How to be happy in your job - Really?

139. The jailor is more imprisoned that the prisoners

The jailor is more imprisoned

That the prisoners,

The policeman is more criminal

Than the accused,

The psychiatrist is more crazy

Than the patient,

The insurer is more exposed

Than the insured,

The riddlemaker is more confused

Than his riddles,

The judge is more guilty

Than the convicted,

The politician is more a follower

Than his devotees,

The pimp is more a whore

Than his prostitutes,

The banker is more in debt

Than his debtors,

The businessman is more a peon

Than his workers,

The theologian is more a devil

Than the Devil,

The atheist is more dogmatic

Than the believers,

The poet is more hypocritical

Than his apostasy.

It is not condemnation that I utter,

But empathy for people whose trade

Cannot but affect them

In ways they are unable

To fathom.

Is it a surprise, therefore,

That Muhammad is saying,

“Before any trade you take,

Take first the servanthood of God.”?

FIRST AMBITION. I believe that every man and woman has a right to choose their employment. To do within the time given to them whatever gives them the greater pleasure and payment. But nothing should stand in your way to your very first ambition. A first ambition, you ask? Yes, something taken for granted (as always by mankind) by most people, and that is to be a decent human being.

BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD HAPPINESS. There is no trade or vocation more finer and indeed, more important than that. Whether you are a banker in their tower of fiat money, or a teacher in a classroom, or a fireman risking life and limb, this finicky and meddlesome task of being 'decent' is critical to happiness. But this happiness must be married with decency. If there is nothing better in this wonderful world than being good and happy, there is perhaps no worse condition for you than being bad and happy. For being bad-happy is the worse lie you can ever believe in. Many people do it. Even me sometimes.

DRESSED IN SERVANTHOOD. Every person must have a measure of decency by which to live their lives. And I think (and God thinks that too. Well... I like dropping names) that there is no dress for decency more fitting for a human being than the dress of servanthood. It is the sort of dress that you can wear anywhere with confidence, whether you are in a mosque, a church, a boardroom, a laboratory, in parliament , in a temple or a conference hall. And one size fits all.

So may God bless those who serve God (and Man). For you cannot have one without the other, yes?

Have a good-happy day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.