Yasir Qadhi – How Does One Motivate Themselves to Study – Ask Shaykh YQ #136

			How what would you tell people who are struggling with getting the motivation to study?
		

			107 I mean, Kobe nica in Region No, he him first No. Kidding, Erie in
		

			June?
		

			That's a difficult question. Because it's something that deals with psychology more than deals with
Islamic law and Islamic understandings. I would, I would look at my own life in this regard, my own
my own, my own motivations. So panelo, for me.
		

			Firstly, when I was in engineering, I chose a career that I was genuinely interested in, I could
never imagine choosing a career that I wouldn't be interested in. So choose something that you find
fascinating, something that you are genuinely curious. And this is something that many entrepreneurs
and many, you know, business leaders and innovative leaders, they say that, you know, don't
prioritize money, prioritize passion, and money is going to come, do something that you want to do
with your life, do something that you really, genuinely are motivated by, because you don't want to
be going to work for the sake of money. You want to work because of whatever factors and money is
		

			going to come. I'm not saying ignore money, but I'm saying never make it your primary motivation.
Because that's really, it's not going to, it's not going to sustain you over and over again, it's
just not going to you need to choose a career or a path that you have a genuine desire and
curiosity. And yes, you can add money as an incentive, but not as the main incentive. Also, for me
as well. I mean, it was I mean, again, realize there was a time in my life, I had no clue I would go
down the path that I did, I literally had a job at Dell chemical lined up for me and I had worked
there as an intern. And, you know, corporate life was was was calling me, it was very, it was very,
		

			I was very close to going there. And so for me again, just to move on, back to the previous question
of growing up and whatnot, for me, that was my ticket to actually grow up. And it's very true. If
you don't have a job, right? You're always going to be under your parents house, you're always going
to be a young man that doesn't is not fully independence. For me, that was a motivation that I need
to move on. How long am I going to, you know, live under my parents roof and take money from them?
And, and, again, I'll be honest, of course, I felt the pressure of their, you know, laws and
restrictions on which is human nature. I mean, they had very strict, you know, curfew times and
		

			whatnot that understandably, by the way, this was before the era of cell phones, right? Imagine, you
know, so these days, I mean, it's like, Yeah, I did that there were no cell phones, there were no
way to contact them if there was no, even beepers. Do you remember the beeper even be pressed to
just come up back then. So it's not a long time ago, back in the early 90s. My point being that, for
me, that was a motivation, believe it or not, what's wrong with that? It was the motivation to
become independent. I had dreams of working corporate america and getting married and starting my
family. And why can't that be a motivation is good to have that motivation, as well, of course, I
		

			mean, at the time again, this is a different time, but I was thinking as well of doing the masters
and MBA or whatnot, and having a career laid out for me. So all of these are motivational factors.
Obviously, along with this, you can also add the spiritual component, that it is your responsibility
as a young man to start a family to take care of your wife and children. And so how else are you
going to do that, except if you have a career and promotable, hotpot famously remarked that
		

			I'm never impressed at the intelligence of somebody until I see that he has a source of risk,
meaning that he has a job or career doesn't matter if somebody's smart and talking, if they're lazy
in their life, formidable hip hop said, I'm not impressed with this person, right? That a smart
man's talk will not impress me, until I see that he's actually had his life in order. That's what
armineh mahapatra is saying. It's a very powerful statement here, so many ways to motivate you, I
guess one of the ways as well as to speak to others in your field to are ahead of you who have
achieved some things and get their advice as well. What is to be done? One of the ways, by the way,
		

			I think is very important, is to balance whatever you're doing with other passions and hobbies that
you have. So don't make your whole life, you know, just with one thing. For me personally, at the
time, definitely MSA was my life really, I my parents would say I'm more passionate about the MSA
than I was about my studies. Maybe there was an element of truth. That's why I ended up where I did,
but if I didn't have the MSA at the time, I don't think I would have been able to do my engineering
degree, you know, was something that I needed. I needed to have a my network of friends and my, my
giving back my giving Dawa on the dollar table. My, you know, I used to give holebas at 17. So, and
		

			the MSA was very active with the MSA when I was in campus, and for me, that was my outlet.
		

			Some of my best friends actually my my closest group of friends still were the MSA batch back in the
early 90s. So to have something other than just your your, your studies that you're doing to have
that outlet but to balance to make sure that you don't go to extremes on either side. Maybe I myself
went into two extremes but at hamdulillah I was always a straight A student. So got the good grades
as well. And then yes, definitely spent way too much time at the MSA but that's what shaped me as
well. I hope that answers your question. So generic question I give you a off the cuff completely
unprepared for marks