Jimmy: "Oh, Jesus! What have I gotten myself involved with here?! Look, just tell me what are you saying is gonna–"

Mike: "Look. We all make our choices. And those choices, they put us on a road. Sometimes those choices seem small, but they put you on the road. You think about getting off... but eventually, you're back on it. And the road we're on led us out to the desert, everything that happened there and straight back to where we are right now. And nothing–nothing–can be done about that. Do you understand that?"

===

You just read a dialogue exchange from the series Better Call Saul, in an episode titled Bad Choice Road.

Mike is consoling Jimmy, who's having trouble accepting how he got himself into the current mess they're in with the mexican cartel.

Just like Jimmy who's up to his neck in shambles, I was frustrated with my life a few years back:

*Obese.

*Burned out with online business attempts.

*Couldn't afford the apartment I was renting anymore.

*Zero self confidence.

*Struggled to get out of bed in the morning.

*No relationship with God.

Sure, I didn't have any murderous, psychopathic, druglords to worry about, lol.

But much like Jimmy, I arrived at rock bottom through a series of CHOICES

While my life is far from perfect now, I'm beyond grateful for the positive changes I've seen (successfully lost the weight, happily married, found Islam, and more—Alhamdulillah).

Sometimes people who I haven't seen in a while are surprised and wonder out loud...

"What changed to make you lose the weight???"

Well, there was no magical moment, so it's a hard question to answer.

But, by Allah's will, I started making better choices.

Not ALWAYS did I make perfect choices (and nor do I now), but CONSISTENT enough...

If consistent bad choices put you on BAD CHOICE ROAD, consistent good choices put you on GOOD CHOICE ROAD

Yes, our decree is written by Allah.

Our Rizq.

Our Barakah.

Even our actions.

But only Allah knows our Qadr, we don't.

So every day that He wakes us... every moment we get to breathe more air into our lungs... we get to pick which road we're more likely to end up on with our CHOICES.

I've been thinking about this because I'm planning to record a video soon about a concept called Spiritual Materialism in Islam.

It's about examining the (often unconscious) ulterior, self-serving motives that can be attached to acts of worship.

Why is this important?

Well, it's one of the things separating Mu’min from Munafiq.

As Muslim creators who share any part of themselves online (whether or not you have a personal or faceless brand)—especially if you share anything about Islam or spirituality—it's useful to stay aware of the sneaky ways which our Ikhlas can be compromised when mixing Deen with any worldly aspects of being a creator.

From my experience, some reading I've been doing and a talk I recently had with author Ousama Alshurafa, my understanding is that it largely comes down to moment-to-moment awareness of your inner state in relation to Allah.

And what are choices if not moments in time, haha...

All that to say, I was reminded of (and wanted to share with you) this Bad Choice Road lesson.

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As-salamu aleiykum, my halal creator friend 😊

—Redim