The Blessings of Time - Shaykh Ahsan Hanif

The Blessings of Time

The month of Ramadan is a month that contains many, many lessons. Some of the scholars used to call the month of Ramadan a madrasah — an institution, a school — because of how many lessons it contains and how much we can benefit from it.

In this month of Ramadan, we learn how much we can excel when it comes to the worship of Allah. Every single one of us does more. Every single one of us tries to do more. It shows that it can be done. It shows that when we put our mind to it, we can excel in terms of the worship of Allah.

In this month of Ramadan, we see the beauty of the Muslim ummah when they come together and they're united upon the obedience of Allah and the worship of Allah. It is a beautiful sight that every single masjid is full in the evening. That people are coming in their droves to the houses of Allah, reciting Qur'an, praying, giving in sadaqah and charity. That's an amazing sight to see.

So the month of Ramadan has many, many different lessons. And there is one lesson that I want to focus upon in this khutbah — something that all of us can relate to, something that all of us have experienced and are experiencing. And it's something which isn't only particular to Ramadan, but it's a part and parcel of our lives. And that is the preciousness of time.

The Value of Time

From the greatest lessons of this month of Ramadan is the value of time. How precious this ni'mah and blessing of Allah is. It only seems like yesterday that we began the month of Ramadan, and today we're nearly two weeks in. This is the second Jumu'ah of Ramadan, and by Allah's permission there are only two more left. May Allah allow us to witness them and see them and benefit from them.

That's the month of Ramadan — it comes by so quick. Before we know it, the last ten nights will be upon us. Before we know it, the month of Ramadan is over. In fact, for most of us, it only seems like we fasted Ramadan of last year just a few days or weeks ago, not such a distant memory.

And that's from the signs of Yawm al-Qiyamah. Our Prophet ﷺ told us in the hadith of Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1036)

"From the signs of Yawm al-Qiyamah is that time comes close together."

And in the hadith of At-Tirmidhi, the Prophet ﷺ said that time will fly by so fast that it will seem that a year passes by within a month, and a month within a week, and a week within a day, and a day as if it is like an hour, and an hour as if it is like the striking of a match. That's how quickly time will pass by.

(Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2332)

And many of the scholars — عليهم رحمة الله — were of the position that the meaning of these hadith is that it speaks about the blessing of time. That even if it's not a literal closeness of time — there are still 24 hours in the day, you still have 60 minutes in the hour, the day and the night are still the same proportion of time, roughly speaking — but there is that lack of blessing in our time. And what that means is that we don't use our time beneficially.

Time itself doesn't have a problem. The time is time that Allah has placed in it what was in it. But it's just that the people no longer have the ability to benefit from that time. We can't take and extract from time the benefits that our predecessors used to.

In this month of Ramadan, as we know, they would excel in worship in ways that we, when we read them now in their biographies, we think it is something which maybe is a part of someone's imagination. How does someone finish the whole Qur'an in a single day, every single day of Ramadan? All of the Qur'an. If most of us finish the Qur'an once in the month of Ramadan, that's an amazing blessing, no doubt, and that is an amazing accomplishment. But those scholars of the past — every day of Ramadan was a complete recitation of the Qur'an. And then if the last ten days came upon them, they would finish it once during the daylight hours and once during the nighttime. That's an amazing amount of barakah in a person's time.

Two Blessings We Neglect

As human nature, we often don't appreciate that which is free and easily accessible. Something you're given for free, you don't really value it until it's taken from you. Something which you just have — that's always there, it's just a staple — from the moment that you were born until today it's just always with you. You don't really appreciate that blessing unless you lose it.

Ask those people today who can't fast in the month of Ramadan — how amazing would it be for them to be able to fast. Ask those people who are too sick, too ill, too weak, to enjoy the benefits of good health. Ask those people who are too busy and preoccupied, who don't have the time because of some other pressures and issues they're facing — ask them about the benefit and value of free time.

Our Prophet ﷺ told us in the hadith of Abdullah ibn Abbas رضي الله عنه, collected in Sahih al-Bukhari:

"Two blessings of Allah — most people don't know their value: health and free time."

You don't appreciate your life until death comes upon you. You don't appreciate your good health until the time comes upon you when you can no longer use your health in any meaningful way. Ask those people who are struck down by disease and terminal illness — may Allah keep us and them safe. Can you imagine not being able to wake up in the morning except that you're in pain? Not being able to live throughout the day except that you're in pain? Someone tells you to eat, drink, or read Qur'an, and you're too preoccupied with the situation you're in — the pain that you feel, the hardship that you're enduring — to be able to focus on anything else. That's a test from the tests of Allah.

But one of those lessons is that every single one of us, for the vast majority of us, we had times when that wasn't the case. Maybe that time is right now. Allah has given to you time — time that you can use. And we all know that because all of us are using time in different ways, not all of them in the most beneficial of ways.

The Oath of Allah by Time

Allah says that it is from the signs of Allah — time. Allah takes an oath in the Qur'an:

Allah takes an oath by the time to show to us how important and precious it is. The vast majority of humans are in loss because they don't know how to use that time. They live their life, they do their thing — they eat, they drink, they go to work — but they don't really know how to use that time.

Except for the people of iman and righteous deeds — because they know that that time which Allah gave to you and I as a blessing is a time and an opportunity for you to show to Allah why you're worthy of His mercy, His forgiveness, His reward. It's a time for you to excel in iman, in ibadah, in worship.

And Allah gives to us these moments, these times — like the season of Ramadan — to make us think of that again, to make us ponder and reflect over those realities that all of us know in the bottom of our hearts but we often forget.

The Night and the Day

Allah says in the Qur'an:

Allah is the one who made the night and the day alternate. The day has its function, the night has its function. Each one of them has its blessings, and Allah placed acts of worship in both of those periods of the day. The day — there are things for you to do and there is reward in it. And the night is also an opportunity for reward. He made them alternate.

"For the one who wishes to be reminded" — reminded of what? As Imam At-Tabari said in his Tafseer: those who want to be reminded of Allah's obligations upon them. Reminded of their duties. Reminded of the responsibilities that Allah has placed upon them. The commandments that Allah has placed upon you. So that you're going to remember, you're going to be reminded, and you're going to use your time wisely and beneficially.

The Wisdom of Ibn Mas'ud

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه — the great companion of the Prophet ﷺ, from the Imams of this religion and from the scholars of the Qur'an — the Prophet ﷺ said: "If one of you wants to read the Qur'an in the way that it was revealed, then read according to the recitation of Ibn Mas'ud."

That companion said: "The worst of days is the day that passes by and your life span has therefore decreased, but your actions and your deeds did not increase." Every day that passes by is a step — a day closer to your end. Your life span has decreased. But if in that day you didn't increase in any good deed, you didn't really excel, you didn't really use your time in a good way.

And the second category of people mentioned in the verse are those who want to use that time to show gratitude. Gratitude for what? For the many blessings that Allah has bestowed upon you.

What Excuse Do We Have?

There are people today in the world who, maybe on Yawm al-Qiyamah in front of Allah, will have an excuse as to why they didn't use this Ramadan to the best of their ability. Maybe in front of Allah, on Yawm al-Qiyamah, Allah will forgive them and pardon them because of the situation that they're in — like many of our brothers and sisters across the world in places like Gaza and other places. May Allah make their affairs easy for them and bring to them a hasty relief. Maybe they have an excuse on Yawm al-Qiyamah.

But you and I — what excuse do we have on the Day of Judgment? When Allah will hold us to account for our moments and our minutes and our hours and our days, and the Ramadans that have come upon us year upon year, and we've had the ability to worship, to read Qur'an, to give sadaqah, to do some good deeds, to make tawbah, to turn back to Allah — and we didn't really use any of those opportunities.

And we're all familiar with the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ when he said ameen three times to the du'a of Jibreel عليه السلام. And one of those du'as is that the month of Ramadan comes upon a person and by the end of it they haven't sought the forgiveness of Allah.

Allah says:

"Did you not live a life long enough that had you wanted to be reminded you could have done so?" If Allah has allowed you to live for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years — isn't that long enough for you? Isn't that enough time for you to be reminded, to remember, to show that this Ramadan should be different from all of the years that have passed?

That is from the greatest lessons of this month of Ramadan — to use the time that you have wisely.

Distractions of Our Time

It is one of the fitan of our time, one of the greatest challenges that all of us face — but especially for our younger brothers and sisters, yet even for the rest of us. One of the greatest challenges that we face in our time is the numerous amount of distractions that we have to contend with. I don't think in any time in history that we know of has anyone had to contend with the amount of distractions we now deal with. It is something which is preposterous. It is crazy how every single time you turn in any direction and look in any other way, you're going to be distracted. And one of the greatest of those distractions is probably in your pocket right now. That's the nature of the life that we live in.

So the month of Ramadan comes to remind you once again to focus. There are things that are more important. There are things that Allah loves and that are more dear to Him than everything else. Use this month of Ramadan. Don't let the opportunity pass you by.

Maximizing Small Opportunities

One of the other things that I want to say in this khutbah, based upon that, is to maximize the opportunities that you have — even if they seem like small opportunities. Don't make anything insignificant. Those small wins, those small deeds that you are doing — every time you come to the masjid and you read Qur'an for five minutes, every time you come slightly early before the salah, maybe you come for taraweeh and there's a five-minute gap before the iqamah goes and you pray those two rak'ahs. Or you come into the masjid and you find that someone's collecting for a cause and you just give them five pounds, ten pounds, twenty pounds. Those small actions — they're wins. They are things to be celebrated, because that is the beauty of our religion.

Our Prophet ﷺ told us in the hadith in Sahih Muslim of the companion Uqba ibn Amir رضي الله عنه:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 803)

He said to a number of companions who were from the Ahl al-Suffah — the homeless companions that used to spend their time living in the masjid — Uqba ibn Amir رضي الله عنه says: "The Prophet ﷺ came out to us one day and he said to us: 'O people of the Suffah, would one of you' — and these are poor people, homeless, don't have anything, no money, no home, most of them probably single, no wives, no families — 'would one of you love to go to one of the valleys of Medina and thereby find two big fat camels that they could just take without committing any sin and without breaking any tie of kinship? They're just free for you to go and take.'"

The Prophet ﷺ called them the biggest, most fat type of camels because they were the most precious of the wealth of the Arabs at that time. Today it's like saying you'd get two Ferraris, two planes, two yachts — you just go and get them for free. They said: "O Messenger of Allah, who wouldn't love that?"

He said ﷺ: "Then for one of you just to go to the masjid and read two verses of the Qur'an — or memorize and learn those two verses of the Qur'an — the time that it takes you to learn, to repeat, to memorize — it would be better for you than those two camels. And if you did three verses, it would be better than those three camels. And if you did four verses, it would be better than those four camels, and so on and so forth."

Those small deeds that you can complete in this month of Ramadan, the adhkar that you make in the morning. Because you're busy, you don't have the time maybe to read as much Qur'an as other people. But there are so many different acts of worship that you can still be performing. So many times that you could just make salat and salam upon the Prophet ﷺ. So many times when you could just be busy saying سُبْحَانَ اللَّه, الْحَمْدُ لِلَّه, اللَّهُ أَكْبَر.

Every evening that I come to the masjid for taraweeh, it amazes me how many people are just sitting around doing nothing. There's 20 minutes left before the salah, 15, 10 minutes, and people are just speaking, they're on their phones, they're just doing what they're doing. They're not necessarily committing a sin, they're not doing anything haram, but they're not using their time in this month of Ramadan.

This is how the salaf were able to finish the Qur'an once a day, twice a day — because they didn't allow any moment to pass them by. Every single moment that they were awake, unless they had to eat or drink or do something, everything else was just ibadah and worship. This is how Ramadan is meant to be.

And yes, we can't do it the way that they did it — we don't have the ability, we don't have the time, the world has changed, it's different, all of that is correct. But there are still so many different opportunities and pockets of time when you can spend worshiping Allah. And Allah is Ghafoor al-Raheem — Most Merciful, Most Gracious, All-Forgiving. He knows the situation that we're in, He knows the realities of our lives. But Allah is merciful to those who show the effort, who show their willingness to worship Allah. We ask Allah that He makes us from amongst those people, and that Allah makes us people who benefit from our time, and that Allah blesses that time for us.

The Last Ten Nights

With all that I have said, one of the greatest opportunities of being able to use our time beneficially in this month of Ramadan is still yet to come. These last ten nights of Ramadan are fast approaching. And by the time, insha'Allah, next week we come for this Khutbat al-Jumu'ah, those last ten nights will be upon us.

They are amazing in terms of their reward. And the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ describes him as being even more worshipful in those last ten nights — even more in terms of his effort and his time and his focus and attention in the worship of Allah in those ten last nights. All of that to seek out that one night that is greater than a thousand months of worship. Every single deed that you can do — if you have sincerity, you have ikhlas, you turn to Allah — you don't know the impact that it will have.

That verse that you learn of the Qur'an, those two rak'ahs that you pray — you don't know their value, you don't know how much they will weigh in the scale of Allah. In the hadith of Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه, the Prophet ﷺ walked by a grave and asked the companions: "Who is the person in this grave? Who died here? Whose grave is this?" So they told him: "O Messenger of Allah, it is so and so." He said ﷺ: "Two rak'ahs — just two rak'ahs, doesn't take you more than a minute or two to perform — two rak'ahs is more beloved to this man than the rest of the dunya and what remains of it."

Those two acts of worship, those two rak'ahs that you just prayed when you thought it's just two minutes and nothing better to do — that little bit of Qur'an that you read, that dhikr of Allah that you make — you don't know which one of those actions will be accepted by Allah, which one of them will tip the balance of the scales. What they mean in the sight of Allah — we look at things in a very different way — but Allah's judgment and Allah's scale is very different.

The Story of the Man Who Gave Sadaqah

And I leave you with one final hadith to show you this — the hadith of Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه, collected in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1421; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1022)

A man from Bani Israel one day wanted to give sadaqah, so he decides that he's going to give a dinar. He goes to give it at night because it's private, it's dark — no one can see, no one knows who he is, he can't recognize anyone else — because he wants to make it an act of worship that is sincere. He goes and he comes across the first person and gives them the money and leaves.

But by the morning the people of the town are speaking — not knowing it's him — and they're saying that someone last night gave their sadaqah to a thief. They didn't know he was a thief. He just saw a man and he thought he was in need and gave him the money. Turned out to be a thief. So he says, alhamdulillah, no problem. Tonight I will go and give sadaqah again.

So he goes that night and gives sadaqah for the second night in the same way — the first person he comes across, he gives it to them. In the morning the people are saying something more amazing has happened: someone just gave sadaqah to a prostitute last night. He wasn't aware. Alhamdulillah, all praises for Allah. This night I will go and I will do it again.

So the third night he goes and gives that sadaqah again, and this time the people are saying something crazy happened — he gave sadaqah to a man who is rich and wealthy. So the man said alhamdulillah for the sadaqah that he gave to the thief, the sadaqah that he gave to the prostitute, the sadaqah that he gave to the man who is rich.

Then he saw a man come to him and he said: "The sadaqah that you gave to that thief — that night he didn't need to steal anymore. And the one that you gave to the prostitute — that night she didn't have to commit zina anymore. And the one that you gave to the rich man — he thought to himself: 'If this man is giving sadaqah, I should be more worthy of giving sadaqah than him.'"

We have one way of looking at something — we think of something, we judge something, we judge others. But Allah has a very different way of looking at our actions if they are sincere.

Closing

This month of Ramadan is an opportunity for us to gain the reward of Allah, to gain forgiveness from Allah, to gain emancipation and freedom from the fire of Hell. Use this time and what remains of it — of these blessed days of Ramadan — in a way that is pleasing to your Lord. In a way that is beneficial. In a way that, insha'Allah, you will see its rewards on the Day of Judgment.

We ask Allah that He gives us that blessing and that Allah gives us that tawfiq and success. And that Allah makes us from amongst those people who show their utmost love and devotion and submission to their Lord and their Creator, especially in these blessed days of Ramadan. We ask Allah that He accepts our deeds, our prayer, our fasting, our sadaqah, our recitation of the Qur'an. And that Allah allows us all and our families to witness that night of Laylat al-Qadr with all of its virtuous reward. And that He makes us from amongst those people who stand upon that night seeking the reward of Allah with iman. And that Allah forgives us for our sins on that day and frees us from the fire.