SPARE TIME

Written by Aslani Montila Wednesday,
06 February 2008 by : Abu Ameerah of KSA

Since last night, my young son has been unwell. When I got back fromwork this evening I decided to take him to hospital despite myexhaustion. There were many waiting; perhaps we will be delayed bymore than an hour. I took my number and sat down in the waiting room.There were many faces, young and old, but all silent.

Some brothers made use of the many booklets available in the waitingroom. Some of those waiting had their eyes closed, while others werelooking around. Most were bored. Once in a while the long silence wasbroken by a nurse calling out a number. Happiness appears on the onewhose turn it is, and he gets up quickly; then silence returns.

A young man grabbed my attention. He was reading a pocket-sized Qur`ancontinuously; not raising his head even once. At first, I did notthink much about him. However, after one hour of waiting my casualglances turned into a deep reflection about his lifestyle and how heutilizes his time. One hour of life wasted! Instead of making benefitof that hour, it was just a boring wait. Then the call for prayer wasmade. We went to prayer in the hospital's mosque. I tried to prayclose to the man who was reading the Qur`an earlier in the waiting room.

After the prayer, I walked with him. I informed him of how impressed Iwas of him and how he tries to benefit from his time.

He told me that most of our time is wasted without any benefit. Theseare days that go from our lives without being conscious of them orregretting their waste. He said that he started carrying thepocket-sized Qur`an around when a friend encouraged him to make fulluse of his time. He told me that in the time other people waste hegets to read much more of the Qur`an than he gets to read either athome or in the mosque. Moreover, besides the reward of reading theQur`an, this habit saves him from boredom and stress.

He added that he has now been waiting for one and a half hours. Thenhe asked, when will you find one and a half hours to read the Qur`an?I reflected; how much time do we waste? How many moments of our livespass by, and yet we do not account for how they passed by? Indeed, howmany months pass by and we do not read the Qur`an? I came to respectmy companion, and I discovered that I am to stand for account and thattime is not in my hand; so what am I waiting for? My thoughts wereinterrupted by the nurse calling out my number; I went to the doctor.

However, I want to achieve something now. After I left the hospital Iquickly went to the bookshop and bought a pocket-sized Qur`an. Idecided to be mindful of how I spend the time.

If this information is beneficial to you, then please do forward it toyour friends and relatives. Our Prophet (Sallallaahu 'Alaihi WaSallam) said; "Whoever guides or directs to good, then he gets thesame amount of blessing (reward) as the one who does it" The Prophet(Sallallaahu 'Alaihi Wasallam) also said "Pass on knowledge from meeven if it is only one verse"