After many years, I went to
the office of my friend to meet him. He offered me a chair and wrote a note on
a file after concentrating on it for a while. He then went to another room and
gave that file to his junior. I surprisingly asked, ‘Why did you not give the
file to your junior by calling him here?’ He replied, ‘To save my time! Since I
went myself, it took one minute, but if I had called him, he would have come
here by my will but would have left by
his will due to which I would have lost plenty of time.’
Dear Islamic brothers! From
this fictitious parable, we can realize
the importance of time. The rich and the poor, the lazy and the active all get
the treasure of time equally. No one has the minute of 70 seconds or an hour of 65 minutes; everyone has the minute of
60 seconds, hour of 60 minutes and day of
24 hours. Then why do some people get more work done
in a short period of time and some people keep making a complaint of shortage of time! The difference is that the
person who wastes his seconds also wastes his minutes and the one who does not
value even a minute, wastes many hours on daily basis. On the contrary, the one
who saves even his one minute does not waste his time at all. In this way, he
succeeds in carrying out more work. Let’s see how time is wasted.
Abundant use of mobile phone
There was a time when the
mobile phone, as well as its SIM, was expensive. People even had to pay for
receiving a call, so in this way, they used to waste little time. Now mobile
phones are inexpensive, SIMs are almost free and the packages of thousands of
minutes are available at very low rates due to which people talk to each other
on mobile phones for hours besides necessary phone calls. The one who makes a
call feels that this call rate is very low for him without paying any attention
to the fact that he has also lost much precious time. Then the conversation (during
the call) is very useless, sinful (consisting of backbiting, slandering and
tale-telling), and impermissible. It can be judged by the person who not only
possesses Islamic knowledge but who is
also very sensitive. Remember, whether the phone call is expensive or
inexpensive your time is very precious because the moment that has passed cannot
be regained even after paying hundreds of thousands of rupees.
Chit-chat
Eating in restaurants
Some people have the habit of
eating meals in restaurants with family or friends on a holiday despite having
the facility of cooking food at home. It may take half an hour to eat a meal at
home, but takes two and a half hours in a restaurant. The food that is prepared
at home is cooked by using quality cooking oil, clean onions and garlic and
quality spices, etc., keeping in mind health and safety, whereas the food that
is prepared in restaurants is spicy and tasty, but if you concentrate on the
ingredients which it contains, you will find out their quality level.
Furthermore, the owners of the restaurants are only concerned with selling
their food without being bothered about your health!
Did not eat food by my own
hands for 30 years
Sayyiduna ‘Ubayd Bin Ya’eesh
[یعیش] رَحْمَۃُ اللہِ تَعَالٰی عَلَیْہِ, the blessed teacher of Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim رَحْمَۃُ اللہِ
تَعَالٰی عَلَیْہِما,
has said, ‘I did not eat dinner by my own hands for 30 years; my sister would
feed me morsels with her own hands and during that time I would continue to
write.’ (Siyar A’laam-un-Nubala, vol. 9, pp. 614)
Internet
We used to waste time even
when there was no internet. Now the one having speedier internet has the more rapid chances
of increase in wasting his time. Many people must have experienced visiting
numerous websites when they opened the internet
to get the necessary information for a
single thing. They spent many hours, but could not realize how the time passed.
When they came to senses, they realized that they could have done it in two to
three minutes.
Shopping as a hobby
A poor person earns and buys
on either daily or monthly basis, but the
person who has a lot of money makes even the act of buying, his recreation, in
the name of shopping. He does not know what items he needs to buy and nor does
he care how much money he would spend. Such people enter a big superstore and try to buy whatever they like.
Storekeepers are also clever. They store interesting items in the front side so
that their sale may increase. Grocery items are kept either at the corner or in
the basement. If the list of necessary items is prepared at home and adhered
to, so one can save both time as well as
money.
‘Allamah Ibn-ul-Haaj Makki رَحْمَۃُ اللہِ
تَعَالٰی عَلَیْہِ
has written: Before going to buy necessary items one should stay for a while at
home so that his family members think properly as to what items are needed so
that he may buy those items by going to the market once, lest family members
ask for more necessary things and he may have to go to the market again and
again. If it happens, he may get deprived of virtuous deeds like (attending the
Majlis for) gaining knowledge, etc., which are more important than visiting the
market frequently. (Al-Madkhal, vol. 1, pp. 292)
Attending feasts
The person who has many
friends and relatives has to attend many wedding and Valimah feasts. It happens
very seldom that the meal starts on time. If the time of 10 o’clock is
mentioned, it starts at 12 o’clock, then it breaks up until 2 o’clock. When
will the attendees reach home? When will they sleep? What will happen to their
Fajr Salah? They may take a day off from their offices or business activities!
The host does not get bothered by all
these things. It is surprising that even attendees do not pay attention to
these either. At that time, they do not think about anything but the feast.
Such kind of feast takes 4 to 5 hours, though the real purpose is achieved in
just half an hour.
Meetings
We cannot stay away from society, but it is not necessary to meet
everyone. If we overcome our unnecessary meetings, we can save many hours every
month. Imam Ibn Jawzi رَحْمَۃُ اللہِ تَعَالٰی
عَلَیْہِ
was a pious person, who has written hundreds of books on exegesis, Hadees,
history and other sciences and arts, he رَحْمَۃُ اللہِ تَعَالٰی عَلَیْہِ has said: If I stay completely away from people, it is not
appropriate either as it totally ends my relationship with them. If I continue
to have useless meetings with them, there will be loss and waste of time.
Therefore I have adopted this way that first of all I try my best to avoid
meetings and if there is no choice but to meet a person, then I talk very
briefly. Further, for such time I leave some work which does not require much
attention. For example, I carry out the work of sharpening the nib of a Qalam (reed-pen),
cutting paper and such type of simple other pieces of work during the meetings.
In this way, I meet people and also carry out such pieces of work. Thus, I do
not waste the precious moments of my life in only
conversation. (Qeemat-uz-Zaman ‘Ind-il-‘Ulama, pp. 58)
Dear Islamic brothers! In
addition to them, there are things like recreational activities, getting busy
with less important work, lying on the bed idly, and dozens of such things
which cause a person to waste his time. The time which has passed cannot be
regained, but the time we have, we should save it. If we save it, then we will
pass the time which is about to come in a better way, اِنْ شَـآءَ اللّٰہ عَزَّوَجَلَّ. How unwise we are! If someone snatches our possessions, we
become angry, and also feel sad, but unfortunately, if someone wastes our time,
we even do not feel its loss though time
is far more precious than possessions because possessions can be regained after
being lost, but time once lost cannot be regained. May Allah Almighty make us
the one who values time!
اٰمِيۡن بِجَاهِ النَّبِيِّ الۡاَمِيۡن صَلَّى اللّٰهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيۡهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم
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