My Lord has guided me in a straight path—the perfect religion of Abraham, monotheism. He never was an idol worshiper." [6:162] Say, "My Contact Prayers (Salat), my worship practices, my life and my death, are all devoted absolutely to GOD alone, the Lord of the universe. [6:163] "He has no partner. This is what I am commanded to believe, and I am the first to submit."  [2:165] …Those who believe love GOD the most. “A false path in life is generally something we are attracted to for the wrong reasons—money, fame, attention, and so on. If it is attention we need, we often experience a kind of emptiness inside that we are hoping to fill with the false love of public approval. “   [76:8] They donate their favorite food to the poor, the orphan, and the captive. [76:9] "We feed you for the sake of GOD; we expect no reward from you, nor thanks. [76:10] "We fear from our Lord a day that is full of misery and trouble." We don’t change because of what we know we change because we care  [13:11] Shifts (of angels) take turns, staying with each one of you—they are in front of you and behind you. They stay with you, and guard you in accordance with GOD's commands. Thus, GOD does not change the condition of any people unless they themselves make the decision to change. If GOD wills any hardship for any people, no force can stop it. For they have none beside Him as Lord and Master.  Jiro Dreams of Sushi (85 years old – making sushi for over 60 years)  “We don’t care about money, All I want to do is make better sushi. I do the same thing over and over improving bit by bit. There is always a yearning to achieve more. I’ll continue to climb, trying to reach the top, but no one knows where the top is.“ - Jiro In an interview with one of Jiro’s apprentices he said that it took him 10 years before they would allow him to cook the eggs for egg sushi. Even then every time he tried it was rejected. It took him 200 tries before Jiro accepted it and he said when that happened he almost cried, but he kept it to himself because he didn’t want to show his excitement.  You can be completely dedicated to something yet always be doing whatever you are in the cause of God. The two are one in the same. They do not need to be mutually exclusive. Someone asking if they should be a doctor because they were concerned that it would distract them from worshipping God.  “Just as a well-filled day brings blessed sleep, so a well-employed life brings a blessed death.” - Leonardo da Vinci Importance of repetition  Commencement speech from US Navy Admiral William McRaven, If You Want to Change the World, Start Off by Making Your Bed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGRXaFf9LFU  No broken window policy  Today we want everything new – we want novelty – constant stimulation  This is what makes apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat so popular The world is full of information, but what we really need is wisdom  Wisdom is the condensed down optimal use of information  And wisdom comes through Mastery  What is the difference between a chess grandmaster and an intermediate chess player, is that the intermediate player will consider more moves, but the grandmaster while looking at fewer moves will look at only the best ones  So much of the religion is repetition 5 times a day we perform our Contact Prayers  [70:34] They consistently observe their contact prayers (Salat), on time. We recite the same things every time 17 times a day we recite the Al-Fãtehah [14:40] "My Lord, make me one who consistently observes the Contact Prayers (Salat), and also my children. Our Lord, please answer my prayers. Before we eat we mention God’s name or when we wake up in the morning we say: Bismillah AlRahman AlRaheem (In the name of God, Mos