musaafir-e dasht

From ashrafiya.com Sayyidi wa sanadi Shaikh Mufti Mohammad Taqi Usmani (Allah preserve him) said, ‘These days most of us are preoccupied by the past events or future apprehensions. In doing so we neglect the present.’ An individual inquired, ‘In our era due to technological advances every day chores are done relatively quickly. Hence we have extra time available to us. This usually results in preoccupation with useless involvements including those you mention. How can we utilize time more effectively?’ Sayyidi wa sanadi replied, ‘I repeatedly tell the people the same and ask them what are they doing with the time they save by using these new technologies. An individual has to develop the importance of value of time. Once this importance is developed then it will be impossible for him to waste a single second. Moreover, Allah will give barakah in his time and he will be able to do more work effectively in the same amount of time.’

A friend of mine was generous enough to lend her ‘Islamic Studies’ reading pack, which she had got from her teacher who was a student of Shaykh Kamaluddin at LUMS a couple of years back. It is probably one of the best assortments of writings that I have ever laid my hands on. Feel blessed. Alhamdulillah. Here I wish to refer to an excerpt in that pack from Imam Al Haddad’s book Knowledge and Wisdom , translated by Mostafa al-Badawi, entitled, ‘Structuring Time’. This excerpt further refers to a very moving excerpt from Imam al Ghazzali’s Bidaayat al Hidaaya (The Beginning of Guidance), which I want to share with the readers of this blog. I personally found it to be an extremely useful reminder. Imam al Ghazzali rahimahullah says, You should not neglect your time or use it haphazardly; on the contrary, you should bring yourself to account, structure your litanies and other practices during each day and night, and assign to each period a fixed and specific function. This is how you...