Should You Quit your Job for Islam? Here Are A Few Things You Should Consider

Have you ever felt like quitting your job and devote your time to Islam? You are tired of being a practicing Muslim on a part-time basis you want to go full-time and maybe do it over-time. Perhaps you want to study Arabic full time, so you can appreciate the Quran better, or you want to teach your children to read the Quran or you just want to get away and join a Tablighi Jamaat and the pretext of doing da’wah. 

Whatever the reason may be before you push the eject button and quit your job. You have to understand that too many people quit their job prematurely. Quitting your job abruptly is a luxury that people who don’t have any financial commitment have.  

For the rest of us, we can’t go to our mortgage and loan providers and tell them “I want to do dawah, so I am doing what I love so the money will surely follow.” Unfortunately, institutional lenders can’t wait that long.

So the best thing is to start a side hustle until it is big enough to support you. You need your job to pay the bills and put food on the table.  So before handing in that resignation letter because you are enthusiastic about giving full commitment to Islam here are things that you should consider

What is the actual cost of leaving or staying?

There is two sides to this coin. One there is a perception of the cost of living. The other is the reality of things  Usually, many good talents stay in a job that they hate because of mortgages and debts to pay.

 If they leave they won’t receive the paycheck to make ends meet. While this is true in my experience if you believe in yourself, this is only temporary. So don’t stop your growth just because you have a mortgage.  

One the other hand your reason for leaving is because of a co-worker or boss or the whole system, chances you meet the same type of annoying character wherever you go. Chances are they are even on the committee of your local Masjid.

 It is not worth leaving because you want to get away from them. You should be moving towards something better. Don’t quit your job because of the perception of pain that your job gives you.

Present your case to your employer

If you have issues with your employer, the salary is too low or whatever the reason may be,  you need to discuss these issues with your employer. They can’t fix what they don’t know. But you should give them a chance to make your stay a little bit more pleasant. Being a boss is about having good people and managing them if they can fix it they will. Once you expressed these issues and no concrete step is taken, it is safe to assume that it is out of your bosses’ hands. If you’ve proven that you gone the extra mile and establish that you are an asset still there is no change. 

Chances are you work in a company that is almost immune to change. This is when you should do what you are paid for and nothing more. Use your free time to build your side hustle.

Barakah in your side hustle

 A side hustle will begin taking many hours each week away from precious moments you’d otherwise be spending with friends, family and elsewhere. There will be times when your side hustle will gain traction, but not generating enough to sustain yourself.  Sometimes your side hustle may collide with your work. What if a prospective client wants to see you and at the same time you assigned to attend a meeting at your work. Which one would you choose? Always, always give priority to the work that you are paid for.  Because if you don’t this will chip away the barakah that you have in your side hustle. Priority should be given to your job, so you would have barakah in both the rizq that you are getting and the rizq that your working on.  

Don’t share confidential information with clients

No matter how annoyed you are with your current employer, you should retain your Amanah, that is the trust given to you by your employer. You should not offer company reports, trade secrets or any information that might give your client a competitive edge against your current employer. If you want to build a blessed side hustle, you should not profit at the expense of your employer.  Your current job is where you build the connection that you can use for the future. You can use inside information for your business but do it ethically. 

Do not misuse company property

No matter how annoyed you are with your current employer you should maintain your integrity. You should not use company property to make your personal income that is the same as robbery. The facility that you are given at your office is meant to do your job for your employer. This means you should not use company email to look for business prospects. The same applies to job hunting during company time. But I am a bit flexible with company time because that area is getting blurred. Sometimes you still receive calls outside office hours and take your work home. As long it doesn’t get in a way with the work that you are hired to do, it is still acceptable.

Leave respectfully

 I once worked as a communication officer. The work was highly depended on files that have been collected for decades. My predecessor took the trouble of deleting about 20,000 pages of important files. His argument was he wrote all that document and I should write my own. This causes great distress for me because I had to reinvent the wheel all over again. But the repercussion is greater to my predecessor. Everyone in the Union knows what he did and the news travel all the way to the International Labour Organisation in Geneva. It limits his chance to get a post with the International Body. Sometimes no matter how good you are, your character speaks louder. So maintain your integrity. No matter how small your acts of misdeed it can snowball and bite you in the face one day.

Lastly, working for a living means more than pay. You don’t want to be getting high pay but no time to spend it. But then again you should quit your job for the right reasons. You should move to something better, not worse.

In short, when quitting your job you should exit gracefully. This can be done with a little planning on your part. But what if you are suddenly dismissed from your job?

Still the same rule applies,  you can take the moral high ground of not criticizing them and oftentimes, it is a blessing for you. Your termination is the push that you needed. So you can take hold of something that is much better. Sometimes Allah closes one door so you would start to see there is a bigger door right next to you. 

If you are looking for how to have a side income to add to your regular jobs, check out our previous articles  for ideas:

• Urban farming and growing food plants
• Selling used-items in a marketplace
• Rent your motorbike
• 4 more Halal business ideas

If you want to contribute, to Islam you can do it anytime, you can contribute by helping with your local Masjid on the weekends. You don’t need to quit your job to do that. 

Farah I, Writer & Researcher

Farah Ishak is a Content Writer at Halalop. She grew up in the United Kingdom where she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Management. Later, she completed her MBA and held senior-level positions in Malaysian based MNC. She left the corporate world to be with her young kids. She is passionate about issues concerning Muslim women, Startups and Muslim businesses in general.