Islam Museum Islam Museum islam.museum
Search ⌕ ARENUR
Accessibility
Text size 100%

Saved on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.

Life management and choosing one's field

إدارة الحياة واختيار المجال

Life management in Tareq al-Suwaidan's teaching — the fourth generation of time management: choosing a single field of life by the desire-opportunity-ability equation, setting three to ten major projects needing fifteen to twenty years, and distributing goals over one's faith, social, health, financial and skill roles, by the fifty-per-cent rule.

Depth

At a glance

Region
Global / Diaspora
Review

Politics, governance and authorityEducation

Summary

Tareq al-Suwaidan calls 'life management and time organisation' the most important subject he has ever taught; ordering one's life is the fourth generation of time management — one does not begin by scheduling the day but by ordering life 1 2.

Choosing a field

The first step is choosing a single field for one's life — not necessarily an academic specialisation — holding that whoever works two fields weakens his output; he cites Khalid ibn al-Walid (may God be pleased with him), whose field was one: warfare, recounting what is told of him — 'jihad kept me from the Qur'an' — when asked about his slips in reciting the short suras 3 4 5. The choice runs on three criteria gathered under 'rifq': desire — 'work in a field you do not love and you may produce, but you will not excel' — opportunity — he tells of a Kuwaiti student who specialised in forestry engineering and found no work — and ability — some fields demand a strong memory, a language or a fine voice, and he recounts turning a young man away from the qira'at specialisation because his voice would not serve it 6 7 8. The criteria are scored in a table: ten points per criterion per candidate field, filled column by column; a field that stands out by a wide margin is chosen; if scores are close and one's current field is among the leaders, do not switch — the numbers are not one-hundred-per-cent exact 9 10 11. His rule for the university student: one who discovers in the first or second year that his field lies elsewhere should switch even at the cost of a year; one who has reached the third or fourth should finish and switch at postgraduate level — he himself changed field after his doctorate 12 13. The highest investment of energy, to him, is when specialisation, job and volunteering align 14 15. His doctorate equation: whoever wants the theoretical life — research, authorship, teaching — takes the doctorate seriously and from a serious university; whoever wants the practical life finds it a waste of time and money that makes him 'overqualified'; he excepts two cases — the politician and the media presenter — suggesting they take a token doctorate from a 'struggling university' if found (the speaker's advice, labelled as his own view) 16 17 18.

Life projects

After the field, a person sets three to ten great projects to give his life to — each needing fifteen to twenty years — written in measurable wording, to be proud of in this world and the next 19 20. His example is Abd al-Rahman al-Sumayt, who turned his whole life to serving Africa through the Direct Aid society (needs_source for the cited figures) 21 22. The fifty-per-cent rule: the field takes fifty per cent of one's time, informal relationships, reading and output 23 24.

The roles of life

Beside the field stand roles, each with written, measurable goals: the faith and worship role — for the Qur'an he proposes three completions: a reading completion, a tafsir completion (even over years), and a completion extracting the sunan and laws which he estimates takes fifteen years; and he places Ghazali's Ihya' Ulum al-Din above Ibn al-Qayyim's Madarij al-Salikin for the worship of hearts 25 26 27. The social role in order: parents, then family and children, then kin, then friends; he faults the saying 'dads are for fun, moms mean business' — a father's time with his children is for transferring experience and guidance, not amusement only 28 29 30. The health role aims at reaching a level then keeping it — not endless improvement — through four elements: diet (the plate rule: half vegetables and fruit, a quarter starches and fats, a quarter proteins; and reducing fats, soft drinks, red meat and sweets), sleep (no fixed number of hours; fix the waking time not the sleeping time, and sleep only when drowsy), exercise (half an hour daily or an hour three times a week; swimming first, then trampoline, then running, walking the lowest acceptable), and a target weight (height in centimetres minus a hundred, for men) (the speaker's distillation of Western nutrition books; figures needs_source) 31 32 33 34 35. The financial role with four goals: doubling income every three years, doubling assets every five years, saving twenty per cent of every revenue — except one whose weak income would force him to stint his family, supported by the hadith preferring the dinar spent on one's family — and a fixed charity he advises converting into endowments 'for the waqf is what built the Muslims' civilisation' 36 37 38. And the skill-acquisition role: planning, leadership and delegation, decision-making, feasibility study, basic computer skills, improving one's Arabic, and mastering English — he states that eighty per cent of the world's research is in English (needs_source) 39 40.

People and things also explored

Experience versus service, and self-development· Motivation· The quartets of making creatives· Stephen Covey· al-Attarine Madrasa, Fez· Ahl al-Diwan (those paid from the state register of soldiers and officers, and the rules of their conditions and distribution)· Ahl al-Hall wa al-Aqd (those who loose and bind: the men of power whose choice confirms the imam)· Ahl al-Mahalla (the people of a quarter, their imam, call to prayer, and their part in the oath and blood money where a body is found)

Sources

  1. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:19:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  2. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:26:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:20:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  4. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:50:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  5. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:52:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  6. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:24:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  7. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:27:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  8. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:29:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  9. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:30:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  10. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:33:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  11. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:34:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  12. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:35:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  13. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:35:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  14. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:21:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  15. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:22:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  16. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:42:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  17. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:43:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  18. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:44:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  19. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:45:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  20. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:49:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  21. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:48:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  22. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:48:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  23. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:52:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  24. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:54:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  25. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:55:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  26. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:57:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  27. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 00:58:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  28. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:00:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  29. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:02:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  30. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:03:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  31. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:03:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  32. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:07:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  33. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:09:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  34. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:11:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  35. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:12:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  36. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:14:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  37. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:16:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  38. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:18:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  39. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:18:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  40. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Administrative Processus Abilities, episode 5, at 01:19:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Life management and choosing one's field”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/idarat-al-hayat/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · JSON

Wing

Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Experience versus service, and self-development

Experience versus service in Tareq al-Suwaidan's teaching: years of work do not add up to experience without continuous development, whose minimum standards he sets as two books a month, three courses a year, one specialist and one general journal, and following two scholars of one's field.