Do not kill your time

The Quran and Sunnah both emphasize the importance of time in the life
of a Muslim. Allaahswears in the beginning of many Soorahs (chapters)
by time or moments in time, for example Allaah Says (what means): " By
the dawn and the ten nights (i.e. the first ten days of the month
ofThul-Hijjah)..." [Quran 89: 1-2]
And also Says (what means): "By the night when it covers, and by the
day when it appears..." [Quran 92:1]
And also Says (what means): " By the morning brightness and by the
night when it covers with darkness..." [Quran 93:1]
And also Says (what means): "By the time..." [Quran 103:1]
When Allaah swears by something of His creation, it directs our
attention to the benefit of that thing. The Prophet further emphasized
the value of time in many authentic Hadeeths. For example, Mu'aath bin
Jabal related that the Prophet said: "The slave will not go forward on
the Day of Judgment until he is asked four questions: about his age
and how he spent it, about his youth and how he used it, about his
wealth and how he acquired it and spent it, and about his knowledge
and what he did with it."
Youth is considered the peak stage in human life, because young people
have the capacity and energy to accomplish many good deeds, but when
they get older, they cannot do as much. These are stages of
development as mentioned in the Quran, for example in Soorah Ar-Room
(The Romans), Allaah Says (what means): " Allaah is He Who created you
in (a state of) weakness, then gave you strength after weakness, then
after strength gave (you) weakness and grey hair ..." [Quran 30:54]
If we do not use our time effectively for something good, then we will
definitely use it for something bad, which destroys our rewards and
our lives. For example, if you do not make Thikr (mentioning Allaah
and praising Him), then you will be saying something else, perhaps
backbiting or perhaps talking about your children, your work, your
neighbors, your friends or your enemies. What counts for you is using
the time for something useful, doing good deeds and saying good
things.
Try to make a short revision at the end of each day about what you did
during that day. Ask yourself: What did I do today? What did I do that
was bad today? Make repentance for the bad things that you have done
and said, sincerely determining not to repeat such things. With the
good, determine to do it again, do it more often and do it in a better
way.
Our lives are judged according to what we did, not according to how
many years we lived. We know that life is very short, and at the end
of it comes death. We do not know when we are going to die, so we have
to make sure that we do many good deeds before we pass into the next
life and we are unable to return to repent from our bad deeds, or to
do more good deeds. Time passes very quickly as Allaah Says (what
means): "The Day they see it, (it will be) as if they had not tarried
(in this world) except an afternoon and a morning." [Quran 79:46]
And also Says (what means): " And on the Day when He shall gather
(resurrect) them together,(it will be) as if they had not stayed (in
the life of this world and graves, etc) but an hour of a day." [Quran
10:45]
Time is very precious and if it passes, you cannot make use of
itagain. If yesterday passed without the performance of gooddeeds,
then it is gone; you cannotreclaim any benefit from yesterday's time.
For example, if you came to travel from one city to another and you
found that the airplane that you were supposed to travel on has
alreadyleft, do you think that it will be back to pick you up? Or if
you were traveling by train and you missed the train, do you think
that the train will reverse to come back to get you?
When it is time for a person to die, he may ask for more time to do
good deeds, as Allaah Says (what means): "Therein they will cry: 'Our
Lord! Bring us out, we shall do righteous good deeds, not what we used
to do.' (Allaah will reply): 'Did We not give you long enough lives so
that whosoever would receive admonition could receive it, and the
warner came to you? So tasteyou (the evil of your deeds). For the
wrongdoers, etc, there is no helper." [Quran 35:37]
We say that we are so busy with our work and our children, but Allaah
warns us against this saying (what means): " O you who believe! Let
not your properties or your children divert you from the remembrance
of Allaah. And whoever does that, then they are the losers. And spend
(in charity) of that which We have provided for you before death comes
to one of you and he says: 'My Lord! If only you would give me respite
for a little while (i.e. return to the worldly life), then I should
give sadaqah (i.e. Zakaah) of my wealth, and beamong the righteous
(i.e. perform Hajj). And Allaah grants respite to none when his
appointed time (death) comes. And Allaah is All-Aware of what you do."
[Quran 63: 9-11]
Many people before us used their time effectively by performing good
deeds, teaching, doing something for the benefit of the Muslims, their
families and their relatives, or by advising others to be good, and
calling others to Allaah and Islam, etc. They considered every day
that passed which they did not use effectivelyfor the sake of Allaah
as denying the favors of Allaah.
Today we have those who "kill time." These people gather to talk about
things that are not related to Islam or the Muslims' affairs; they
play around or talk about others. These people are not killing time,
but they are committing slow suicide becausethey are killing their
time -- and their time is their lives! So they are slowly killing
themselves and after they die, what good deeds have they done?
The Prophet said: " There are two favors (or bounties) of Allaah's
bounties, and in them many people are cheated (or deceived): health
and free time."
People underestimate the value of these two favors, and thus, they are
cheated. This is like a person who has a house that he wants to sell.
Someone comes and offers him 50,000 dollars for it. He isn't sure of
its value, so he hesitates. Finally, he agrees and sells it for that
amount. Later he finds out that his house was actually worth a million
dollars. Imagine how cheated he feels; imagine that feeling that if he
had only known beforehand what it was really worth, he could have
gotten more!
It is the same with our time. We underestimate its great value, and
then when it is gone, we feelthat we have been cheated because we
didn't get everything out of it that we could have. But just as the
one who sold his house below its value cannot get it back and sell it
at its true value,we also cannot go back and do more with the time
that is already gone. At the end of our lives, we will not be able to
go back and live our lives over again and we will not be given more
time to do good deeds, to try to make up for the time we wasted.
So we must organize our time wisely, being very careful about what we
use it for. We must treat the free time that we have, in which we
could do good deedsas a precious resource, guarding it against waste
or misuse.