Invaluable 90 Minutes...

[ummtaalib]

Invaluable 90 Minutes...

 

by Shaykh Mawlānā Muhammad Saleem Dhorat hafizahullāh

 

Shaykh Mawlānā Muhammad Saleem Dhorat hafizahullāh on one occasion spoke on the theme of valuing time. As part of the talk, Shaykh very beautifully explained how much loss is incurred through futile activities. He took the example of watching or listening to 90 minutes of football and questioned what benefit 90 minutes bring to a person. The fact is that we don’t gain anything!

 

If we take into account alternative actions of virtue, we will very quickly realise the great loss. Let us look at a few alternatives Shaykh mentioned:

 

• If you engage in reciting the Qur’ān for this length of time, you would on average recite 4 juz. Allāh ta‘ālā grants 10 rewards for every letter recited. Imagine how many letters you would recite in 4 juz and multiply that by 10!

By reading 4 juz you could have earned yourself at least 400,520 rewards!!!

 

• Recite ‘Subhānallāh walhamdulillāh’. The Prophet sallallāhu ‘alayhi wasallam said, “Subhānallāh walhamdulillāh fills the space between the skies and the earth.” Think for a moment how much reward you would gain from 90 minutes of reciting this.
It is possible to gain the reward which will fill the space between the skies and the Earth 4,410 times!!!

 

• Recite ‘Subhānallāhi walhamdulillāhi wa lāilāha illallāhu wallāhu akbar’. From a hādīth we learn that Jannah is a barren land and these glorifying words plant a tree for its reader in Jannah. During 90 minutes, you could prepare yourself a lovely forest of fruit trees.
In fact you could have planted 1,260 trees in Jannah!!!

 

• Recite Sūrah-Al-Ikhlās. In the hadīth it is mentioned that Sūrah Al-Ikhlās is equal to 1/3 of the Qur’ān. Hence, by reciting it 3 times you will earn the reward of reciting the full Qur’ān! Along with this, another hadīth explains that when a person recites Sūrah-Al-Ikhlās 10 times, Allāh ta‘ālā builds a palace for him in Jannah.
In 90 minutes you could have earned the reward of 270 Qur’āns and built yourself 81 palaces in Jannah!!!

 

• Recite durūd, the shortest version is ‘sallallāhu ‘alayhi wasallam’. In the hadīth it is stated that for every durūd a person sends upon the Prophet sallallāhu ‘alayhi wasallam, Allāh ta‘ālā forgives 10 sins, grants 10 rewards and elevates the person 10 stages.
In 90 minutes you could have had 40,500 sins forgiven, 40,500 rewards granted and 40,500 stages elevated in Paradise!!!

 

 

So you thought it was just 90 minutes of harmless fun? Might be worth looking at the figures again and calculating how much loss you have incurred during every match.

[ummtaalib]

Robbers of Time

By Shaykhul-Hadith, Hadrat Mawlana Muhammad Saleem Dhorat damat barakatuhum

 

The gift of time is a very precious favour of Allah ta‘ala. It is a favour we can neither store nor stop from passing. This is why we say, ‘Time waits for no one.’ A similitude for time and life is a block of ice melting away, slowly, minute by minute, second by second, breath by breath. Yet one stark difference between the two is that it is possible to put ice back in the freezer, but nothing can freeze our lives. Thus, life is an asset that needs to be utilised now.

Upon close observation of our own lives, we will find that there are many activities which rob us of our time. Let us take football as an example; just ponder for a minute, how many people in the world today spend hour after hour of their precious time watching football games? What tangible benefit do we get from just watching football? Seldom do we have a conversation that is void of this topic. Just imagine, during only one season or during a single World Cup campaign, how much of our lives are wasted behind football? How much time do we waste in talking about football, watching football, listening to football commentaries and thinking about football? How much time do we devote to these activities and how much time do we devote to Allah ta‘ala? How much time do we spend pursuing religious or secular knowledge that will benefit us, in helping those who are less fortunate and less privileged than us, in helping the needy and the disabled, or in other ways of making a positive contribution to the communities in which we live?

Football is just one example; there are many other robbers of time: engaging in futile conversations and gossip, spending hours on shisha, discussing politics without any practical outcome, etc.

Let us all value time and utilise it in something fruitful, for a day is coming when we will be made to stand in the Court of Allah ta‘ala and be questioned about how we spent each and every moment of our lives.

Taken  from 'Inspirations' (Volume 1) published by Islamic Da'wah Academy

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