Let’s look at the normal life of a human being. Let’s say you have 60 years to live. From this 60, subtract 15 years of childhood and some adolescence, which most of the time you are not a balegh (reached puberty), to get 45. From this 45 years, subtract 8 hours a day that you spend sleeping: that’s a total of 15 years. So now you have 30 years left.

 

From your thirty years, subtract 2 hours a day for Internet, television, and etcetera. In your 60 years, you have spent 2.5 years doing something that probably benefits others more than it benefits you. That leaves 27.5 years. Those 27.5 years are the years you spend building your future i.e. working and having a family. Most of your time is spent on small things.

 

Time, my people, is not lost in large quantities, as you have seen, but small quantities. The few minutes you use to do inconsequential things that won’t benefit you, when summed up, amount to a lot.

 

Instead, let us use statistics and analysis to see how we can better our future. Let us use the same 60 years minus 15 years of childhood and early adolescence. If you perform Isha and Fajr in congregation, the reward is like you have stayed awake the whole night doing ibadah. Back to our 45 years. You get 45 x 27 (reward for praying in congregation) x 365 days.

 

Additionally, it’s important to create some special time in the 24 hours of your day for self-development. That could be something you do to earn a reward. It could even be any type da’wah or positive deed.

 

Indeed it was narrated by Ibn Abbas that the Prophet (SAW) said, “there are two blessings which many people lose: [They are] health and free time.”

 

In conclusion, it might seem that we have a lot of time on our hands but when we really analyze it, it’s not as much time as we think it is, is it?

 

 

photo credit: Βethan via photopin cc

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