Picture this. A man joins the army. He is inducted and put into an intensive and grueling training program. He develops stamina, trains very hard, and becomes a disciplined member of his unit who the commander can rely upon.

What would you expect from this soldier once his training is complete? Would you expect him to be a liability to his unit? Would you expect him to lose his stamina due to laziness? Would you expect him to eschew his responsibility to defend his country?

I think not. And if he did any of these, he would either get himself killed, or get kicked out of the army.

Now let us apply this analogy to ourselves. We’ve just finished our annual training regime. That’s what Ramadan is, a month to train our mind, body and soul so that for the rest of the 11 months we might be able to live as practicing and productive Muslims.

Our beloved Prophet, may infinite peace and blessings be upon him, once said that human activity followed a trajectory with a peak, and then a normalised level, and that this normalised level represented our true state of being.

But is that what happens in reality? Look around you. Just pop into the masjid (mosque) the very next day after Eid. Where have all the Muslims gone? The “Ramadan Muslims” have gone back into hibernation, or have switched to their alternate identities as “Friday Muslims”. They’ll be back in the masjid, sure, but only for Jumah (Friday prayer). If this is the result of a whole month’s training, do you think we deserve to call ourselves rightful members of the Muslim community? Do you think we become assets or liabilities for the community?

Now if we were to apply this model of becoming unproductive after training, to our lives at work, do you think we would last there very long? I think not.

Our beloved Prophet, may infinite peace and blessings be upon him, once said that human activity followed a trajectory with a peak, and then a normalised level, and that this normalised level represented our true state of being. It’s easy to reach a peak of spiritual activity during Ramadan, but once the blessed month has passed and you’re back to your normal life, look at the extent to which you are living by the guidance of Allah and His messenger, for this is the true you. This is the true us. Compare this true us as we are during the rest of the year, with who we were during Ramadan. That’s basically how far off we are from how good we can be.

Allah has favoured us by gifting us the blessed month of Ramadan. But this will be the last for some of us. And there is no guarantee whatsoever that any of us will live to see the next one.

If we were told that the most important exam of our life was going to happen anytime between today and next year when would we prepare for this exam? Would we assume that it’s probably next year and not revise, or would we get revising straight away so that we are prepared in case the exam comes sooner than expected?

We all know what the wise thing to do would be. So without wasting anymore time, let us make a plan, set some goals, and do what we trained for – to be productive and inspiring Muslims who are assets to the community. If we can do that, we will feel a difference in our lives. Our people will love us. And so will Allah.

This article was written for ProductiveMuslim.com. Nabeel Al-Azami is a member of the Board of Directors of the Islamic Institute of Research and Development (www.iidr.org). He's also the Founder of Murabi Consulting (www.murabi.com).

ProductiveMuslim.com is a brand that inspires young Muslims to become Productive through Islam & applying the latest productivity techniques. It's an effort to revive Productivity in our Ummah through lessons extracted from the Quran, Seerah, and the history of the Islamic Civilization!