Love of Leadership and Procrastination

The idea of love of leadership is: me — wanting to be in charge, wanting to be the one ahead, wanting to be the one. And this is more subtle than wanting to be the president, or wanting to be somebody; it is about wanting a position in the eyes of others. It is about wanting to have a position. Jāh, what they call ḥubb al-jāh. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: love of wealth and love of position amongst people is more dangerous to the religion of an individual than two hungry wolves in the midst of sheep.

And procrastination is related, according to the Islamic tradition, to the ultimate procrastination, which is putting off the next world, with death — putting off the idea of death: not going to think about it; let us not talk about it. There is a very important spiritual practice in the Islamic tradition, and in other traditions, of contemplating death: reflecting about death every day, taking some time and thinking about going into non-existence. And the idea is that it is a waking up. It is a pattern break, because in life we get this idea that we are going on forever. And even as the body begins to wane, it is just hard to keep that in focus: that we do die. And the idea is that if one can become aware of one's death, then experiences with people become more important: the moments that we live, the moments that we share with our family, are more important. The idea is that death is something that can take us at any time, that can seize us at any time. It is not a morbid type of thing — one does not start wearing black; no. The idea is literally of becoming really aware of one's mortality, in a way that enables one to live in the world and be free. And really, this is the idea: that through acceptance of death is the ultimate freedom. As long as one is afraid of death, everything will cause fear — fear of provision, fear of insecurity, all these things. If one can accept one's death, then one can accept anything. So there is the idea of really becoming aware.

And then, when one begins to think about death, there is a tradition that says: work for this world as if you would live forever, but work for the next world as if you would die tomorrow. So the idea is that one begins to prepare for that. Rūmī has a wonderful poem in which he says that on the Day of Resurrection God says: tell Me what you did. And he says that the man just falls down to his knees — nothing. And he looks over to the prophets, and the prophets say: do not look at us. You left the plough in the middle of the field, and now is the day of harvest. In other words, the idea is that this world is a world literally for ploughing, for preparing for the next world, and that one reaps the fruits in the next world. So that is part of it.