Sikander Hashmi – Time is Running Out KMA Friday Message
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Starting this Sunday,
we will need to start getting used to
writing 23
instead of 22.
Of course, I'm talking about the new Gregorian
year.
When I was young,
the year 2000
seemed to be very far away.
And it was something that people were looking
forward to, the year 2000 is gonna come.
The year 2000 is gonna come, and this
is gonna happen. And they will be flying
cars, and people will be, you know, living
on Mars.
And a pound of ground beef is gonna
cost $10 a pound. It's not there yet.
So there were some, you know, pretty outlandish
predictions about the what about what the world
is going to be like and what's gonna
happen come the year 2000.
But 2,000 has come and gone, and now
we are almost 23
or 22 years in starting the 23rd year
soon.
Now, of course, my brothers and sisters, we
know
that in the Islamic calendar,
we are in the 6th month. And this
is the calendar of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
because as we learn in the Quran,
Allah
on the day when he created the heavens
and the earth, mandated
and determined that there are going to be
12 months
in a year. So the fact that we
have 12 months is from Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala,
but the true counting of that and the
true, sense of those months is through the
Islamic lunar calendar
of which we are in the 6th month.
And, that means, of course, there are another
6 months to go until the Islamic New
Year 14 45,
which will begin in,
the month of Muharram.
But that also means that there is less
than 3 months until the month of Ramadan.
What does that mean? There's less than 3
months left until
the month of Ramadan. So this is something
for us to keep in mind,
to take account of,
to plan our vacation, plan our holidays, time
off of work, our schedules accordingly,
because, inshallah, the month of Ramadan is going
to be upon us very, very soon. So
let us make note of that.
Now my brothers and sisters, when a date
seems far away, we feel like we have
a lot of time.
What do we feel like?
We have a lot of time.
It's like you have a deadline, you know,
for an application or for an assignment
or for a project,
and it's 2 months away.
Somebody's applying for a scholarship. You're applying for
college, but it's probably too late for that
for university. But, you know, you're applying for
different things or you have a a deadline
for your work, you have an assignment. Seems
like you have all the time in the
world. Right? And a lot of times, what
do we end up doing? We end up
thinking, oh, I'll do it later. Oh, I
have a lot of time. I'll do it
later. I'll do it later. I'll do it
later. And the next thing you know, it's
tomorrow
or it's next week, and then we start
panicking. So this is a reminder for myself
and for all of us not to do
that. Now a smart, wealthy person
is careful. A smart, wealthy person is careful
about not squandering their wealth. They're careful about
not wasting their wealth even though they may
have a lot of wealth. And actually, if
you look at, you know,
smart wealthy people, they're very, very careful about
their spending.
Right? They're very careful about their investments. They're
very particular about their spending.
They're they're not like those people who are
blowing money left, left, right, and center because
many of those people
who don't know how to manage their money,
they actually end up in loss after a
little while because they end up blowing everything
that they had.
So similarly, a person who is wealthy
with time
should also be careful not to squander away
their time,
not to waste away their time.
If somebody wants to waste their money,
it takes it actually takes some effort
to waste money. Right? You have to go
out. You have to spend it. You have
to look for something to spend it upon.
But squandering away time takes no effort.
It takes no effort.
Right? You can just keep sitting, keep sleeping,
keep watching, and your time is slipping away.
Your time is going down the drain. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the Quran.
It is always strikes me because when you
are short on time in your salah,
let's be honest. When you are short in
time in your salah,
which surah do you recite or which surah
do most people recite?
Know, I'm illustrating what happens when we are
short on time and that is the Surah
in which Allah
is giving us the most profound lesson about
time.
Right? When Allah
starts with
Allah
is taking an
oath. The wow there is for oath. For
is
taking the oath of time and
the classical interpreter
interpreters of the Quran, the classic
classical commentators of the Quran.
They have different opinions upon what exactly is
the meaning of the opening of oath
of. Right? Some have said that refers to
the period from the declining of the sun
till sunset.
Right? Which is part of the literal definition
of the word which is why it's called
because
it is the late afternoon prayer. So the
short time or the time between when the
sun starts coming down until the setting of
the sun.
Others will say that it refers to the
actual
prayer. And others have said that there is
no reason to limit it to a specified
or specific period of time or act in
time and rather that also should be taken
to refer to, to time in general. So
time in general, and this is the opinion
of.
So
Allah
takes the oath of time. And when Allah
takes an oath
and he mentions something. And by the way,
for human beings,
first, the creation of Allah,
it is not appropriate for us to take
the oath of anything other than Allah
k. So when we are taking an oath,
we take the oath of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala, and it should not be for frivolous
matters.
Yeah. Sometimes you hear people children I actually
heard recently that it's become a part of
popular culture in some circles, even non Muslims
in Toronto,
that they're saying.
Right? Like, you just go on and on
and on. Right? To the point where it's
become so common that even non Muslims are
using this term. Right? So this is not
the way to take the name of Allah
and this is not the way to use
the oath in Islam. It is for something
which is significant and something which is serious,
not as part of lyrics of a rap
or just, you know, joking around and playing
around because it's the name of Allah
So we take it only for matters which
are very serious. And even then we should
want to try to avoid it. Right? And
not just use it for frivolous matters. But
the point here being that when Allah
takes the oath of something and, of course,
Allah is not bound to take oath of
his own name. He could take the oath
of any of his, anything that he wants.
So when Allah
takes the oath of something, it is
it is highlighting the importance
of the object
of the oath
in that particular context. What is it doing?
It's highlighting the importance
of the object of the oath. So the
thing that of which Allah is taking the
oath, it's highlighting its importance
in that context, in that Surah or in
that group of verses. So Allah takes the
oath of time in Surah And
of course, he goes on and says,
that surely humanity
is in grave loss.
Humanity, human beings are in loss. You are
in grave loss.
Meaning, as we move forward and as we
are spending our lives,
we are losing.
We are losing out like, something that you
buy and it depreciates in value. It does
not appreciate.
The value goes down.
So you are in a constant loss. All
of humanity is in a constant loss. So
every second that is going by, there is
a loss that is occurring. There is a
there is a loss that is being felt
and that is being recorded.
So Allah
then gives us an exception
that who are those
who will be protected from this loss?
Everyone is in a loss.
Everyone's in a loss except the people who
have these four qualities. And of course, the
first one,
those
who have faith, those who believe.
So if you want to protect yourself from
loss, the inherent loss
that humanity is bound to face.
The first thing you have to do is
believe.
So you believe,
you do good deeds.
And urge each other to the truth and
urge each other towards perseverance, towards patience.
So Allah tells us the formula for protecting
ourselves from the inherent loss
that every single human being is bound to
face.
That is
to
believe
to do good deeds and on top of
that,
now to enjoin one another to follow the
truth. What does that mean? So, in terms
of first and foremost, in terms of the
tawheed, the oneness of Allah
And all the other revealed realities because that
is the ultimate
truth.
What is that? That is the ultimate truth.
When we talk about truth, the ultimate
primary truth is the oneness of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
and everything
in the in all the realities that have
been revealed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And on top of that, any other well
established matter, the truth of which cannot be
denied.
So those who believe and they do good
deeds and they are encouraging people towards the
truth,
they are enjoining one another to follow the
truth and are promoting the truth or standing
for the truth or standing
by the truth.
Those are the people who will also be
protected from this inherent loss. And finally,
and enjoin one another to patience. Now patience
in terms of
the worship of Allah
in obedience towards Allah
And it is also said that given that
the majority of commentators believe that the Surah
was revealed in Mecca,
patience in terms of the insults, the abuse,
the hardships that Muslim minorities will have to
endure from hostile, unoffensive,
and or unsympathetic,
non believers,
disbelievers who are out there to cause harm
or who have enmity towards Muslims and who
have enmity towards Islam. So
doing good believing, doing good deeds,
encouraging,
patience, and,
or sorry, encouraging the truth
and encouraging
patience
as well. It is family famously,
reported from
Imam Shafi that he said that
that if Allah
were to reveal
no other Surah besides this Surah.
If Allah
had not revealed any other Surah except for
Surah to
then it would have sufficed for the Umma.
Meaning it would have been sufficient
for
the Ummah to gather the
complete guidance
to get the basics
of complete guidance from this very short Surah.
So my brothers and sisters, my friends, every
second that is lost is gone. You know,
I'm looking at the clock and the seconds
are ticking. So every second that is gone
is lost. You think about
losing all the potential.
You think about losing all the possibilities
of using that time for something powerful, for
something
transformative, for something which is incredible
that could change just not your life, but
could actually change your hereafter,
where you will be forever.
That opportunity is gone with every second and
every minute that ticks away.
So these breaks, my friends, that we have,
like this winter break, the holidays that we
get, the time off that we get, these
moments when we have free time is indeed
a great blessing from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The prophet
said famously reported
that that there are 2 blessings
which many people waste.
There are 2 blessings
which many people waste.
So health and free time. These are great
blessings of Allah and
many
many
people.
Many people will waste these 2 blessings. We'll
let them, you know, we'll let these 2
blessings
go unnoticed
and,
unrecognized
without showing any gratefulness to Allah
for them, and they will waste them away.
And that is health and free time.
The problem is that when we get, you
know, we get distracted
when we have these blessings.
Like many other blessings,
when we have the blessings, we get distracted.
And we only realize once they are taken
away,
and then it's too late.
When a person has blessing, they don't realize.
They don't think about those blessings because they're
too busy using them.
They're too busy
using them and enjoying them.
And then once they're gone, then you look
back and say, oh, that was such a
great blessing. I wish I had done this
and I wish I had done that, but
now it's too late because it's gone.
And it probably won't come back.
In many cases, it's not gonna come back.
Right? So the key is to recognize and
seize the moment and the blessing
when it is available, not after it has
been taken away.
He writes that you should not waste your
time
doing at any moment
whatever chances to present itself when it presents
itself.
What did he say? You should not waste
your time doing at any moment, whatever chances
to present itself when it presents itself. Meaning,
you should not be someone who just goes
with the flow, who has no system, no
idea, no schedule of what to do, no
priorities.
Whatever comes your way, you do it, and
then that's it. No. Instead, you should take
stock of yourself
and structure your acts of devotion during each
day
or night.
Assigning to each period of time
some specific
function that is kept to and is not
left for something else in that time. So
he is recommending that we should have a
routine.
We should have a schedule,
Blocks of time that are scheduled away
even for the worship of Allah
So have things scheduled.
In this way, the barakah of your time
will become evident. What's gonna happen? The barakah,
the blessings of your time will become evident.
But if you leave yourself to drift,
aimlessly
wandering as cattle do.
But if you leave yourself to drift, aimlessly
wandering as cattle do, not knowing what to
occupy yourself with each moment, you will squander
most of your time.
Your time is your life. Your life is
your capital through which you transact,
meaning with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and through
which you reach endless bliss in the proximity
of Allah.
Every breath you take is a priceless jewel
that cannot be replaced. And once it passes,
it can never be
retrieved. So what does he say? Don't spend
your time aimlessly wandering as cattle do. Right?
You drive in the countryside. You see cows
outside.
What are they doing?
Right? Most of the time, it's just like
walking around. It's just like mooing and just
like walking from here to there, eating grass
there, you know, going there, going here, walking
around the field. Know, it gets sunny. They
go under the shade and sit down. Then
they get up and they go on the
other side. You know, they're just like wandering.
She says, don't spend your life, you know,
in that way, but rather have structure for
your life and for your time. The prophet
is reported to have said that the feet
of the servants of Allah shall not move
on the day of judgement
until
he has asked about 5 things. So it's
actually, you know, 2,
famous hadith we can say that referred to
5 things. So this one, the prophet is
telling us that the feet of the servant
of Allah is are not going to move
until he or she, of course, is asked
about 5 things,
about his life
and what he did with it.
Life, what did you do with it? It
was a blessing of Allah.
About his knowledge and what he did with
it, Allah gave you knowledge. What did you
do with that knowledge?
About his wealth and how he earned it
and where he spent it.
K. Allah
give you wealth. How did you spend it?
What did you spend it on? How did
you earn it?
About his body
and for what?
Did he wear it out? You know? So
life,
what did you do with your life? Knowledge,
what did you do with it? Wealth, how
did you earn it? Where did you spend
it? And body,
what did you use it for? Right? These
are the things my brothers and sisters that
we need to be ready to answer to
Allah
for. So examine your time. Look at how
you are spending your time, especially entertainment. Because
subhanallah, once you get caught onto
entertaining yourself,
forget about the minutes. The hours fly by.
Right? Days will fly by.
Right? You're binge watching
a series on Netflix.
How many hours are spent watching that series?
You're watching sports.
How many hours are spent
taking in sports?
You're on TikTok or Instagram
or WhatsApp or Facebook or whatever, whichever platform.
How many hours are spent
simply watching reels,
looking at posts,
commenting,
and unnecessary debates.
You have some YouTubers you subscribe to.
You're watching their videos. They're making money.
You're wasting your time.
Andrew Tate.
You're watching watching. What was he gonna post
next? What's the next controversy that's gonna come
up? You know? What can I, you know,
what is he gonna say now?
Right? So you get hooked.
YouTubers are making money.
They're getting a check every month from YouTube,
from Google.
And you're wasting your time.
You're watching dramas, shows,
serials,
or you're into video games,
or talk shows.
Are you just sitting there?
Are you just taking it all in? You're
just taking it in. You're absorbing everything while
everyone else is making money and making a
life out of out of you wasting your
time.
If you need a break or there is
some learning or some real benefit,
then okay. Maybe some of it might be
okay for a brief amount of time. But
if if these things are taking up a
significant portion of your day
and it starts becoming your life, and that's
it that is what your mind is occupied
with most of the time, then maybe it's
time for some serious reflection and some action.
There's a second famous hadith of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Take advantage of 5 before 5. So the
other one that mentions 5 things. Your youth
before your old age, your health before your
illness,
your riches before your poverty,
your free time before your work, and your
life before your death.
Right? If you get used to wasting, you're
gonna end up wasting your life. If you
get used to taking advantage,
you will, inshallah, take good advantage
of your life. And Allah tells us the
best way to use up our free time.
At the end, Allah
says, so once you have fulfilled your duty,
meaning you are free, you are done with
your responsibilities.
Strive
in devotion.
And towards your lord,
turn with eagerness
or turn
to your lord alone with hope.
So when you're done with everything that you
needed to do, your assignments, your work, your
projects, everything that you needed to do, you're
done.
Turn to Allah with
eagerness and devotion. So my brothers and sisters,
as the minutes
change to hours
and the hours change to days,
and the days change to months, and the
months change to years,
let it serve as a reminder for us
that time is indeed running out.
With each passing moment,
we are
nearing
our final moments,
after which
it will be too late.
With each passing moment,
we are rushing towards the end.
And at that moment,
it will be too late.
So
work on perfecting your faith.
Prepare yourself
with good deeds.
Help others for the sake of Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Promote the truth.
Promote patience.
Give in the way of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Fulfill your duties.
Build your family relations,
and try to get closer to Allah
as much as possible.
Because once it's too late, it is indeed
too late. We ask Allah
to open our hearts and minds to his
love and his remembrance. We ask Allah
to make us those who spend our free
time doing the things that are pleasing to
him. We ask Allah
to guide us and to forgive us all.
Take a few moments for
our prayers, and then we will continue.