Suleiman Hani – Master Your Time
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AI: Transcript ©
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
be in this world as if you are
a stranger or a traveler along a path.
And the one who reported this is none
other than Abdullah bin Umar radiAllahu anhu.
And he also said something as he reported
this. And he said these words that we
can live by and oftentimes these are the
words that people strive
to adhere to, to exemplify.
When he said, If
you make it to the evening, then do
not wait for the morning, meaning don't expect
that the morning will come. Don't expect that
you will make it to that time.
And if you make it to the morning,
do not wait for the evening. Do not
procrastinate doing good. Do not assume you'll have
that time.
Take from your health
for your sickness.
Utilize that time in which you have health
to do good before you fall ill and
regret not taking advantage of your good health.
And from your life for your death.
These are very important words that if you
were just to take this one narration, the
statement of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
and the advice of Abdullah radiAllahu anhu,
we have enough to go by, we have
enough to live upon.
Once again, we've reached the end of another
calendar year.
And although we follow generally, the Hijri calendar,
we cannot also exclude that which society goes
by, that which we measure with regards to
your work and the quarters that you have
and the educational semesters at universities and schools.
So when you measure, it's easy to measure
by the things that you've been doing, the
goals that you've had for the last year,
and to think about once again how quickly
your time has run out, how quickly this
year has passed by With the many things
that have happened this year, and Ramadan being
approximately 3 months away, may Allah allow us
to make it to Ramadan.
Time
when it runs out cannot be recovered.
Once it's gone, you cannot replace it.
And the regret that a person could have
is unlimited if they are to kill their
time today.
And oftentimes psychologists say many many people think
about
the future regrets as though it's someone else,
about themselves. It's as though it's someone else
so they don't take action.
And those who do well in the present
moment are those who know that the future
version of themselves
is the same person
and you don't want to regret what you're
doing today.
When time runs out, it cannot be recovered.
You cannot ask Allah, oh Allah, all the
disobedience I was doing, the sinful lifestyle, the
things I refuse to let go of, let
me go back.
Let me go back so I can repent.
You cannot go back for a final repentance.
You cannot go back for a final salah,
a salah of quality, of khushurah. Cannot go
back to make up with the family members
that you cut off or insulted,
the people that you abused or the people
that you hurt. Cannot go back.
One brother was talking about an exam he
had to take for a license or a
specialization.
It was a very lengthy exam. I think
almost 4 hours, he said.
And as he's taking this exam, he's watching
the clock,
seeing how he's pacing himself.
When the time runs out, it's over.
Oftentimes,
students are taking state exams as well. May
Allah grant all of the students success and
sincerity,
And as many students just finished their exams
and some are finishing in the next few
days, you recognize that while you're taking an
exam that has a limited time, whether it's
45 minutes or 4 hours,
you recognize that you're pacing yourself. You're focused
on what you have to get done
while keeping in mind that your time may
run out at any moment. You can't waste
it. You can't ignore the 45 minutes and
say I'll wait until the end. You have
to do what you have to do. You
have a responsibility ahead of you. And likewise,
with the reality of life, how will it
be when that time is up?
The angel of death comes to each one
of us, and it's our turn to leave
this world. Old or young, men or women
from all walks of life, how will it
be when we return back to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala?
We won't be able to come back and
ask for another chance, another round, more opportunities.
The opportunities are now. The reminders are now.
The message was given to us now. This
is the life of
without hisab. This is the life of opportunity
to do good without any accountability,
spiritually.
And the next life is the life of
accountability without any opportunity. May Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala grant us consistency.
You
find in the Quran
multiple references
to phrases of regret.
A person who says I wish I did
more for my life. They're referring to the
akhira here, the real life. A person who
says, I wish I didn't take this person
as a friend. Why? Because they were evil
friends. They influenced them. May Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta A'la grant us wisdom in choosing our
friends and companions, Allahumma Ameen. So people will
ask themselves,
why didn't I do better?
Why didn't I take things a little more
seriously? Why did why wasn't I consistent with
something as basic as 5 prayers?
Why didn't I take care of my good
character with family, with friends, with Muslims and
non Muslims? Why didn't I strive with what
I had?
At the end of the day, when people
look back on the day of judgment, this
life will seem like it was nothing in
terms of time.
They look back and it's as though
they did not live in the previous life
except for a morning or an evening.
A morning or an evening, another eye of
the Quran, like a saa, like a single
hour.
You can imagine, even if someone were to
live the lifespan of Nur alaihi salaam over
950
years, over 950
years, Looking back at this world, the eternal
life when you're standing there on the day
of judgment and you're facing your Lord will
make this life seem like it was nothing.
And oftentimes that quick blur, those quick memories
you have, if you think about just this
last year, 2023,
what defined your journey towards Allah? What defined
your journey towards paradise?
It's not but a few things, a few
memories, a few moments. And the reality is
every moments that we have,
as small
as it may seem right now, it's extremely
important as part of the larger picture. You
you take a step back, and sometimes people
follow at work or for their personal development.
They follow the monthly calendar. Some people have
the written calendar. Some people have paper. Some
people digital. What do they do? They're looking
at the month ahead, and sometimes you hold
yourself accountable for the last quarter as well.
So you're looking at these days, the 30
days that passed, the 31 days.
I want you to imagine you're taking that
step back. You're looking at the entire year,
these small dots, 365 days.
What did you really do? It's all these
small habits. The 5 prayers, they added up
after 365
days. The 30, 40 minutes of Quran you
recite it, it adds up after a year.
The things that you do to learn and
to grow, they add up.
And so when we think about the reality
of this world being a blur, a very
quick
fleeting moment,
it's a reminder for us not to become
overly attached to it. We've been hearing from
some of our brothers and sisters in Palestine
talking about how they don't know when their
time is up. But they're living literally based
on
the advice of Abdullah bin Amr radiAllahu anamma.
If you make it to the morning, don't
wait for the evening. You make it to
the evening, don't wait for the morning.
You don't know when you leave, and they
literally do not know when to leave this
world.
The violence, the occupation, the genocide, the ethnic
cleansing is still ongoing.
And it's not just the direct killing. It's
not just the bombs that are dropping. It's
the starvation.
It's the disease. It's a lack of basic
human rights, access to water.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bring down his
swift justice and his relief, Allahumma Ameen.
At Tabarani reports that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam said,
He said that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
in the meaning of, oh, children of Adam,
be free for my worship. Free yourself up
for worshiping me. Meaning make sure you have
the time in your life that Allah created
for you to worship Allah. And I will
fill your heart with a type of richness,
and I will fill your hands with provision.
I will provide for you. I will take
care of you, in other words.
Oh, children of Adam.
Do not distance yourself from me. Don't become
distant from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
He says, or else I will fill your
heart with a type of poverty.
Poverty here is a poverty in terms of
thinking you never have enough. You're chasing and
chasing and chasing, and you're never happy. And
fill your hands with worthless distractions.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala protect us from
that and grant us consistency in our schedules,
Allahumma Ameen.
When you think about the time that Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given you, you notice
something interesting. It's mentioned throughout the Quran that
this life is very fast.
It's a distraction.
Do good with it. Cherish the the blessings
that you have. Cherish the family that you
have. Do good with what you have. There's
a time for hard work. There's a time
for a quick relaxation. There's a time for
family.
But you notice something which is that when
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala references the afterlife,
almost in every single passage, almost in every
single passage about the akhirah,
there's an inclusion
of Khalil Dinafiyah,
that they will be there forever,
to remind you that there's no comparison between
the 2. You're talking here about a second,
and you're talking about an eternity. And even
that is not a fair comparison.
A limited time for an infinite time, there's
no comparison.
And this is why every time we think
about what you're doing, what's the business transaction
you have with Allah? What does your Lord
tell you? Spend a limited amount of time
doing what's good for your own well-being so
you can become better and stronger. And I
will grant you an eternity of paradise, an
eternity of relaxation.
When people finish taking their exams and they
are intense exams 3 or 4 hours long
and even shorter than that,
Sometimes when they first stop, psychologists with a
number of different studies looked at how people
felt.
What did you think when you finished your
exam and the time that you're worried about
is now up?
You had some people who regretted not studying
for their exams.
So the relief is there in terms of
the stress is over. The exam is gone.
But now there's regret.
Because you're going through the exam and you
know most likely you failed.
For those who worked hard, those who studied,
they felt a sense of relief
combined with a type of joy.
I'm so happy. I'm so glad I worked
so hard for this.
The relief is there because the stress is
over. The thing that you worked so hard
for, you don't have to work hard for
anymore. It's gone. It's over now. And you
have joy because you know you also succeeded.
This is a small analogy
that on the day of judgment, people will
be celebrating when they receive their books in
their right hands.
They will go around saying, come read my
book of deeds.
I did believe that this is what I
would find in my record. I was looking
forward to this in other words.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says this person
is not just going around and they're happy.
This person's reward is paradise.
This person is going to be in a
in an abode, in a lifestyle
in which they're happy. Happy how long? Is
it just until the next test you have,
the next exam,
the next illness, the next semester, the next
job, the next change in society?
It's forever.
It's forever.
And Allah emphasizes forever with no interruption.
There's no interruption in the gifts that you
are given, the desires that you have in
paradise. May Allah
grant us consistency.
Foolish
is the one who does not accept this
offer from Allah,
the exchange from Allah.
That you have here a business offer, used
in the business jargon rather, but you'll have
your ultimate offer. Dedicate your life to Allah,
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and Allah grants you an
eternity of being pleased with you, an eternity
of paradise, an eternity of happiness. We bid
farewell to this world and every opportunity that
comes with it. And we ask Allah, Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, to grant us consistency and to
make us amongst the people who practically turn
to him and not just with claims and
words. One of the best advices that I
heard over a decade ago that's helped me
personally
is to frequently
hold yourself accountable with your time. Look at
where your time is going, how it's being
spent. And I, of course, this advice is
general, but especially for those,
informative years of development, high school students and
college students and young professionals, that you emphasize,
frequently assessing where your time is going. So
one of my favorite practical advices,
as simple as it may be, is to
frequently have a countdown timer when you're working
on different tasks, when you're going about your
work day, when you're working on a project,
when you're working on an essay, when you're
reading a Quran, that you know you've committed
the next 30 minutes, the next hour, the
next 2 hours to a specific task, and
you won't accept for yourself any distractions. You
won't accept for yourself anything else. The second
thing I advise in terms of practical tips
is to make sure you're constantly
reminding yourself about time mastery and time management,
that it's not really a one time thing.
You're constantly reminded of it. You're constantly reading
books about it. You're constantly growing in terms
of your development. There's a great book in
Arabic as well. I think it's been translated.
It's
called by Sheikh Abdul Fattah Abu Udda. And
so when you read this book, you will
find in a number of inspirations. Although the
standard is very high, there's a great inspiration
you can take from it on how many
of the righteous productive scholars were always talking
about, how they took advantage of their time.
Some of them some of them like Imam
and Nawawi, Rahmullah,
they would say the other scholars and imams
would say about him, it's as though he
accomplished in a single day what it would
take us a year to do because of
how productive he was. Now some people will
look at his biography and say that's unrealistic.
As a young, student of knowledge, he used
to sometimes literally sleep fall asleep leaning against
stacks of books. He used to be reading
and teaching and developing himself.
He was extremely productive and he had barakah
in his time. Sometimes we talk about time
from a secular lens and you look at
the way that time is managed, and you
ignore some of the essential things the prophet,
salallahu alayhi wasalam, taught about barakah.
One of these things, of course,
is the dua, the prophet made, that's accepted
still today.
Oh Allah, grant my ummah, my nation. Blessings
in its early times, the early hours, the
morning time. The companion who reported this hadith
used to do his business. He's a businessman.
He used to do his business at a
later time, maybe around Duhr or Asr. He
said, when I heard this from the prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, I started to do my
work in the earlier time, and I noticed
my profits increasing. And he reported this hadith
so we would benefit as well. The prophet
made a du'a
that's always being accepted. There's a barak in
the morning time you cannot ignore. And any
students, for example, who studied really hard knows
how precious this time is. Any person who's
memorized the Quran or a great part of
the Quran will tell you they could accomplish
a lot more at the time of Fajr
than any other time of the day. Take
advantage of the morning time. You'll find, of
course, even a number of CEOs whose lives
people study and they ask, what do you
do with your time when you have all
these things you have to manage and run?
Many of them take advantage of the early
hours, 4 AM 5 AM 6 AM. May
Allah, Subhanahu, grant us sincerity and consistency.
If you find in your schedule, as after
tracking it for 1 week,
if you find like many students did and
many adults did, if you find in your
schedule, for example, there's an excessive wasting of
time on, let's say, social media or something
like TV shows or or something that is
not really beneficial for you, and you're able
to cut down. 30 minutes here. 30 minutes
excessively spent on,
let's say somebody's sleeping above average. They don't
medically need this much sleep, so they're cutting
down 30 minutes. They're finding another 30 minutes
here and socializing another 30 minutes there. Just
as an example,
when you start being a little more focused
on your time with that one week that
you'll have, and you're able to be a
little more productive
with just 2 hours extra.
These 2 hours every single day, that's an
extra 30 days added to your year. It's
an extra month added to your year. Now
this is obviously not a free month where
you can just do whatever you want. This
is part of the lifestyle. This is you
taking advantage daily. This is you being a
little more cautious.
And some scholars,
as we find today even, many,
business owners and CEOs and others whose, fame
is very widespread, who people are going for
for advice and mentorship. You'll find in the
past
when, in the time of the first three
generations, when someone came up to one of
the scholars and he said, can can you
come chill with me? Kill time with me.
The slang we use today is let's go
kill time, which is a really problematic thing
to say as a Muslim. Because when you
say kill time, it's like you consist of
time. You consist of hours. So he said,
let's go kill time. The scholar said to
him, because he knows this man, the man
kills time, he said to him, will you
pause? Will you hold the sun for me?
Will you pause time for me? In other
words, I can't I can't afford to just
go and kill time. Time is very precious.
Yes. Bonding with your brother, your sister,
quality time with your family, it's an act
of worship. But even that act of worship
has its limits, and it could be extreme
and excessive. It could be that you are
completely neglecting or you are going to an
extreme. And so be very wise with your
time and ask Allah for. May Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala, forgive us for all of our
shortcomings and bring down his relief and his
justice for our brothers and sisters in every
land and place and make us from amongst
those who recognize the value of our time
and how limited it is. And that we
could return to Allah
as quickly and as abruptly as our brothers
and sisters in Gaza. Ask Allah
for forgiveness.
One of the easiest ways to approach,
time mastery in Islam is to value it
first to know how precious it is,
and that's what we emphasize. And the second
is to organize it, and the third is
to constantly review it. So the second 2,
to review
and organize
straightforward. When you have a schedule, when you
have a to do list, when you have
a spreadsheet, when you have an app that
you like to use personally to manage your
time, and I urge especially especially those who
are still developing new habits,
the high school students, the college students, the
young professionals to develop habits that will stay
with you for the next few decades, inshallah
ta'ala, although it's never too late. Don't get
distracted.
These are formative years, and there are a
lot of distractions around us. There are a
lot of technologies, apps, websites, and companies whose
sole task in some departments
is to figure out how to capture your
attention for as long as possible, How to
take, in other words, as much of your
life, your time, as much as possible. So
guard it as much as you can. Remove
notifications you don't need. Filter out the things
that you can filter out. Uninstall apps that
you don't actually need. And think about the
things that you're doing and how they bring
you closer to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Because
once you make it, once your soul leaves
your body and the angels welcome you into
the afterlife, the believers, may Allah, make us
amongst them, once the people of Jannah take
that first step into Jannah, you will find
a relief that cannot be explained,
a relaxation that is impossible to understand in
this world. It's not like the student who
studied for a 10 hour exam. It's not
like that at all. Because you know there
are no more trials. There is no more
pain. You have passed the ultimate test,
and so it will be worth it. It
will be worth it to work hard. It'll
be worth it to wake up earlier. It'll
be worth it to be a little more,
strict with your time, guarding your time against
things that are wasteful. It'll be worth it,
but it will take some time until you
see when it's worth it, Insha'Allah Ta'ala. And
of course, this brings us to the 3rd
advice. How do you review your time? Hold
yourself accountable.
Manage your schedule.
Review what you've done over the last week.
And of course, this is not new to
us.
Allah commands us, let every soul reflect,
hold yourself accountable
about what you sent ahead. How do you
reflect in a very practical way? Assess what
you've done today, the last week, the last
quarter, the last year, and ask yourself, what
do I need to do practically to change?
What do I need to do today to
move forward?
And the prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
said, be in this world as if you
are a stranger.
Stranger who is meaning, in other words, that
you don't belong to a dunya. As if
you are a stranger or a traveler along
a path. When you travel along a path,
you don't stay there, attach yourself to it,
and forget about the rest of the journey.
Rather, you stay for a purpose. You focus
on what you need, but you can see
that you have to continue with your journey.
You have to prepare. You have things you
need to be responsible for. May Allah to
fulfill all of our responsibilities
and bring down his barakah in our time
and allow us to be amongst those who
are strict with with the value of time.
May Allah forgive us for all of our
shortcomings.