Aslam

Praise be to Allah.

Our advice to you will cover three things:

1 – We appreciate your keenness to make good use of your

time, and you are completely right, because a man’s life is the days that

are passing and the hours that he spends. The wise man is the one who

protects his capital from loss and the loser is the one who squanders the

most precious thing that he possesses and does not appreciate its sanctity

or acknowledge its value.

It says in Tafseer al-Raazi Mafaateeh al-Ghayb

(22/83):

Allaah swears by al-‘asr – which is time – because of the

amazing things in it. In it both ease and hardship, good health and

sickness, wealth and poverty occur, and the value of time cannot be compared

to even the most precious and valuable of things. If you wasted one thousand

years on something that does not matter, then you made the most of the last

moment of your life to repent, you would abide in Paradise for eternity.

Therefore you should realize that the noblest thing in your life is the

moment you are in, and time is one of the foundations of blessings. Hence

Allaah swore by it, and He drew attention to the fact that night and day are

opportunities that man wastes, for time is nobler than place, so He swore by

it, because time is a pure blessing in which there is no defect, rather the

defective loser is man. End quote.

Secondly: Then we advise you not to go to extremes in

refraining from talking to people and friends, and to allow a certain amount

of time to sit with them and speak kindly to them, especially relatives. It

was the practice of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon

him) to visit his companions and enjoy their company and talk with them.

What is forbidden is to go to extremes in that so that long hours pass or it

leads to neglect of other obligatory duties that are waiting to be done,

such as worship, learning, work and so on. The best of things are those that

are moderate and the one who intends to do good, Allaah will enable him to

do it.

When speaking to your friends and relatives, you should try

to discuss serious topics with them, and things that will benefit both your

religious and worldly interests, so that you will be rewarded for teaching

them and your sitting with them will count in your favour on the Day of

Resurrection, and not count against you.

It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with

him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)

said:

“No people sit in a gathering in which they do not remember

Allaah or send blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of

Allaah be upon him), but it will be a source of regret for them on the Day

of Resurrection, even if they enter Paradise as a reward.”

Narrated by Ahmad (2/463) and classed as saheeh by the

commentators according to the conditions of the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhaari and

Muslim), and by Shaykh al-Albaani in al-Silsilah al-Saheehah (no.

76).

Thirdly: Make proper excuses to those who steal your time,

and think of means of achieving that. You know your situation. For example:

You could apologize by saying that you are busy preparing for

a university or school exam, or a course of study, if you have anything to

do with these things, or say that you are busy preparing a certain project

for some organization. People usually accept these things, and they will

encourage you to make the most of your time for those purposes. If you

really do have to make some commitment to an academic body in order to

convince people, if you do not actually have any exam to prepare for or work

to do, then make that your intention when you speak of it, because

preparation  always takes precedence, thus you will be telling the truth and

finding an excuse to give to them.

You could use this excuse with the guests who are present,

and you can also use this excuse with friends who call you up, but getting

rid of people on the phone is easier, because the one who is calling you

cannot see what you are really doing at home. So you can apologize by saying

that you want to go and pray before the time for prayer ends, and your

intention may be to offer a naafil prayer if you have already offered the

obligatory prayer; or you could ask your mother to call you whilst you are

speaking on the phone and ask you to help her with something. If your friend

hears your mother calling, she will end her call. In these ways you can find

ways to rid yourself of the time-wasters whom many people have to deal

with.

We will quote here the complaint of one of the scholars about

those who waste one’s time, and how he dealt with this problem, and some

beautiful words about the importance of time, and the necessity of making

good use of it.

Ibn al-Jawzi said in Sayd al-Khaatir (p. 240-241):

I seek refuge with Allaah from the company of idle folk! I

have seen many people who tried with me what is customary among many people

of visiting a great deal and they call these frequent visits a kind of

service; they want to sit with me and chat as people chat about what people

are talking about, and what does not concern anyone, and what may be gheebah

(backbiting).

This is what many people do nowadays, and the one who is

visited may ask for that, or long for it, and feel lonely when no one visits

him, especially when there is a celebration or on Eid. So you see them going

to visit one another, and they don’t limit it to offering greetings and

saying salaam, rather they add to that a great deal of what I call wasting

time.

When I realized that time is the noblest thing, and that it

should be spent in doing good, I hated that, and I had two choices with

regard to them: if I tell them off, it will cause problems, and if I accept

it from them I will be wasting time! So I began to avoid meeting people as

much as I could, then if I did meet them I would try to keep the

conversation brief so that I could leave quickly.

Then I prepared things that I could do to prevent talking to

them when they met me, lest time be wasted. Some of the preparations that I

made for meeting them were cutting paper for writing, sharpening pens and

putting papers together to make notebooks, because these things are

essential, but they do not need any thought or focus. So I kept them for the

times of their visits so that none of my time would be wasted.

We ask Allaah to make us realize the preciousness of time and

help us to make the most of it.

I have met many people who do not know the meaning of life.

Allaah has made some of them independent of means because they have a great

deal of wealth, so they sit in the marketplace for most of the day, watching

people, and they may see a great deal of evil deeds and objectionable

things. Some of them focus on playing chess and some waste their time in

talking about the rulers, or how expensive or cheap things are, and so on. I

realized that Allaah does not guide anyone to understanding the preciousness

of life and the value of time and health, except the one whom He inspires to

make the most of it. “and none is granted it except the owner of the

great portion (of happiness in the Hereafter, i.e., Paradise and of a high

moral character)” [Fussilat 41:35]. End quote.

We ask Allaah to guide us and you and grant happiness in this world and in

the Hereafter.

And Allaah knows best.