Retirement

It is a Melayu thing, it is not an Islamic term.

When my parents were pensioned from their jobs, I advised them to continue working. They absolutely agreed with me and had no intention of idling by, visiting the coffee shops and lounging in front of the TV. My dad, a former headmaster, went straight into his innate passion - agriculture. My mom, also a former educator, went into trading - buying and selling valuable items to former colleagues and friends.

In my view, Islamic Entrepreneurship is not about working hard to save enough money to retire and relax. To me, true retirement is when you are dead. Working is something that we muslim must embrace as a passion, a liberation, a good thing; but never as a chore. Work should be a friend, not to be afraid of; never as an enemy.

An Ustaz once relayed his experience when he travelled to China. There he met a very old man, 90 years of age,selling stuff near a mosque. He approached the man and asked why is he still working at such and advanced aged, where are his children? Why are they not taking care of him? Didn't he deserve to retire to the life of playing with the grandkids and relaxing on the fruit of his hard labour in the past. Inside him, he pitied the old man - the children must have abandoned him. Good children would not have allowed their father to toil at such an advanced age, certainly not 'anak melayu jati'. But the answer caught the ustaz by surprise and awe.

The old man replied, his children has all grown up and has families, they were all doing okay and they were taking care of him. He now continues his trade for the mosque; it means that all the proceeds he gets [I assume maybe profit] will be passed on to the mosque. He used to work for himself and his children, not he works for his religion.

The old man did not need the money but he still have the health and wisdom to be an active economic contributor. Thus by working and continuing his trade, the old man is contributing to the economy greatly for had he retired, there will be a huge loss. Loss to the islamic entrepreneurship world where all his skills would be left idle for naught.

I guess he also enjoys the company of his grandchildren, "main dengan cucu", but how much 'companying' can you do? 100 hours a year? 200 hours? Even your grandchildren would need to learn and play with his peers.

Retiring to the Mosque - Alhamdulillah, great! But Allah's command for us to search for his bounty does not have a retirement age. On top of that, your wisdom that was accumulated after years of toil would benefit greatly to the Muslim community - the community that worship's Allah. Continuing to be active economically could be a form of redemption too.

So in the end, I urge those who are already retired to free yourself from the shackles of retirement. Smash those irons than has been tying and gluing you to the chair in front of the tv, reducing you to a mere sloth lamenting "bila cucu nak balik ni". Get up and go forth with whatever remaining life Allah still gives you. Be alive again as Allah has yet switched your lights out. If you are physically unable, write here, share your wisdom to help others ploughing through the turbulent seas of economy. And by doing so, together, we shall all rise and prosper.

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