Time is a strangely beautiful yet amazingly powerful creation of Allah. It is so beautiful that it reveals that which is hidden, even the darkest secrets of the world and provide answers to all the questions and uncertainties. With time the marvels and beauties of today turn into shambles of tomorrow. It is intimidating to those who are in bad business of time and terrifying to those who try abuse it. Time is the most important entity in the world. It is the dimension of higher order we all live in and affects everything and everyone and nothing is independent of time. Time flies and seasons change. Time flies and flowers bloom and wither away. Time flies and we are born, grow, get old and die. Now imagine if time is removed or somehow erased from the stage of the world will any change occur? This state of timelessness in common parlance is known as Eternity. But the fact of the matter is that nothing is eternal in this mortal world. Everything here is subjected to time effect. Time plays its tune on everything. Giving importance to time is in nature itself. Look at our mother earth how it braces itself for the changes which come its way with passing time. Look at the crops how disciplined they are. A rabbi seed will not germinate in Kharif season and neither a Kharif seed germinates in rabbi season. Nobody has ever become great without giving due importance to time. Dr Mohammad Iqbal, a revolutionary poet and philosopher attaches greater importance to time in his works. According to him time and space are real and that they are brought into existence by the very act of creation. He looks upon time as the creator of new things in future. After the culmination of third Round Table Conference in 1932 Iqbal went to meet world renowned and well known Philosopher, Mr Bargeson. Various issues pertaining to world affairs came under talk but maximum part of their conversation was occupied by the concept of time. Dr Iqbal later said that Mr Bergeson’s thoughts of time were very much in line with the Islamic concept of time. During the conversation with Bergeson when Iqbal narrated to him this hadith of Holy Prophet in relation to the Islamic concept time that ” Don’t speak ill of time, for time itself is God,” Bergeson rose from his chair in sheer astonishment and asked Iqbal was this was really a Hadith.Time is precious,so precious that it has no alternative but time. Time is important. Even God recognised its importance in His Holy Scheme. God is omnipotent. He says “Be” (KUN) and It “Is” (FAYA KUN).He is omniscient, knowing everything. He is the supreme authority aware of all our deeds and nothing is hidden before Him yet He appointed KiramanKatibin, honourable scribes, to record our deeds. Similarly God is All Knowing(al-Aleem) and All Aware(al-Khabeer) and yet He appointed time as a witness to events. Time stands witness to the arrival of first man in the world and will behold the departure of the last man. It stands watcher to all the thick and thin of the world. It has seen the rise of great civilizations and the ebb of their doom. It has seen the Greats like Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Ibrahim(AS), Mosa(AS) and Isa( AS). But it has also seen the cursed Firoun,Shadad and Namrood. While it has seen the powerful kingdoms of Alexander the Great, Dirus the Great and Akbar the Great, it has also seen the weak kingdom of Khazars. While time witnessed the formation of the largest empires of British and Ottoman Turks it has also witnessed the smallest empire of the Principality of Sealand. While time has seen the Nizam e Adel,the justice system, of Umer e Farooq and Umar e Sani,it has also seen the tyranny of Mongolian Changez and German Hitler. Time is a silent seer of events.
“Time is man’s one of the most precious resource. Once lost it cannot be replaced or renewed. A minute lost is lost forever. Just like we can’t touch the same water of a river twice we can’t live the same minute twice. When we waste our time it is much like we invest our time capital impulsively and not using it to generate profit. Those who don’t use time wisely are indeed in bad business.”
Time is indeed a divine Aayah,an evident sign of Divine Unity that deserves an oath to be taken. Since Allah takes oath of this strong entity and says in Quran (in chapter 103 )Wal’aṣr , innal ‘insānalafīkhusr that,” ByTime,Man is in state of loss”. Man in his earthy life is given only a fixed time period since birth to death and is given a free choice to use this time in whatever way he please. He can use it in sync or anti sync with Allah’s commandments and accordingly gain His pleasure or wrath. Further the little calculated time period which man is allotted in his worldly life is made his possession or capital and as he spent his life here, with every passing second,minute,hour or day he is losing a part of his capital. So his time can be called a declining capital or a melting capital. Also with passing time a man’s spiritual and material potentialities decline and his abilities turn blunt. So a man despite having great capital at his disposal,loses a part of capital justifying the fact that man is in state of continuous loss in this world. What about the eternal loss! Again, time is man’s one of the most precious resource. Once lost it cannot be replaced or renewed. A minute lost is lost forever. Just like we can’t touch the same water of a river twice we can’t live the same minute twice. When we waste our time it is much like we invest our time capital impulsively and not using it to generate profit. Those who don’t use time wisely are indeed in bad business. The question arises that how to invest our time wisely or in other words how to be immune to KHUSR. Allah, the Exalted, guides us in the same chapter in verse 3 where Allah says,”except those who believe, and do that which is right; and who mutually recommend the truth, and mutually recommend perseverance unto each other”. Here Allah categorically specifies men having four qualities or in other words invest their time in building these four qualities are immune to the loss. The four qualities include Imman-FAITH, i.e., believe in Allah, His Messengers and entertain no doubts, do Amilu ṣ-ṣāliḥāti.e.,Good Deeds mingled in faith, tawāṣawbilḥaq i.e., Exhort one another to Truth and tawāṣawbiṣ-ṣabr i.e., Enjoining Patience upon one another.
(The author is a teacher by profession. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
[email protected]
