The Blessing of Time #09 – Delayed Gratification

How much patience Do you think you have with your time and your energy?

In the Arabic language the word that we use is solid, loosely translated as patients but in reality in the English language, which would also include perseverance, persistence, self discipline, conscientiousness, willpower relentless effort, not giving up all of these come from slobin and also patients being strong, having willpower for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala we find as Muslims that there is a link between that strength that we're seeking and the use of our time. For example, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us in the very famous Hadith, the strong believer and McMinnville, Poway high you don't know what happened in Allah is more beloved and better in the

sight of Allah subhanaw taala may or may not life from the weak believers with equal in height. But there's good in all believers, there's good in all believers. And then the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam says, sila million folk, be eager, be eager and strive for that which brings you benefit was starting Billa wala charges, and put your trust in Allah and do not become helpless. Do not give up. Do not become lazy, do not become incapacitated, keep trusting in Allah and keep putting in your effort. Now from this hadith we take number one, the importance of strength, perseverance, willpower as a priority, it is better, it is more preferred for you to be strong in one area. This hadith is

not about the one who can benchpress more the one who can run a longer marathon. It's not about that. The strength here clearly the most important strength is the strength of the man. Right? Well, if he couldn't hurt, but there's good in all believers, those who are strong in their faith, and those who are weak. So you should try to help those who are struggling to become strong as well. And you should always be humble with anything good that you have and attributed to Allah subhanaw taala. Having said that, many scholars have stated that generally we take from this hadith and many other narrations, the importance of having strength in all areas of life. So for you to be strong, not

just in your Eman in your trust of Allah subhanaw taala. But yes, to be strong in your body, to be strong in your time management, to be strong intellectually in your education, your knowledge, your wisdom, to be strong when it comes to your relationships, to be strong emotionally, mentally, psychologically, to be strong is something we aim for. And yet we find that with the discussion on time, one of the greatest obstacles to that is weakness, right is a lack of solid. And so a person gives in and wastes time, because it's easier to be lazy. It's easier to sit around and watch and binge watch multiple TV shows, it's much easier, and everyone knows this. It's easy to kill time.

But what takes effort and strength, willpower, resolve ambition, long term goals and strategy is for you to use your time for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala with strength, consistency, that's not always going to be easy, but it's a developed habit over time, and it needs to be renewed and reinforced. To give in to instant desires. Instant gratification, we all know is much easier. For example, if you're someone who is trying to abstain from certain types of foods, things that are harmful for you, and you walk by and that's the very first week you just started this new regimen, maybe you just started changing your lifestyle. You walk by and you see somebody in your family

baked something really, really, really tempting, but extremely unhealthy, right? You have a choice to make, because you made a decision the week before that for you. That's not a good thing that's harmful, and you want to avoid it for whatever reason. That's not a thing that you desire. You tell yourself you know what, it's just one time and you give it a few days later. It's just one time you give in. And then you become discouraged a week or two later. And you say you know what, I'm not really doing anything. I'm not really successful. I'm not really actually implementing what I want. You gave into an instant desire. In the moment, it's easier to waste your time it is easier to kill

time it is easier to eat that thing that's harmful for you. My tastes better in the moment to the long term. Is it going to lead to a greater regret? For most people? Yes, that applies to health. It applies to nutrition and diets the things that people eat, it applies to your exercise that applies to your mental state it applies to education. Of course it applies generally to already about it to our worship of Allah subhanaw taala that yes, it's easier in the short term to waste your time to kill it to do other things. But long term the pain of regret is much more severe. And this is why we reflect on the the choice it's a spectrum at times, but the choice between the instant and the

delayed gratifications Allah subhanaw taala reminds the people who care only about instant gratification and a dunya and they do not care about the afterlife. Color Beltre Hypponen Hajia ne indeed you love the large I mean the instant the now the immediate WHAT IS THAT A dunya what are the rune and you ignore neglect abandoned the hereafter? You don't care about it. It's long term it seems far away, but well

Like it's very close, it's as close as your death is right because your afterlife begins when you die. So in Surah tokuyama, Allah subhanaw taala is reminding us about these two different choices in life that people have to make. And once again, going back to our discussion on destinations, if you see that there are only two possible destinations, one of paradise and one of hellfire, you also look at the characteristics of the people that ended up in paradise and say, I want to be like these people, I want to be amongst them. One of these characteristics is delayed gratification, that in the moment, I chose to have some willpower, and I chose to use my time for something better I chose

with willpower, it's not always easy to avoid that habit that socializing that task that was harmful. And speaking of socializing and wasting time, there's a beautiful story from Ivanov, basketball, the Aloha. He's very young, at the age of 13, already a scholarly companion, but all the love on him. And even our bus had a friend who told him once let's go basically hang out let's go waste time. And what they were doing the youngsters of the time, sometimes they were watching pigeons, sometimes they were playing with other things. That's what they had for entertainment. And he said, Let's go seek knowledge. And his friend said like basically why to paraphrase why me

they're already scholarly people why we're just 13 years old. 12 years old, were children were young. Even on buses all day long. I'm satisfied. I left him I left him fell off to I left him he went to seek knowledge with a Senior Companions, he said at the doorsteps at times waiting to seek knowledge. And he'd been on bus within a short span of time, became one of the most knowledgeable companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. How he spent his time seeking knowledge he had higher ambitions. Was it easy? Is it easy to say I'm going to skip out on socializing today, I'm going to skip out on this habit I'm going to skip binge watching on a change my habits slowly and

gradually, especially when your family, your friends, the people around you, maybe even your teachers at times might fall into wasting time might fall into a bad habit. And when you see everyone doing it, there's a lot of pressure and internally we justify our enough says, well, everyone's doing it what's the big deal. But that doesn't mean it's the best thing that doesn't mean it's the right thing. Move towards Allah subhanaw taala even if all of society or your networks or your friends or your family are moving in the opposite direction, keep moving towards the loss of power data with strength with resilience and try to be that strong believer that values their time

and spreads the recognition the acknowledgement of the value of time cleaner to them and to all of your family and friends as well. Let there be a positive impact on the people around you. Yes, they may be at times doing the opposite. Maybe they might be doing the wrong thing. Have some empathy and sympathy and hope for them to be even better than you and ask Allah subhanaw taala to utilize you to guide others as well to value their time and may Allah subhanaw taala accept from all of us alumni