A Word on the Passage of Time and Days
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The Shaykh : We speak on this occasion about the passage of time and days. As you know, the passage of time and days—moments, minutes, hours, days, months, and years—all pass as if they were a single hour of the day. If you asked yourself how many years have passed, how many months, how many days, how many hours, how many minutes, how many moments, you would find that even if they were long, they were like a single hour. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: [Al-Ahqaf 46:35] And we must take a lesson from the past regarding the future; the future will pass, if our lives are long, it will pass as if it were a single hour. This makes the Muslim, indeed the resolute believer, in the best state of preparation for the Day of Resurrection, so that no hour passes for him without him having spent it in obedience to Allah, if he desires true life. For the true life of a person is what he spent in obedience to Allah, and what remains is a loss for him, either punishment or safety, and how little is the safety.
Reflect on the entire world and you will find that it is coming and going. In the day, the dawn appears illuminating the horizon, then it increases in light and strength, then it recedes into decrease and complete disappearance. You find the moon first appearing as a small crescent like an old fiber, then it increases in light until it is full, then it recedes into decrease. Thus is the life of a person. A person appears facing life with energy and resolve, then he returns and weakens, then he vanishes. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said:[Ar-Rum 30:54] I advise you, my brothers, to be proactive, to seize the times, and to increase in repentance and seeking forgiveness, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded, saying: This is the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) of whom Allah informed that He opened for him a clear opening to forgive him what had passed of his sin and what was to come. Increase in dhikr, increase in tasbih and tahmid. This does no harm because it is an action of the tongue, and there is no fatigue in the action of the tongue. Increase in good deeds if you are able. Be good in conduct with Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and with the servants. Give what you can of good and benefit, for that is among the causes of the expansion of the chest and the tranquility of the heart. Think to yourself what you did in this day. If you find that you did good, thank Allah, for it is by the success of Allah, and were it not for the success of Allah for you, you would not have done it. And if you did otherwise, make up for it, make up for it with repentance, for repentance demolishes what came before it. And how quickly we say the year has entered, then it has exited. The year that passed, what is it like?
The student: An hour
The Shaykh : Yes, it is like
The student: An hour
The Shaykh : An hour of the day. And so it is with what is to come, especially in the end of the world, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) informed that time will become close, it will become close. While you are at the beginning of the week, and lo, it is Friday. At the beginning of the month, and lo, it is the crescent. At the beginning of the year, and lo, it is the crescent, with extraordinary speed. And this is the verification of the hadith that time will become close. The meaning is not, as some scholars thought, the expansion of lands until some become close to others, and the distance between two towns becomes two days after it was four days. Nor is it the speed of communications or transportation. Rather, the most important thing is that Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) makes time some of it close to some. And this is the reality. O Allah, grant us the seizing of times with good deeds, and expiate for us our sins, and cause us to die with the righteous.
It will be - on the Day they see that which they are promised - as though they had not remained [in the world] except an hour of a day. [This is] notification. And will [any] be destroyed except the defiantly disobedient people?
كأنهم يوم يرون ما يوعدون لم يلبثوا إلا ساعة من نهار بلاغ فهل يهلك إلا القوم الفاسقونReflect on the entire world and you will find that it is coming and going. In the day, the dawn appears illuminating the horizon, then it increases in light and strength, then it recedes into decrease and complete disappearance. You find the moon first appearing as a small crescent like an old fiber, then it increases in light until it is full, then it recedes into decrease. Thus is the life of a person. A person appears facing life with energy and resolve, then he returns and weakens, then he vanishes. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said:
Allah is the one who created you from weakness, then made after weakness strength, then made after strength weakness and white hair. He creates what He wills, and He is the Knowing, the Competent.
الله الذي خلقكم من ضعف ثم جعل من بعد ضعف قوة ثم جعل من بعد قوة ضعفاً وشيبة يخلق ما يشاء وهو العليم القديرO people, seek forgiveness from Allah and repent to Him, for I seek forgiveness from Allah and repent to Him a hundred times a day.
يا أيها الناس استغفروا الله وتوبوا إليه فإني أستغفر الله وأتوب إليه في اليوم مئة مرةThe student: An hour
The Shaykh : Yes, it is like
The student: An hour
The Shaykh : An hour of the day. And so it is with what is to come, especially in the end of the world, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) informed that time will become close, it will become close. While you are at the beginning of the week, and lo, it is Friday. At the beginning of the month, and lo, it is the crescent. At the beginning of the year, and lo, it is the crescent, with extraordinary speed. And this is the verification of the hadith that time will become close. The meaning is not, as some scholars thought, the expansion of lands until some become close to others, and the distance between two towns becomes two days after it was four days. Nor is it the speed of communications or transportation. Rather, the most important thing is that Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) makes time some of it close to some. And this is the reality. O Allah, grant us the seizing of times with good deeds, and expiate for us our sins, and cause us to die with the righteous.