In the name of Allah.

I was talking to a friend about making daily time table, like, at what time I am supposed to do my memorising and reading, then listening to lectures. Or else, I never have time for one of the activity. Whilst talking about this, I sit down and reflect. We love making excuses for our not being able to do this and that, when in fact, it is our lack of eeman that was doing the talking.

‘Abd ur-Rahmân ibn Abî Hâtim said

“We were in Egypt for 7 months, and we did not [even] eat broth while
we were there. Our day was apportioned for the scholars’ assemblies
and at night we would write and revise [what we learnt]. Once, I and a
companion came to a Shaykh [to study], but they said ‘he is ill’. Then,
on our way [back] we saw a fish that we liked, so we bought it. When
we arrived home, it was time to attend a gathering, so we did not have
time to prepare it. We left it and proceeded to the lesson. We remained
until 3 days passed over it and it almost expired, so we ate it raw. We
did not have enough time give to someone who would roast it [for us].
Then he said. ‘Knowledge is not attained with convenience.” Adh-Dhahâbî, Tathkirât al-Hufâdh (3/38).

I am sure none of us got to experience this whilst seeking knowledge. We have the comfort of the air-conditioner, and food is serve all the time. Technology has help us. The existence of internet that allow online classes, that we do not have to travel miles and miles to seek for knowledge. We can even listen to recorded lectures in our MP3 player! MasyaAllah, how easy it is to seek for knowledge these days!

Allah has blesses us with all these, and test us with commitment. The ease of gaining knowledge has made us lazy and no longer in our priority. How many times have we told ourselves, “Aah, I will read that later”, “I will listen to that when I have the time”, “I have the book, but I never got any time to read it.” No worries, I am guilty of all this too. We made excuse for ourselves, and we do not appreciate what Allah has blesses us with.

Ibn Aqîl said,

“I try my very best to limit the time I spend eating, to such an extent
that I choose dry biscuit and a sip of water over eating bread, because
of the difference in chewing [time] between the two, so as to save my
time for reading or writing down some useful ideas. The best thing for
the wise man to save is time.”  Ibn Abî Ya’lâ, Tabaqât al-Hanâbilah (1/145)

Ja’far ibn Durûstuyâh said

We used to go to the gathering of Ali ibn al-Madanî at the time of al- Asr today for the gathering of tomorrow. We would sit all night in fear that our place would be taken whilst we used the toilet, and as a consequence we would not hear the gather the next day. I saw an old man in the gathering urinating in his tûylasân (a type of garment worn on the head) while folding the tûylasân until he finished urinating, because he feared losing his seat if he left to urinate. al-Khatîb al-Baghdâdî, al-Jâmî’ li Akhlâq ar-Râwee wa Aadâb as-Sâmi’ (2/38).

Abû Hurayrah said,

I have seen myself having a fit between the minbâr of the Prophet and ‘a’isha’s room, may Allâh be pleased with her, and the people were saying ‘He is insane.’ Yet I was not affected by insanity, nothing was wrong with me except hunger. Abû Nu’mân, Hilyâh al-‘Awliyyâh (3/362).

The great scholar of Arabic grammar, Muhammed ibn Ahmed Abû Bakr al- Khayyat al-Baghdâdi;

Used to study all the time, even on the road. He would often fall into a hole or be trampled by an animal! Mashûq ill al-Qirâta Talâb al-Ilm (p. 62)

In the name of Allah, Al Lateef, Al Hadi.

Alhamdulillah. Allah has given me another day to live, for me to be able to share this with my dear sisters and readers. Eversince I made my “hijrah” (migrating from the state of ignorant, to the state I am in now), back in 2011, I have went through the ups and downs in life and eeman. After 2 years, I felt like I did not make any progress at all. It feels like I am staying at that level, and didn’t gain anything (worse, I fear I am going down). This has been troubling me. I tried to make time, but I keep on failing. This is my journey. My finding in what I have done wrong. This post is simply for others to realised, and not to commit the same mistakes. InsyaAllah.

Alhamdulillah. I have met a few new sisters, and we have formed a strong bond of sisterhood, InsyaAllah. I find this to be comforting, as the constant reminders and supports from sisters do help me a lot in keeping my momentum, and maintaining my eeman. I have also started attending a hafazan class, taught by a dear sister. We are currently memorising Juz Amma, InsyaAllah. One surah for two weeks, that is a good start for me. With Allah’s will, maybe I will be able to increase that as I move along. A week ago, in a gathering with the sisters, I mentioned the interview with Syaikh Ibn Uthaymeen’s wife here. It amazed me how someone as busy as the syaikh, still managed to have time for his family. A sister answered me, “barakah in time”. She explained this further. That got me thinking. For days, I keep on pondering about what she said, and reflect on my life. It broke my heart. What have I been doing? 90% of the time, my life is focus on the dunya!

A day after that discussion. I saw someone’s status on Facebook about how the asatizah (teachers) has time to held classes for us, we need to try our best to attend these classes. Then I saw a lot of people attending classes even if it is on sunday! If we were told to attend class on sunday, most would say, “No, it is my family time”. But then again, what do you think the asatizah are doing? Do you think that they are discarding their family, for the sake of you? This is it. Barakah in time! Eventhough how busy these Syuyookh, asatizah, du’aat and tolibul ilm, but they will always have time for work, family and ilm. I realised this is what I have been lacking. The reasons why I have never find any time for ilm, it isn’t because I don’t have enough time, it’s more of there’s no barakah. Most of my times are spend on the dunya.

Alhamdulillah, a brother told me about this online class, and invited me to one. I said to myself, “You know what, you have always complained with the lack of classes here, now you have this offered to you. Your eeman will be the decision makers”. So I decided to commit myself to this class. Allah keeps on showing me his sign, only that I was too blind to noticed. With Allah’s will, I happened to saw an advertisement on Brother Yusha Evans’ page : A webinar on Diploma in Tawheed. I saw that it is being held at 8:30PM Makkah time. That would be 1:30AM local time! In the back of my head, I keep on saying, “you have to attend work the next day”. I thought hard. I keep on remembering the whole ‘barakah in time’ business. What do I really want in this life? So I told myself, “You know what, enough with the complain of lack of classes. Allah has ease your way. Allah has shown you the way over and over again. What is your excuse? You do not have kids to attend to at midnight. Or nor do you have to attend to sick family. Your commitment to the dunya should not be your excuse”. I decided to signed up for the Webinar. That’s it.

I woke up for the first night. That’s it. This is what I have been longing for. The sweetness. No words in the dictionary could justify the feeling. It was a little over 2 hours class, but it was worth it. I went to work with a lot of things to ponder. I have finally found it. What am I supposed to do with it? discard it and carry on with my life? or do I go for it and make changes. Then it hit me, I need to take another step in my life. I have talked about deleting my music cds and mp3 in some of my old posts, but there are things that are still lingering around. So I deleted the movies and TV series from my computer, I packed the DVDs into a box, I packed my video games. Alhamdulillah. It feels good. Now I will have more time, InsyaAllah. I have put away the distractions.

This is the mistake I made. Thinking I will be okay, if I let just a little ‘distraction’ in my life. What I didn’t realise is that,  it slowly swallow me back into that old life. How easy the shayateen tricked  and fooled you. You thought, as long as you are on the manhaj, you will be safe. The closer you are to Allah, the more actives are the shayateen trying to pull you away from the truth… It is time for me to manage my time properly. No more time wasting.

I am ending this post with this hadeeth. May it be beneficial to us, as a reminder. May Allah guide us in this deen, through the path of the Salaf us Saalih, and put us amongst the righteous. Allahumma Ameen.

The Prophet  said: ”Take advantage of five matters before five other matters: your youth before you become old; your health, before you fall sick; your wealth, before you become poor; your free time before you become preoccupied, and your life, before your death.” (Narrated by Ibn Abbas in the Mustadrak of Hakim & Musnad Imam Ahmad. Sahih)

Further reading :

1. Article 1
2. Article 2
3. Article 3
4. Article 4