Make the Most of Your Time

There are 10 matters that most Muslims allow to get the better of them and stand between them and the plight for Paradise: ● Knowledge that is not acted on ● Deeds that are not done out of sincerity to Allah nor the way he legislated ● Money that is hoarded ● The heart that is empty of love and longing for Allah ● A body that does not obey and serve Allah ● Loving Allah without following His orders or seeking His pleasure ● Time that is not spent in expiating sins or seizing opportunities to do good ● A mind that thinks about useless matters ● Serving those who do not bring you close to Allah nor benefit you in life ● Hoping and fearing others than Allah

The worst of these 10 things is wasting the heart and wasting time. ● Wasting the heart is done by preferring this worldly life over the Hereafter, ● And wasting time is done by having incessant hope. ● Destruction occurs by following one’s desires and having incessant hope, while all goodness is found in following the right path and preparing oneself to meet Allah ● How strange it is that when a person has a [worldly] problem, he seeks help of Allah, but he never asks Allah to cure his heart before it dies of ignorance or neglect

As Muslims we must understand that Time is not Money and manage well our time. ● Islam encourages Muslims to care for time, to utilize it and not to waste it. Besides, it holds them responsible for their time. ● The Righteous Salaf were aware of that responsibility, so they acted accordingly. Describing their care for time, Hassan Al-Basry said, ● "I saw those people and how they were more careful about their time than about their Dirhams and Dinars [i.e. their money]." [ ● Abdullah Ibn-Al-Mubarak, "Az- Zuhd" (Asceticism),

An important requirement for a Muslim's life is to be careful about time, to invest it wisely and to benefit from it. In this regard, Ibn-ul Qayyim says, ● "The highest, most worthy and most useful of reflection is what is intended for Allah and the Hereafter.” ● There are various forms of reflection intended for Allah such as prayer, fasting, reading and pondering the Quran, pondering life and pondering death

Here follows some tips on how to make the Most of our time as Muslims

Identify Your Goals! ● You must identify your goals in order to spend time on the most important matters in your life. ● Your goals should be specific, measurable, and documented for frequent review. ● Also, every goal should have a specific deadline. Your goal should not be 'to memorize some of the Qur'an', for instance; rather it should be something like 'memorize Surat Al-Anfal by December 15, 2000'. ● Other goals could be losing 20 pounds in three months, or reading an identified list of eight books during the year ● I suggest setting Ramadan as the Month of beginning and evaluating your goals

Also keep in mind that your long-term goals are part of the bigger picture of life ● Your mission is the answer to the questions: 'What do I really want in life?' 'What is the purpose of my existence?' 'Why did Allah create me?' ● As a Muslim, you have a mission in life. Your goals must be focused on this mission.

Secondly you must Plan Ahead! ● Planning offers two elements that bring order to your life. ● First, it tells you how to get from where you are to where you want to be. ● Second, it identifies the required tasks and resources to get you there. ● Planning is the key to controlling events in your life and through planning, you can be proactive in achieving your goals. ● Set a course for your future and layout a well-structured plan of action ● Set a course for your future and layout a well-structured plan of action.

To plan effectively you should form the habit of starting each day with a planning session. ● During this time you should set a 'to do list' and focus your attention on it throughout the day. ● This daily planning should be part of your long-term planning aimed at achieving your goals. ● Monthly and yearly reviews of your plans are a must to stay on track, modifying your behavior accordingly.

Finally one must set Priorities for Prioritizing is the key to relieve the stress of too little time! Because what we want to do requires more time then we have, we must decide what to leave undone. To do so, you have to identify the 'must-do', 'should-do', and 'nice-to-do' tasks. Because what we want to do requires more time then we have, we must decide what to leave undone. To do so, you have to identify the 'must-do', 'should-do', and 'nice-to-do' tasks. ● Then, you have to start with the 'must- do' tasks and complete them before doing any of the other two priority levels. This is because once we choose to make an investment in one task, we automatically delay all others. ● The process of prioritizing is deciding which task will produce the greatest return on investment for a specific period of time, to justify saying 'No' to all other tasks. ● Prioritizing is a way to focus your energy on the most important tasks until they are complete.