Chasing Time

bIllahi min ash shaytani R rajim Bismillah R Rahman Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala it should have been more serene Sadie. Now Muhammad, Allah Allah He also has he married my beloved brothers and sisters I said Mr. Alec Maura how to live with regard to

Al hamdu lillahi rabbil aalameen always we will begin with appraising the thanks of Allah and I should alert you know Allah will testify that there is none worthy of worship besides Allah subhanaw taala and we send our love and greetings salutations so beloved, that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam conspires with your family because companions and all those are following suit and until the end of time, may Allah Subhana Allah bless us to be amongst them. I mean, while hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah Zachariah hate for

most all of you, it's been three weeks and it's good to be back. And we say thank you to the team and to our guest speakers and Hamdulillah that way over the last three weeks,

there was a lot of positive feedback so we say just like look at those majestic and inshallah we'll hope to see them visit us regularly. I mean, when hamdulillah last time we saw you and his dad joke because last year, you know that old dad joke, but another new year. And we make the other this year 2023 Is publicity is one of goodness, that the worst of all years are behind us in the best of our years and time is ahead of us and with every new year and we'll talk inshallah perhaps next week about optimism and setting goals and setting our near thinking about where we want to be with every passing moment. Understand, and I don't want to be depressing, but with every passing moment, it's

one less year that we have on our on our balance, as hustle and bustle. He says,

as my boss is the gate Dabiri. He said no, you know, guys, we are only minutes and seconds. That's what we are made of. And every time a minute we're sick and disappears, part of you disappears and it never comes back. And so we all have a finite number of years 60 7080 Very few reach 90 or 100. And as time goes, we reach close to the expiration date. And that is why Allah Subhana Allah says over lacer Allah swears he takes a vow by time interval in Sanllehi, closer, all of you, you are losing Allah says all of you are going to lose against time. There's not a single person that is going to beat the clock. It's a promise Allah has made there is no way you're going to win. Even the

most successful, the most

wealthiest people, even the people that achieved the most with a time eventually time will catch up with him and they will pass away so nobody is going to beat going to be time. Allah mentions in the Quran in so many places. He likens this work these calls it Mata

On the road, it is a passing mirage that this dunya is just a moment that it will disappear. And he describes Allah describes the dunya like a flower. Now, even if you buy the best quality flowers, like from Willis, after a week, it looks beautiful. And then after a week, it becomes weathered, and he dies. And Allah describes this is how life is going to be. And so without being too depressing, we understand the reality of time. But of course, this is a way of maximizing and benefiting the most of it. Now all of us must have experienced this and said, Yeah, Allah, how quickly the holidays go. We back again and into work again, the sometimes seems to fly and other times take so long, like

waiting for that paycheck. And in the end of Jan takes very long, but the fun of December because very quickly, sitting in traffic takes so long, but other things go very quickly. And so the passing of time is something which is very interesting, and we'll talk about how we make most of it. Then it also mentions

one of the consequences of Kia, one of the indications of Qiyamah is that people will appear to appear that years and years go by very very quickly. And if you compare ourselves to our grandparents and our forefathers, it seems like they were able to get a lot more out of the time when we were alive. But then at least some says Qiyamah will not come until time seems to pass very quickly. So that a year is like a month a month is like a day or like a week a week is like a day a day is like an hour and an hour. It's just like a moment like a blinking of an eye. It seems like it went so so quickly. If you also wanted to be doing 2022

COVID salted and ended in Malaga wanted to end completely how quickly years went by yours was like two and a half years went by and life moves on. So time goes very, very quickly. And as I mentioned the psychology to time. And Allah mentions this in the Quran, where Allah says Allah will ask the people of Kia on the day of karma coming up is to fill out the added scene in Allah will ask people on the day of karma or the angels will ask how long did you live on the dunya. And the people will say color color. They said, We sit Yeoman Obadiah we spent a day maximum well a few hours of the day, it would appear when you think about your life. My Life couldn't have been 70 years. 50 years.

It was only a few years. When you think about it. The relativity of time. A psychologist mentioned if you think about all your high school your schooling from when you started sub eight for those of you in seventh grade one until matric you think how long that 12 years felt. Now the last 12 years was basically since the last Soccer World Cup in South Africa until now it didn't seem like 12 you compare the two, it seemed like my schooling was like hundreds of years, whereas the last 12 years felt like it went so quickly. As you get older, subhanAllah

time seems to speed up, it's a psychology time goes faster. So that as you get later on in your life, your decades and your years don't run away from you very, very quickly. Why? One reason is, your brain is actually slower. As we get young. As we get older, we become slower, and everything moves faster, everything becomes faster. And secondly, and perhaps another reason, when you are five years old. One year added to that is a lot one out another year or two, five is big. But when you're 50 and you add another year, percentage wise, it's not that much. And so the years become less and less important as time goes on, which means as you get older, your life the meaning of your life,

the passing of time becomes so much quicker, and the psychology of time. And this is something we it's important. We're going to talk about how we can maximize it. Because the hour that you have the hour I have the hour that the Wali has the hour that the Senate has the same hour, we have the exact same watch. But what one person gets out of his hour is so much more than what another person gets out of his hour. And the idea of the purpose of our life, the test of our life is how much can we use and squeeze out of our limited amount of hours. So amongst the psychology of of time,

as we see it certain moments in our life seems to go by very very quickly. And certain moments seem to take very, very long and hours sitting in traffic feels like an eternity. An hour watching a very exciting soccer match or a rugby match. Very, very quick. You know for the you and your wife go shopping for you that our shopping felt like Kiama for her. It's so quick it's time.

Why Subhanallah same people same time do exact same thing.

Because the things that we love and the things that engage us the things that stimulate us, the things that our brain becomes attached to we almost lose consciousness of time and how many of us have done this and we are all guilty of this. We watch something or we playing a game and we don't realize yet Allah

Six, seven hours like disappeared? What happened to it? What happened to it? But if the Imam stands another six minutes longer, that could be six minutes too long. It feels like yeah, Allah, when is this guy going to keep quiet. And it's an important assessment of what our hearts are attached to. The things that feel like boredom and a pain and an agony takes long its does not engage our mind or brain and things that disappear very quickly, Time moves really fast. Those are the things which we are attached to in the things that we love. So it's sometimes we could be attached to bad things. And that's why how life gets wasted, people are attached to things and the years go by, squandered

whereas other people hamdulillah they could be attached to some beneficial stuff, reading a book for example, they can spend hours reading time disappeared, some Subhan Allah Allah grant is to be like that time disappears when the making Salah

you know, the weenies the workmen to come, dodge it was very quick, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah grant us to be of those, those those levels of people. And so Allah subhanaw taala mentioned that no matter how busy you are, or how occupied you are, where your heart is, do not forget, we all have enough time to beat this exam. There's one very, very important point. Nobody has too little time. Allah says in the Quran, about the people of Kiama or whom yesterday who Nephi ha that the people of gentlemen Allah protect us from them they will be screaming in Jahannam they are crying out Robina origina Oh Allah, let us come out of this nominal Saudi ha we will do good deeds we will be bit

different Vedanta. The Kuna nama we will do the live a different life. And so Allah will ask them

Oh, I will know I'm miracle Maya Kofi humans that occur, Allah will ask them, but did we not give you a long enough life so that you could have been mindful if you wanted to, Allah is going to ask the people of Jana, that you had enough time. Again, I don't want to be depressing here. But every single person has enough time in this exam to attain Jana.

Whether you live 30 years, whether you live 100 years, Allah subhanaw taala has given every single one enough time to win an intergender. And that is what Allah will ask the beautiful Jahannam Why are you here? What did you had enough time, and Allah will mention that you had enough life. And so some people, as we said, Alhamdulillah their life and the quantity of good deeds and the quantity and the impact of their life seem to go a lot further than the 60 years that they lived.

We look at our we don't some we first we talk about the great, pious people. If you look at the books, for example, that certain of the scholars wrote Imam nawawi, for example, he lived 40 years, 40 years, if you pass away at foot, it's young men. He wrote over 40 books, almost 100 100 books, like two books a year he wrote, who has the time to do that, but Alhamdulillah, he found the time to do it. We look even at our grandparents, they raise six 718 12 Children, we think it's impossible for us now. It's impossible. And so the relativity of time and how to get Baraka in time is something which is very real, something which in our conversation, that just as we talk about how

you can maximize your money, how you can maximize your wealth, Allah subhanaw taala can maximize your time, that the 70 years that Allah has allotted you, you can end up with many, many hundreds of years of impact of good deeds of benefit, even of productive life, not just about chiama good deeds, but even in the dunya having success in your life. So how do I get Baraka in my time? How do I make it extend? How can I look at by the end of 2023? I look back at this year allah how much I've achieved in this year. I can't even understand how did I do? So what I did in this one year is more than I've done in the last 10 years. We all want to have that conversation this time next year. I

mean, I mean Allah, I mean, when we look back and say what a productive year, all my objectives and my goals are far exceeded them. I can't some people Subhanallah you know, you speak to them, you say how do you do this? How are you able to do ABCD and do all of that. And I'll tell you what, I don't know how. There is some Baraka that Allah has blessed some people in their time to really, really excel and other people. Subhanallah they will say what did I do this last week? The weekend came and when I didn't do a single thing I don't know what I did. I can't even keep track of the nothing that I've done. And so, how do we get Baraka in our time, three practical steps Inshallah, the first one

and this is with all aspects of Baraka. There's all aspects of Baraka, Baraka is a spiritual thing. It comes from Allah subhanaw taala. If you want baraka and your money, first tip is give some of it feasability law, you want Baraka in your health, use some of your strength visa vie the law. You want baraka and your time, make sure

Make sure that Allah subhanaw taala is given his you know, many times when we come busy and while I'm, you know, suspect number one guilty of this will become so busy what do we do? We you know, we push on Salah right to the last minute. And it's very quickly because I need to get back to the meeting I need to get back to, you know we should change Allah subhanaw taala thinking why to save time, you cannot save time when you neglect the one who's given you the time, and the one who can make things extended and put Baraka in it. And so the first Nia for 2023, let us spend a little bit more in our ibadah. I'm not saying add another hour to three hours to already rigorous Ibadah

routine, but when we make our salah, maybe another five, five minutes, so a lot, maybe one minute extra of a scar, yeah, Allah I'm going to invest a little bit, one minute, one minute each walk that's five minutes a day, each what I'm going to add phi one minute, that's five minutes a day and see how Allah will bless you with hours, if not the years in your life, prioritize Allah subhanaw taala and his time never ever take away from Allah Sangha time and make a conscious effort to be to give Allah a beautiful you're gonna prioritize your time. You know, we always talk about husbands that say to the wife, you spend all you know, you sat on the couch the whole day, the weekend, but

we didn't spend quality time together, we physically set to give us no quality time your mind was elsewhere, your heart was elsewhere. And it's about giving Allah quality time. And then Allah subhanaw taala will always repay you with something better, then you will see Baraka in your time at work baraka and your time with your family. So prioritize that time with Allah subhanaw taala. The second tip, which is both a practical one, and also spiritual one, was very, very amazing and beautiful Hadith which you mentioned before, a hadith which doesn't have something parallel to it or equal to it. I don't know of another Hadith that gives you this reward with enemies and says,

Whoever wants his risky sustenance, and his life to be extended, you want more years on your clock.

There's no other Hadith I have found, maybe someone else can find it for me that there be some says if you want more years, you are given a set number of years when you are born, when were born, the angel brought your hero and with it, there was a stamp. Muhammad is going to die after 50 years. But you can extend your your life your warranty can be extended how the only Hadith that mentions is by keeping good relations with your family, keeping good relations with your family. Now many times we might feel spinning, having an extra conversation with the wife about something mundane is a waste of my time. Or look, look watching the kids do something trivial is a waste of time. No, that is

actually extending your time. That is quality time. It will from a spiritual sense, Allah will increase your life, Allah will increase the meaning of your time, but also from a practical sense. At the end of the day, subhanAllah if we just looked at the dunya the thing that ultimately matters the most in this dunya we don't think about the Earth era is really your family. What good is it to your life if you've amassed wealth or success or power, but you have no one in this dunya that loves you. Nobody on Earth cares about you, when you die, no one shed a tear for you. The really the thing that ultimately matters the most is the quality time with your family. And so do not ever forfeit

your opportunities with your parents. You can never replace your mom and your dad. They're going to be one year and they're not going to be here for those who have lost their parents Marla Grantham janitorial dose, you will never be able to replace a loved one. You can always replace any other barrel blessing, but not a family member. And so ensure that you spend quality time with your family. What hamdulillah there was an extra you know, there's a very famous YouTube video, and I wanted to do it yeah, but I thought it's gonna be about missing them as it were the scientists or this professor, he stands in front of the class, and he has a empty jar. You've seen it, he has an

empty jar, and next to the jar is got a few golf balls. And he's got a few stones, and he's got a jar of sand, golf balls, stones and sand. He says if I fool the jaw, my empty jaw with the sand to the top, I can't put the stone to the golf balls in the joyful. I can't put anything else in it.

But if I start with the golf balls, I put the golf balls in when I put the stones in, and then I put the sand in it kind of all of it can fit. And he says this is how your life is. The golf balls are the important things in your life, your family, your health, your religion, things that you can't replace. There's only a few of them. You don't have hundreds of golf balls, maybe five, six very, very important things. Those are the important things that must go in first. The stones are important but not so important things that your work. Like things that can't be replaced but they need to be prioritized. You need to put them in and the sand is the waste of time trivial things

that God

Some social media. Now if you fill your life with those things, you will not have time you will not have place for your family and your work. Always follow the jaw with the important things first, they will the things that Waste Time is endless, and will take up as much time as you allow it to take up, it will take up as much space in your life as you allow it to take up. And so Subhanallah Do not ever substitute the things you cannot replace in your life, your deen your health, your family, with things that are meaningless and trivial and won't count for you at the end of the day. And so, family time, if you're not prioritizing it, if you really want a long life, a happy life and

Baraka in your life, both from a religious perspective. And from the dunya perspective, spend more time with your wife take her shopping, even though it's torture for you, Hamdulillah, it's good for you spend more time with the kids, even though maybe it's boring, but hamdulillah is baraka in it. And it increases your life. And of course, it increases your well being. We see this so many times before scientists have found those who have good family relationships, they are happy when they come home, they actually really live longer, they do live longer, Allah has given them more life because of that. And then last, and these are productive tips. Now these are practical tips.

Why time seems to disappear for most of us, is when we do not have a structured program. So time we get a lot done when we have a routine. And we have structure. And when we don't have routine where we just have a lazy week weekend where we wake up anytime we don't really have anything on the agenda, that day just disappears. And these nothing that you hold on to when it's over, it's gone, and you never get anything in return. And that is why then a resource alum had a very, very structured life. Yes, everything was around Ibadah he Salah times, but he was very, very meticulous and structured. It is part it is part of the Muslim DNA to be a structured productive person,

something which we've lost, because we should be the most structured and productive people. Our days must have be rigorously planned. We don't have time because we know will say look, I don't have time to waste, I don't have time to waste, I need to give 100% to Allah, I need to give 100% to my family, I need to give 100% to my boss, I need to make time for myself, we don't have time. So every single moment becomes precious when it is structured, be structured in your life. And subhanAllah is a very famous book called The 5am Club. And if you heard of it, it's one of these self help books, you know. And one it's called the 5am club where this guy looked at all the many of the successful

CEOs in the world. And he said what one habit that they all have is they all wake up early in the morning, and they start the day before the employees start. Many of the billionaires in the world they all part of the 5am Club, they wake up before 5am And they're really starting to work at 5am. And against Panama. We don't have to look at these people for guidance when an abusive person says

so hobby, soccer comedy, he says, then a resource and later to listen to the rock. There are promises made to ISIS, Oh Allah, bless my ummah, in the early mornings, with Baraka in the morning of the Fajr. So whenever they do something in the morning, when you start studying in the morning, you start going to work early in the morning, I'm I go to gym in the morning, Allah I mean, I mean, right? You go early to the morning to the gym, these Baraka in those in those activities. Allah puts goodness in it goes to those who are going to be Salam Ismar. And so there is something special about starting your day early. They're going to be early SubhanAllah. And this man, the Sahaba,

soccer, soccer family, he says when he heard this too, he was a businessman, he made sure that US business he would do his trade early in the morning, and he became a very, very wealthy business person. So it's not just about Baraka in terms of your DUA, but Baraka in your business. And so if you're going to structure your routine, make sure make sure that you start early, and then be mindful of those thieves or those time that you lose time thieves. As an amusement says there are two blessings that people squander one of it is good health, you only realize your good health when you become sick in your free time. What did we do with all today? All of us what did we do the

holiday it's gone now. And now we back to the directories and you think what could I have done? How many of us have that thought? What could I have done when I was younger? I could have done this I could have done that. And you can never ever get that time back and so never ever regret the time that you spent and the time that you you've unfortunately wasted do not let social media take from your time do not lead gossip take from your time do not let pity drama take from your time you know sometimes people drama this one see that one that one's it occupies your mind. Spine Allah you can occupy your mind with something so much more beneficial not only about a beneficial you could at

least done something you enjoyed.

You occupied Your time is something you don't enjoy. And so it's a double whammy. So avoid these time thieves and engage in productive life and in make sure that your days each day is productive. When you look at the end

of the year it was a productive year, and you have productive years, you have a productive life. And that when you close your eyes and Shalini we all go to our mouth. We all have regrets. We will look back and say, Wow, I loved more than 60 years, I had only 6070 years. But I had a wonderful life. I made I was true to my Deen as best as I could. I was part of the community. I had good times with my family. I traveled the world. I had my ups and downs, but Hamdulillah, my 70 years, whatever it was, was a wellspring to Al Hamdulillah. All of us want to have that all of us want to have it. And so to be time, yes, Allah begins with Lhasa Lhasa in Al Insana, la vie, who said, Allah says all of you

are going to lose in this life in LA, except there's only one type of person that's going to really win, Ill Alladhina amanu.

Only the believer will actually win a person who does not believe in Qiyamah, you only have six years, and that's it, you die. And that's it. Whereas we believe there is an eternity on the other side, there will be a day, when we will outlive time, we will be on the day of Kiama Allah will take note in a hadith, and no matter which was always majesty, and he will convert death into a sheep. And Allah will sacrifice that sheep and says today, time basically has ended, there's no moment is only eternity. And so this will increase the people of Janas happiness, because now it's forever, as part of the agenda. Make them sad, because if you increase the there's no time limit. And so the

believer is going to be time, if you believe in life after death. And while I'm you know, solid, and you have to be productive, you can't be a believer and lazy. That's unfortunately that can go hand in hand. So I believe in Kiama, but I'm gonna do anything about it. You have to live a productive life. Yes, we all want to sit and veg and watch TV for you know, years and just go by and do nothing. That's not going to cut it. We have to make hierarchy, we have to be active. And so be loved doing good deeds, whatever was open hockey, but to also be sober and then encourage others to do good. And to be patient. This Allah says will be time. My last point and I conclude with this,

hon Allah. I said to you many times, that of all the things of Jana, I mean, he also the whole lions or whatever that blows your mind, and that you look forward to coming back from a holiday you think yeah, lights over again. And you have to work another year to get to another holiday. The beautiful thing of Jana is that it's endless. When you get the you will never ever have to work again. You will never ever have to experience struggle again. And the beautiful thing of Jana is even though Allah will give you eternity, no limit to your time. As we said so many times there is no sleep in Jannah. Why? Because sleep is going to be a waste of time because of all the fun. You cannot do all

the fun in Ghana. You cannot see all the places in Ghana. You cannot eat all the things in Ghana, even though you have eternal time. Jana gets better all the time. And so if we really want to get to a place where we'll be time, Aspire Allah, I want to enter Jana, and never come back. I mean, Allah bless us in this year. And Allah forgive us the sins of the past year, Malaga and mock funeral for those who have passed away in the last year. And I look granted our best of days and our best of time, be ahead of us. And may Allah take us in the best of states. I mean, slug Muhammad was Allah say Mohammed, Islamist Abdullah Abdullah Minister