To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who has failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to a pre-mature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask a daily wage laborer who has kids to feed.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who has missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who has avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLI-SECOND, ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.
"Value five things before five others happen :
Your YOUTH before your OLD AGE
Your HEALTH before your ILLNESS
Your PROSPERITY before your POVERTY
Your LEISURE before your OCCUPATION
Your LIFE before your DEATH." (Hadith, Tirmizi)
There is a popular saying as "Time is gold". Time in Islam is more than gold or any precious material thing in this world. Allah(God) and the Prophet(pbuh), very clearly tell us the value of time, why we must not waste it and how we can make use of our time wisely to attain success, especially eternal success in the life Hereafter.
Bin Abbas narrated that the Prophet (pbuh) said: "There are two blessings which many people lose: (They are) health and free time for doing good." (Hadith, Bukhari 8/421)
Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day, allow you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!
Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.
It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.
There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.
We have to remember that on the day of judgement we shall be asked how we spent our lives, wealth and knowledge. In other words, we will be questioned on how we spent everything that Allah(God) has given us as implied in the following Hadith:
Narrated Abdullah Bin Mas'ud, The Prophet(pbuh) said: "A man shall be asked concerning five things on the day of resurrection: concerning his life, how he spent it; concerning his youth, how he grew old; concerning his wealth, whence he acquired it, and in what way he spent it; and what was it that he did with the knowledge that he had." (Hadith)
Everything we do in accordance with the Quran is an act of worship. Such worship must be done sincerely for the pleasure of Allah(God) alone. We should make use of our time (which includes our "free time") in doing beneficial things especially those that will make us closer to Allah(God) and earn His Mercy.
( pbuh = peace be upon him )
