Time Management
Fasting in Ramadan enables Muslims to master the art of adaptability and time management. Fasting forces people to change the course of their daily lives. When a person chooses to fast he or she must adapt to a new schedule and adhere to the rules of Ramadan. Muslims believe that over time, this develops the ability to adapt and the strength to cope with and overcome unpredictable hardships. A person who values adaptability, time management and courage, can appreciate the effects of fasting. Fasting impacts morality and behaviour.
Indeed, we can think of time as a flowing river and our lives as the boats that travel along it. The destination of time and the destination of our lives in this world are the same, the Day of Judgement. If we want to control our actions, control our lives then as Muslims it is our duty to harness control over our time. In other words, time is life!
Allah mentions in the Quran that, “By Al-Asr (the time). Verily, man is in loss. Except those who believe and do righteous good deeds and recommend one another to the truth and recommend one another to patience”.
My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, from the beginning of time to the end of time as we understand it and our short journey on this earth, the only way that you will harness time is by grabbing hold of the moment, of this very instant and using it for doing righteous good deeds, for recommending one another to the truth and for recommending one another to patience.
Respect your time and the time of others by being punctual. This is one of the diseases that we have inherited and must alleviate, our time is valuable on this earth for every moment that passes we will be called for judgement in front of our Lord as to how we spent it.
In this blessed month we may often find that we are neglecting our simple day to day duties either because of fatigue or because we miss the morning of the day due to oversleep after sahoor. I promise you my dear brothers that the key to time management in Ramadan is regulation of sleeping times. If you sleep at 10:30pm, then staying up after sahoor should not be a problem and those valuable two and half hours before lectures are enough to recite the Quran and catch up on important work. This is a busy time of the academic year and keeping on top of work is important, as well as making the most of this blessed month. Who knows, this might be our last Ramadan!
Seize this moment and moments in time to come by occupying yourself now. Plan your activities and time so that you do not have free time to fall into evil actions that we may regret later on. Know that there are prescribed times for sleep, for eating, for praying, for speaking, for listening, for thinking, for acting and so on. Our destination is set and our boats are flowing on the river of time. Take control of your vessel so that your journey may become easier, fruitful and successful. I pray that Allah will make it easier for us.