Author: Hasannudin Saidin

Image credit: The Minds Journal

So boring! So monotonous!!!
– What if it’s “sacred monotony”? 🤔

In a previous post,

I said that rather than lamenting on what could be felt as doing a meaningless task (e.g. a work “process” step),

connecting it to a higher purpose reframes our feeling to that of gratitude.

Do we feel that day in, day out
we are in a “same old same old” routine and monotony?

What if we treat the monotony as “sacred monotony”?

Sacred monotony becomes skillful monotony and fulfilling monotony,
like in the above example of “meaningless task”
when we can:
✔️ check it against a higher purpose.

If not the highest purpose each time,
then the cascaded lower sub-purpose(s).

Sacred monotony is when we enter any task
with intention (a.k.a. niat, niyyah, nawaitu),
versus mindless, automatic drifting.

Archers, violinists or other achievers
who repeat and practise hours on end
for months or years on end
do not complain of boring routine!

We perform religious rituals with sacred monotony
(except if we approach them in automatic mode).

Try this:
– remembrance of deep intention, and
– mindfulness (being fully present every moment in every task) for all daily activities,

be they for religious rituals or mundane work and life routines.

An alternative is: escape from boredom

through falling for distractions,
bingeing on entertainment,
and other heedless forms,

but beware – where are we really heading to?

Have a blessed Friday,
have a good weekend,
(even with monotony)!

Video: my conversation with Nadiah Suki on her accepting “process” for a greater good, and how her not whining about it is actually her practising gratitude.

Here is the reason I was so emphatic on “no complaining” when I had that conversation with Nadiah Suki: I recently completed a “no complaining” endurance in my recent 35-day Hajj trip! 😊

Prior to the Hajj trip, the teacher at my Hajj course had said that this is a journey of the heart.

The Sheikh taught me that with the 2 million plus people in Makkah, I should take heed of these (also see Appendix 2 further below):

• not a vacation
• no arguments
• no complaining
• expect uncomfortable
• expect delays
• people’s tests are different
• not there to propose solutions to Hajj problems

The above apply before, during and after Hajj.

Before and during the trip, I prayed that my ears don’t hear and my eyes don’t see people complaining, arguing or proposing solutions. I also intended to avoid those kind of people.

Sure enough, there were some tests of those kind of people. Still, Allah did spare me from many, I am sure.

As an example at Kuala Lumpur International Airport when we were waiting to board the plane to Jeddah, my wife Marsila beside me suddenly said, “Oops, my bad, I shouldn’t have said that.” Truth was I really didn’t hear anything she said before that.

And as we were about to board the plane, a fellow pilgrim said to me, “Ada satu kecacatan (There is one defect)..” referring to the start of our journey, but at that time we were standing up to get on the bus to board the plane, so he could not finish his sentence.

In the first couple of days in Makkah, the tests of noticing people’s whining did continue. The travel package I bought had me share the hotel room with 3 other pilgrims, so they become new friends. To one of them I confided, in tears, that I was trying my best not to complain, not to add fuel to the fire of other people complaining, and not to be in the company of complainers.

Why? Because I am a guest of Allah and as a guest, I do not want to kecilkan hati (displease) my Host, Allah Himself!

This concept of not kecilkan hati Tuan Rumah (Host) was reminded to me before the trip by my friend, an earlier Hajah, Farah Rahim.

I texted Farah from Makkah that I was just keeping quiet when people complain. Farah suggested I smile while in the company of complainers, and I would be rewarded. So I did try to smile a lot throughout the pilgrimage. 😊

The pilgrimage was meant to be arduous, at different levels for different people. The congestion in the main mosque of Masjid Haram when we did the Tawaf and Sa’ie rituals as well as the daily prayers, the 40 degrees Celcius plus HEAT (!), the delays, the crammed camps in Arafah and Mina, the ratio of 60:1 people to toilet in the camps, the list goes on.

I think I was patient enough with the tests, Alhamdulillah, including when I smiled at supposedly intelligent suggestions people raised about the toilet situation, the meals menu prepared by the travel agency, etc., etc.

I decided to adapt to the new routines and travel situations (after all, I am a seasoned world traveler), and count the relative blessings I had.

Especially when another roommate said, “Allah loves you, Hasan – He gives you “corner lot” each time!” My roommate was referring to the positioning of my beds in Makkah, Arafah and Mina.

I was first to arrive at the hotel room in Makkah, thus I could choose the bed by the window.

In the Arafah camp, somehow I got the end bed (very narrow sofa bed/mattress – side-by-side literally touching the next one) by the wall, giving a bit of space to put my stuff between bed and wall.

In the Mina camp, my narrow bed (same cramming like in Arafah) was by the doorway of the room, giving “breathing space” to the next bed on the other side of the doorway.

(Read on, below)

Read More “No Whining = Gratitude”

“What the heck is a soliloquy? 😄😄😄 Ohhhh….cakap sorang-sorang.”

Today I spoke by myself, then sent the 4 minutes 20 seconds recording to the other two members of our Accountability Triad.

What the heck is an Accountability Triad?

Three members accountable to own selves and accountable to each other.

Every Friday from 8am to 8:30am we get on a Zoom call and update on each of our previous week’s declarations then declare our new goals for the coming week.

Three members. Triangle. Prism. Get it? Hopefully the light that gets in refracts out as colours of the rainbow.

(I also still have the vinyl for Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon album.)

This week when the other two members were not available, I decided to keep the momentum with a soliloquy, and it doesn’t matter to me if they don’t replay it.

Two of us started this in May 2022 as a dyad. It became a triad about a month later. May it go on and on, because we love it.

I had agreed to this idea from the other member because I was partly inspired by Marshall Goldsmith’s “6 Daily Questions.”

We do whatever works for us! 😁