The one-hit wonder

The expression; ‘one-hit wonder’ has always baffled me. I always thought it was an unfair way to describe someone because I was convinced that human beings are not capable of having the same phenomenal level of output each time. The life of a person, in my uninformed opinion, was much like the graphical representation of the stock market; filled with short bursts of highs and prolonged periods of lows. Obviously, this is a very wrong perception. What i failed to realize about the meaning of that expression was the fact that a one -hit wonder was a person who spent more time on the low than on the high. I think i failed to realize this because I was a one-hit wonder myself and I was in denial about it.

You see, the one thing a one-hit wonder lacks is consistency, and the one thing he/she is full of is excuses and procrastination. A one-hit wonder is that person who gets a 4.50 GPA one semester and then gets a 2.45 GPA for the next four semesters; it’s that person who starts a new venture on a high note and then suddenly can’t keep up. As muslims, we can’t afford to be one-hit wonders. The noble prophet (SAW) has told us that one of the most beloved deeds to Allah are those good deeds which might be small, but consistent (Bukhari). We shouldn’t observe 10 raka’a of nawafil for a month and then spend the next seven months observing only two, we shouldn’t recite a page of the Qur’an everyday for two months and then spend the next one year ignoring the Qur’an altogether, we shouldn’t be one-hit wonders.

It might be that the problem with some of us is that we set the bar too high for ourselves to begin with. This could be due to a sudden ‘Iman rush’ or simply just our method of operation. Whatever it is, we need to look into ourselves and find out what exactly it is that causes us to become a one-hit wonder, and rectify the situation. Be it excuses, procrastination or having a case of ‘biting off more than we can chew’, we need to remember something someone said to me today;”your life and/or record will not stop whenever you find yourself in a difficult situation”. The angels don’t stop writing just because we are ‘kind of in a rough patch’. Allah (SWT) is merciful and he knows when you  genuinely can’t keep up with a good deed you’ve been constant with. However, most times, we don’t even try. We are quick to come up with excuses for ourselves.

It’s okay to be human, but being lazy and inconsistent is nothing to be proud of.