Why You Should Manage Your Time, An Islamic Perspective
Since everyone likes to talk about time management these days, I decided to take it back to some wisdom from one of our beloved Sahabah’s.
A few days ago I came across a quote by Hazrat Umar (R) which was very powerful, he said “Do not put off today’s work for tomorrow.”
If your balancing a life mixed with work, family, college and helping out the community then advice like this is very beneficial.
As you live life, simple tasks/errands which pile up can cause a lot of mental cluttering. Personally for college, I used to save assignments till the very last minute, this past semester I learned to be ahead of the game and handle my business earlier.
That way your not procrastinating and stressing about work which you could have completed earlier, after all it was in your control. Rushing will also cause the quality of your work to be less. All the top companies in the Business world plan ahead, this allows them to take advantage of market opportunities when they come that will pay handsome dividends later.
One thing we will never get back in life is time, your not guaranteed another minute and like the scholar told me “the only thing guaranteed in life is death”. So while your here, why not maximize your potential before it’s too late?.
If we continue to avoid being efficient and don’t increase our productivity although we have the time and resources, then our progress will be delayed as Muslims. As we transition to professional work environments or even through different stages in our academic career, we will be challenged with our time, however we need to tie our camels and trust in Allah (swt).
There are many Hadiths and ayahs from the Qur’an that remind us of the importance of time, I’ll quickly quote two.
- Abdullah bin Abbas (R) reports that Rasulullah said (صلى الله عليه وسلم) “There are two bounties of Allah wherein most people are deceived, health and free time”.
- Secondly, one of the most important Surah’s in the Qur’an, Surah Al-Asr (the declining day).
- Allah swt says: By the ‘Asr (passage of time),
Indeed all of mankind is in a state of loss,
Except those who have emaan (faith),
Conduct righteous actions,
Call each other to the truth,
And call each other to having patience.”
Here are some quick tips on how to maximize your time, a lot of it is common sense:
- Don’t save little tasks for later when dealing with people, this will just cause more problems and disrupt communication. If you need to respond to an email, don’t tell yourself “Oh, I’ll do it later”. Next thing you know days have passed and a task which could have been completed in literally 5 minutes is now a problem because you left it.
- Prioritize all your work and give each of your tasks weight.
- Don’t call it a night unless you sincerely feel like you had a productive day, however you define productive is up to you.
- Plan your day around the 5 daily prayers, Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad said “A busy life makes prayer harder, but prayer makes a busy life easier”.
- Keep your commitments real, if you can’t do someone a favor in an expected time frame, let them know in advance. Don’t set their expectations and not deliver, better to be on the safe side.
There you have it, a quick reminder on the importance of time. Now watch yourself, literally!
May Allah swt shower his blessings in the time he has given us and allow us to be productive Muslims, Ameen.