Value of Time: The Dangers of Procrastination - Dr. Bilal Philips

um foreign all praise is due to allah and may allah's peace and blessings be on the last prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam and then all those who follow the path of righteousness until the last day the value of time time about which the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam had said do not curse time the obvious meaning is for indeed allah he is time as a result of this hadith some people include adar among the names of allah but this is a mistake because when the prophet sallam said for in allah it means he is the khalik he is the creator of time not that he himself is time this is a metaphorical usage he is the creator of time and we know that because in some other narrations it mentions where allah says after saying that he was time he said i flip the night and the day i change the night and the day so he's clarified what he meant by saying he was time he is the creator of time time is a period in which things occur it is not itself an actor it is not a doer it is a period or point at which something occurs in our common usage in english we have time we make time we find time we save time we lose time we buy time we spend time we waste time all these things we're doing to time time is money time flies time passes we have a lifetime we have a bedtime we have dinner time there's all kinds of things about time that we possess we do with etc allah subhanahu ta'ala on the other hand says by time indeed human beings are in a state of loss all of this time that we had we lost we bought we saved etc all of it is from allah and if we are not able to utilize it as it was meant to be utilized we are lost so the time which we have which has been allotted to us by allah 50 000 years before the creation of this world that time has particular value to each and every one of us if we don't use it as it was meant to be used then it becomes a curse for us if we use it as it was meant to be used then it becomes a blessing that time that we have may be spent in three ways either in thoughts in conversations or in actions we should strive to make our thoughts good thoughts but this is an area of challenge because we don't control our thoughts some of them we initiate but then others of them come from other sources they could come from the people around us the people slander and whisper things in our ears or they could come from satanic sources the jinn satan whispers so allah doesn't hold us accountable for our thoughts whether good or bad until those thoughts become conversation or actions once we turn them into words we have now vocalized them or we act on them then we become responsible for them so the struggle that we have is to try to make our thoughts as much as possible in accordance with islamic teachings to do so it means we should be in contact with the source of the best thoughts the source of the best thoughts of course is none other none other than the quran itself so if we are to have good thoughts then we need to attach ourselves to the source of the best thoughts the quran if we are to have good conversations again we should be doing so in accordance with what islam teaches and if we don't have good conversations to make then we should do as the prophet salallahu sallam told us be quiet be silent so in that way we protect our conversations from falling into error being counted against us and of course our actions to establish good actions then we need to first and foremost establish the good actions which islam has prescribed those good actions begin with declaration of faith five times daily prayer fasting in ramadan giving zakah making hajj all of these are good actions righteous deeds obligatory deeds depending on whether we have the finances or we have the means etc which are geared towards developing our own actions as allah told us prevents evil speech and evil deeds that is what it's supposed to do however for most of us we make salah and it has no impact at all on our deeds so when we find in this realm of actions that we are not getting better we're not becoming better people ramadan after ramadan no change in fact maybe we're getting worse it means that our salah as a fundamental principle in our lives is not serving the function that it's supposed to to do so the time which our actions are taking which our actions are consuming is of no benefit to us it is harmful to us so we need to assess and how do we give value to our time how do we make it it's valuable already but how do we give it its proper value by making sure that we get the most out of it so salah for example which is supposed to prevent us from evil speech faksha wal-munkar and evil deeds if it is not impacting on us then it means we are wasting time we're doing actions which are of no value we keep doing them over and over and over again and they're not producing any results you know this type of behavior you know is considered sick a person who keeps doing the same thing expecting different results but they keep getting the same results and they still keep doing it this person is considered to have a mental problem psychiatrists try to treat such people so we don't want to be in that category we don't do that in other areas of our lives but we seem to do that very easily with our islam we treat our islam as a cultural habit that we do because our parents do it our family does it it's the norm so we just do it but that time is wasted time so we said that in order to build good thoughts we need to connect to the quran in order to build good conversations we need to also connect to good deeds guidance which the prophet sallam has given us and in our actions the pillars of islam and those principles connected to it in the case of conversations our conversations should be guided by the principles of our iman actions guided by the principles of our islam there is a connection prophet muhammad sallam on one occasion said this world is cursed and everything in it is cursed it seems like a very negative look at the world if you just take take that statement on face value prophet muhammad is very positive in so many things that he said so why this negativity what is he referring to what makes this world a curse it becomes cursed when we are addicted to it because we have to live in this world allah has created us in this world we are not supposed to run away from the world go sit in the top of a mountain somewhere so you don't have to deal with any of the bad things no this is not islam we don't have monasteries like you know where the monks go and they cut themselves off from society no this is not the islamic way instead we just have to be careful in how we use our time where we become addicted to the things of this world then our time is wasted our time is consumed in useless matters things which are of no benefit so the way forward the prophet saws went on to say illathikuru so he didn't just leave us with the cursed world he said among the things in this world that are not cursed that are in fact beneficial which we if we engage in it if we become addicted to it become attached to it then it will benefit us it's the remembrance of allah illah allah and whatever helps us to remember allah these are two elements which if engaged in on a regular basis then our time is preserved our time becomes valuable our time becomes beneficial waliman the scholar the teacher and the student so in terms of our goals what each and every one of us should set for ourselves is to be either a teacher as prophet muhammad sallam was the ultimate teacher and or a student because this is the blessed relationship in which time is fully valued we get the maximum out of our time when we teach as the prophet sallam had said the best of you are those who learn the quran and teach it to others it's that teaching element which makes us the best we can be so whatever knowledge we're gaining as a student that's a blessed state to be in as a student that is a good use of one's time outside of the remembrance of allah then we should be a student which is why prophet muhammad told us that seeking knowledge is compulsory for every muslim so that we would be using our time constructively so we'd be using our time constructively so if we then utilize our time in study we are gaining knowledge we are attaching ourselves first and foremost with allah because when we are told to be a student the knowledge which is of most importance is the knowledge of allah that's where proper knowledge begins the most valuable knowledge is the knowledge of allah the most reliable and truthful knowledge is the knowledge conveyed by revelation so this is the place to start we start with revelation which teaches us primarily about allah by knowing allah knowing who he is knowing his attributes we can then worship him as he deserves to be worshiped then we start to focus on utilizing our time whatever opportunities we are given we strive to utilize that time and opportunity in the worship of allah we turn whatever we're doing which may not be in and of itself worship we turn it into worship by fulfilling whatever conditions are necessary following the way of the prophets allah in doing it following his guidance guidance of quran having the right intention etc then those acts become acts of worship so the dunya is only cursed for those people who have missed out on the remembrance of allah seeking knowledge and conveying it it is cursed for those who don't have that consciousness or are not engaged in those activities so if we are to value time then we have to make sure we're involved in one of these three if not all of the three in terms of the ways in which we spend our time we said it's either time spent in thought in conversations or actions that time is interrupted at certain points we cannot control and stop interruptions we might be thinking deeply somebody comes they ask us something whatever we have to return to them we cannot take outside except by isolating ourselves we said and that's not the way to go putting yourself on the top of the mountain then you can think all you want to think that's not the way the way is still within uh society as the prophet saw salamat said you call it the muslim the believer who mixes with the people and bears their harm is better than the one who doesn't mix with the people and bear their harm though in both there is good there's good in both because once a person is a believer then there is good in them however the better believer the better way is to be amongst people once you're amongst people then you cannot ensure thought which is uninterrupted by the world in which we live similarly our conversations while speaking we get interrupted and our actions while doing we also get interrupted we're unable to complete actions etc but the uni the most important thing is not so much to eliminate interruptions because the interruptions are natural it's going to happen like it as they say or lump it it's going to happen you cannot guarantee time exclusively for yourself but what you can do is to control that time which you spend in dealing with those interruptions you don't let them take over and run away with your time the interruptions are coming you can't stop them but how much do you let them interfere some of them are needs which need to be taken care of others are wants or others are yet just diversions so you control them accordingly that which is a need you need to put time to you have to give more time to it that which is a want somebody has a want this is a person who depends on you etc then you spend some time in providing for their wants and when it's just a waster a time waster it's just eating up your time time is going with no value then you try to minimize it so it means you must prioritize you have to prioritize and utilize your time effectively to do so you must prioritize those things which are most important most urgent these are the things that you need to be doing regularly getting them done in that way we put value to our time those things which are not important which are not urgent we should try to avoid them if they're not important leave them in the back if we can drop them all together we drop them but if they still do have to be done at some point in time we need to deal with them but we leave them at the end of our list the prophet sallam gave us further guidance with regards to our time in another hadith in which he said there are two things about which most people are deluded well for all good health and spare time spare time we think we have time what that leads to is of course procrastination that's how we are deluded we're deluded into thinking we have time time is ours we have enough time we can do it later we can put it off until later this is a satanic delusion satan whispers that into our ears you don't have to do that now you can always do it later it's plenty of time so what happens in some communities is that when a young person wants to make hajj the elders will say to them no don't make hajj now you're still young you're still young meaning there's still a lot of sins you're gonna end up doing right so don't do the hajj now right save it until near the end the latter part of your life then you go and make your hajj and clean up everything see so you find communities all over they discourage young people from making hajj hajj is just for all people and that's why you see these statistics people go every every year people are going for hajj people are dying just walking up the plank getting on to the airplane people fall they're dead walking off the plane when they hit jitter boom they're dying you know just left and right why because only all people mostly are going to make hajj and this is not what islam prescribed islam prescribed that hajj is supposed to be made once you have the means you have health you have means you're supposed to make hajj it is haram for you to delay your hajj it has become an obligation once you have the means so we have to break this pattern go against what the elders advise because the reality is that if one continues in a sinful life when the time for hajj comes do you think you're going to be able to flip and become an angel during your hajj when allah says that we're not supposed to be talking bad and arguing and being harsh with people rough etc corruption do you think we're going to be able to make it through hajj that way of course not if you've been living this other kind of life when you come to make hajj it's the same you you haven't changed so when you make the hajj you will do all the things you're not supposed to do i was a hajj guide for about four years five years from qatar and i have seen and heard things which you say what are you coming here for are you coming for hajj or you're looking for a five-star vacation you know any little thing going wrong people were complaining even when the hajj uh group you know gave us uh sleeping bags some people got blue and some people got green the ones who got green were complaining why didn't they get blue the ones who got blue why couldn't we get green i see you here for hajj leave those things it's not important but because of the fact that they were not prepared for hajj they were not mentally spiritually emotionally prepared for hajj they were just rolling into hajj and of course they were doing things after they did it they would come and say are we allowed to do that you should have asked before you know don't ask after you've done it you know now what do i have to do whole approach to heads very very very poor very sad so many people destroy their hajj because they don't prepare for it in the dunya we make all our preparations whenever we have to do anything you're going for a vacation you prepare you find out all about the place you're going to you know you go on the internet you find out you download you read you study you know to make sure that you have a good time in your vacation very careful to make sure things go well but when it comes to hajj it's just where's the haram you know how do you put on the haram you're putting it on this way that way and just get on the plane and you're gone you figure you'll find out along the way or you just do what everybody else is doing and plenty of times everybody else is doing the wrong thing so you end up just doing the wrong thing along with them right also another area big area in our lives where this attitude of time spare time we have time you don't need to do this now it's the area of marriage young people when they reach the age of marriage parents are saying to them don't get married now wait finish your studies and wait until you've got a job and you earned enough and you can build this thing and that and yeah yeah that's the time so that doesn't happen until you're like your 30s right that may be okay for the men but for the women it becomes a problem it becomes a problem delaying marriage and the prophet sallam told us all young people who have whoever among you are able should get married he said get married young. get married young and we delay so what happens those years which are the most critical years the years in which hormones are flowing desires are strong we tell them don't get married so what happens people just turn it off and say okay turn off the desires they'll carry on no they end up in corruption either they're watching you know pornographic stuff which they shouldn't be watching the channels etc now that these things are all available in the society or they're engaged get caught up in masturbation or something like this you know some whatever they're going to end up doing things that they don't need to be doing things which are harmful to them harmful to the society that's the consequence once we delay it brings in corruption worse than that you end up with lesbianism homosexuality gets born out of those circumstances so the harm is great we should marry young we should marry our children young and just so that you don't think oh he's saying that it's easy for him to say that no my son was 16 years old i got him married at 16. his wife was 18. they now have six kids live in dubai having a happy life a good life insha allah my other son who just turned 17 he's going to get married in august in sha allah his wife is 15. so it can be done you know who am i you know i'm a convert muslim when i was studying in medina i met one brother saudi in medina he had gotten married when he was three years old i was shocked three years old yeah he got married his wife was two and he was three yeah not a problem alhamdulillah they're happily married they got a bunch of kids and you know sure when the prophet saw said marry young and have a lot of kids you know you see he has all the opportunity i mean you'll be able to to to play with your great grandchildren you know you would not be so old you can't even you know you lying on the bed all you can do is look at them right you can actually go and play with them your great grandchildren so you know alhamdulillah i'm not going to say that you have to go out and do that with your kids now but i'm just saying that you know it works there's no harm in it in fact it prevents corruption it prevents corruption so the guideline that we have with regards to spare time al farag prophet muhammad told us to beware of it because it gets abused allah addresses that spare time saying once you have finished the time necessary to do one act of worship you should move on to the next act of worship in other words you should be striving to make all of the time of your life of our life a time of worship and that is enshrined in the famous verse in which indeed my prayers my sacrifices my living and my dying are for allah the lord of all the worlds that is the ultimate goal that all of our time becomes time for worship some of it is time for specified worship and some of it is time for unspecified worship but we are engaged in worship all the time meaning we strive to please allah that whatever we do regardless of the circumstances the time frame etc we do what is pleasing to allah that is the ultimate goal why because doing what is pleasing to allah is the essence of worship what is worship in islam but doing what is pleasing to allah that is the essence of it and we have been created utilizing and given this act of worship as our way that we can utilize to get to the ultimate goal of our creation which is to enjoy the bliss of paradise this is the goal this is what we are created for allah didn't create us for hell but he gave us a choice he created us for paradise every single human being created was created for paradise that's what the prophet salallahu said for every human being the place in paradise for which they were created is there there's a place in paradise for every last human being however we were given the choice of whether we want to go there or not so for that choice to be meaningful there had to be hell hell was created for the choice for the purpose of the choice and of course it meant also that in hell there is a place for everyone if everybody decided they want to go to hell there's a place already created for them but ultimately allah created us for paradise important for us to understand this principle because there are people who will raise this issue oh you say your god is a merciful god so why does he put people in hell you know to understand that mercy which is not tempered by justice becomes wrong becomes evil becomes harmful unfair unjust all of the negative terms happens once mercy is no longer just it's not tempered by justice so if we go back to our original premise the value of time each and every one of us has been given a fixed amount of time we don't know how long it is some of us may walk from this auditorium and die on our way home or go to sleep tonight and not wake up tomorrow that is the reality it is happening all around us we don't have knowledge of how much time we have there is a set amount we don't know when it runs out so what can we do it means then that we have to focus on the time that we do have which is now what is available to us now we need to focus on it and make sure we are getting the maximum we can out of it to use it to utilize it to benefit from it in the best way that we can if we're able to do that we will be successful if we're unable to do that we will fail very simple so when we leave here tonight at least take away with you this reminder the reminder concerning the value we place on our time i ask allah to give us the wisdom and the commitment to utilize our time as it deserves to be utilized to make the best of it to spend it wisely to use it wisely i ask allah to protect us from the evils of procrastination of being deluded as the prophet sallam warned us being deluded by the forces of evil into thinking that we have lots of time we have spare time we have time to kill as they say we don't barack anyone those who have questions may ask him now from brothers and sisters so the uh this is uh the sister side have a question could you please comment on how important it is to balance and acquire both the worldly education and islamic education and not leave either so as to you can set an example of a true muslim in short for dawah purposes and at the same time work towards benefiting the ummah for the sake of allah well as i said earlier that seeking knowledge as the prophet saw informed us is obligatory on every muslim that knowledge we said began with the knowledge of allah that's most important this is what we call faraday knowledge which is an individual obligation on every muslim also have farquifaya knowledge which is necessary for the community to function we need people who have these skills to build buildings to do operations to teach all the different skills which are necessary for a community to function effectively we must have people with this knowledge so we are then encouraged to go and get knowledge of what we may call the dunya knowledge of the dunya in order that we benefit our community our community grows and in fact benefits the world the prophet sallam had said the best of people are those most beneficial to the masses of the people so we should have this care this concern to be beneficial to add value to give of our time to the community whatever field we might be in on one hand we should make sure that that field in fact does not harm the society that we are actually benefiting the society in our business our work etc secondly we should also take from the time that we have what we called our spare time some of that should be used to voluntarily serve the community this becomes like the zakah of your profession whatever field you're in the zakah of it we have zakah of the mall of the of the wealth that is there but the zakah of the knowledge is given when we take from our time and we voluntarily pass it on to others so education in both areas education knowledge of the deen is critical each and every one of us has to learn as much as is necessary to function properly in our given circumstance you don't need to learn about hajj if you're not planning to make hajj you don't have the means there's no way you don't have to go studying hats you should know hajj of course in general but to go study all the details and to be unless you're going to be a teacher that's not for you what you need to focus on is the area you're working in having sufficient knowledge to do that particular working area properly islamically so we need to have people with what they may call worldly skills as well as knowledge of the dean in order to have that balance which i talked about earlier in the previous lecture that we are as allah said in that way we have made you a balanced nation all members are balanced we're not into deen so much that we ignore the dunya nor are we into the dunya so much that we ignore the deal but we try to find the balance between the two and serve allah and serve humanity at the same time the next question is from the brother side what immediate steps can a person who is a serial procrastinator take from a spiritual and temporal point of view what can a serial procrastinator take from take from a spiritual and a temporal point of view i mean what cure he uh you can maybe repeat the question maybe i'll be in trouble can they do yeah in other words yeah what can a serial procrastinator meaning uh somebody who's addicted to procrastination it is just their way what can they do to cure or to tackle or to treat this ailment well for one i would say you need to have a good friend who is the complete opposite right if your good friends are all serial procrastinators like yourself there's no hope you're lost that's the point you have to have somebody around who is consistent getting things done who's going to be reminding you encouraging you etc this is you need that contact you need that support also in terms of your activities if you delineate what you have to do in some kind of a diary or whatever you know you have a a plan where you can actually see things because oftentimes we procrastinate when we say okay i have this to do but we don't write it down anywhere to remind ourselves right we just have the thought and of course you can forget the thought do you remember two days that oh yeah i had to do this thing you know that becomes your means of procrastination that support for your procrastination so if you are writing things down you have a white board you know before you leave the house you have written on there all the things you need to do today as a reminder maybe you want to get to work you've got yellow stick it on your table you have to do these things you need to put them in different places reminding yourself constantly that you have to get these things done tick them off as you do them you know so these are we have these modern means we have uh watches now and and mobiles where you can program in things the bell rings you know whatever oh right i have to do this okay these are all things that will remind us so we can utilize this technology to help us but even more important as i said is to have a good friend who does things on time uh i think it's from the sister side uh you said our prayers today don't change us how can we correct our prayers to rectify this to make sure our prayers change us like they should again uh you said our prayers today don't change us you said our prayers don't change us our peers the prayers prayers don't change their rents prayers prayers sorry for my sorry salad don't change us how can we correct our salat to rectify this to make sure our salah changes the like they should okay if we recognize that our prayers have no effect on us then it means that we're not doing the prayers which were prescribed we're doing our version perhaps that's the one that we were taught like the guy who came in the masjid prophet muhammad sitting with his companions he comes in he makes his two rakah he comes over to sit down before he can sit down prophet saw him says go back and pray because you didn't pray so he went back he prayed came back again before he could sit down the prophet saws said go back and pray because he didn't pray he went back and he did the prayer again came to sit down prophet sallam said go back and say oh rasool allah i don't know any other prayer than that please tell me what am i supposed to be doing so now then the prophet saws corrected him he told him what needs to be done because he was making that 90 miles an hour salah the one where you stand up and by the time you say allahu akbar you're going into rakua as soon as you finish saying allahu akbar allahu akbar you're going down into the core say how did you say fight behind between that yeah what kind of fatiha was that i mean it's become habit now we don't realize what we're doing so it means we have to go back and tackle these various steps in the prayer as the salaam said to stand unto your back all the bones fall into place when you bow you bow again until all the bones fall please stand back up make the duas make the prayer as the prophet sallam had said sallu salatamu adam that you should make a farewell prayer if somebody told you that this is the last prayer before you die that prayer that you're going to make now is the prayer that we need to be making all the time that is the goal to make that farewell prayer and if we think keep that in mind keep that as our goal all the time check ourselves make sure each element of the prayer follows that then inshaallah we can make a prayer which will change our lives also just a point of reference we make wudu before the prayer wudu is preparation for the prayer we tend to think that that preparation is just a physical washing you just wash the dirt you had dirty hands whatever you know maybe food left over from eating washing it off your face but actually the prophet saw sallam told us that the prayer is not merely a physical cleaning it is the element is there but that's not the primary element because he said that with every drop of water which falls from our bodies our limbs what that we wash when we're making wudu our sins drop off with it our sins is that a physical thing on our bodies no so we're talking about spiritual cleanliness now if some individual and you do have individuals out there who claim to have certain spiritual qualities and position peer so and so or sheikh maulana whatever who tells you i can see the sins that are dropping off your body parts know that you must run away from this man the way you run away from a lion danger that is the red flag danger it's a pure it is a spiritual purification so as the prophet salamat said when you wash your hands you are washing your hands of the sins that your hands have committed so that should be in your mind when he's telling us that that's what he's telling us that we should be conscious that in this physical washing of our hands we are washing our hands of the sins that our hands have committed when we are washing our face the sins that our mouths have said our eyes have seen our ears have heard and so on so forth our feet where our feet have taken us to all of this is fundamentally spiritual purification and that's why when we're finished we say what minute oh allah make us amongst those who purify our who constantly repent and those who purify themselves so this act of wudu is actually an act of repentance that we repent before we engage in salah we come into salah with an attitude a repentant attitude we have purified ourselves we have sought to purify ourselves so when you come into salah with that type of attitude obviously your approach to salah is going to be much different from what we're doing now where we run into the prayer we were watching cricket and this is the break between for the commercial so we run quickly praying and of course as soon as you stand up your head is just filled with the cricket game and how is this guy bald and how this guy scored or whatever and this than the other and you end up with your prayers saying wow i can't you know my mind is just so confused so much thoughts coming why what do i need to do how can i pray properly well you can't because your wudu wasn't preparation your prayer you have not you not had that preparation for the prayer so naturally you go into the prayer you take with you whatever you were doing before the prayer this is reality so we have to for that prayer to have the kind of impact we need to prepare ourselves properly with proper kind of wudu and then we prepare then we make the prayer in a way in which we are reflecting on what we are saying we are praying in a slow deliberate way this is the prayer which was prescribed uh sheikh will take one one more last question okay if you can explain about barak of time and i'm trying to lead my life and time effectively but i still feel there's no enough time in a day come again i still feel no no that there's not enough time in a day if you can explain about baraka of time baraka of time well the barakah of time is that when we utilize the time we are blessed we are blessed in it we're blessed in it we gain the barakah of the time when we do what is pleasing to allah it's as simple as that if we think we don't have time then we need to list the things that we do in a day you just take a few days each day just list what you are doing actually from the first listing you will know where you're wasting time because for sure you're wasting time nobody has no time there's no such thing people only say that they waste their times in different ways and then they claim they have no time so by assessing our day we can identify where time is being wasted and we can put that time to good use chef my

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Keywords: Procrastination (Quotation Subject), Time (Dimension), Value Of Time, time, value, of, dangers, Dr, bilal, Philips, FalaqTV, Khutbah, Aspire Mosque, english sermon, digital minbar, bilal philips, islamic online university, iou, islam way of life, Masjid Aspire, islam online, Dr. Abu Ameena Bilal Philips

Id: k676qKNkQ8Y

Length: 62min 31sec (3751 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 28 2015