It’s finally holiday. Alot of schools have closed or will be closing soon. As Muslims,we need to consider this as our golden chance because we are required to work for both this world and the hereafter. Therefore, we should apply twice or more the efforts than that of the non-Muslims when using time. We should bear in our minds that success or total loss hugely depends on how we use our time.
Yes it’s time for us to relax from school pressure or from colossal amount of school assignments. But we should also watch out on how we plan to spend this golden opportunity. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said:
“Make the most of five things before five others: life before death, health before sickness, free time before becoming busy, youth before old age, and wealth before poverty.” See Saheeh al-Jaami’, no. 1077.
I want to briefly make mention of few ways on how we, Muslims, can tremendously benefit from this upcoming holiday.
- We should first set a timetable in which prayer times should be the fulcrum of all our schedules in every day.
- Included in our timetables should be the recitation or memorization of Qur’an, listening to Islamic tapes or lectures, reading Islamic books and learning Arabic language (if you do not know Arabic).
- We should also consider filling our timetables with lots of acts of worship like visiting the sick and attending the Muslim funerals (attending funerals does not mostly fit in the timetables but still, it’s highly recommended to try as much as possible to attend even if it means going against the timetable-we should hurry up in doing these acts of worship before the angel of death pays us a visit).
- Most of people are seriously married to the TV. It is therefore, based on this reason that every Muslim in this holiday should solemnly reduce the time that they spend in front of the screen. This can be done by selecting beneficial programs like newscasts, academic debates, documentaries, educative programs and sports (of course permissible ones e.g. cricket, horse racing, snowboarding and many more ). We should make sure that this fits well in our timetables by thoroughly perusing the TV program schedules. This should be done to avoid killing ourselves from boredom.
- We should also set some free times in which we can visit our relatives, have a short afternoon nap (Qaylula) and chat with friends who are good and righteous.
- It is also a good idea to set aside an hour or a few for some secular subjects or lessons which seem troublesome.
These are some of the many tips that may be employed during this long holiday. We may also expand and add some more activities-it all depends on one’s capacity and needs.
Our Prophet (may peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) emphasized on the importance of time and in the narration by Imam al Bukhaari (6412), the Prophet is reported to have said:
“There are two blessings which many people do not make the most of and thus lose out: good health and free time.”
Time is a blessing from Allaah and when Allaah blesses you with something, He expects you to do something with it.
May Allaah, the Almighty, guide us and accept our humble efforts, Ameeen
