In the glorious names of Allah, the Benevolent and the Merciful. May His sublime blessings be incessant on noble prophet Muhammad(salawatullahi alehi), his households, companions and all of us till the Time, when a day will be equal to one thousand days, the like of which we count in this present life.
Time, to some people, is equivalent of Gold! But to the Wise, it is as worthy as this Life itself! And for any group you belong to; whether to the one that sees time as gold or as life itself, what is paramount to both divides, is that Time matters; it is the soul of life without which life is as dry as the hot air in the desert!
It is from the above assertions that one must come to the realization of the importance of time! It then behooves the believers to know the importance and worth of their time and to make judicious use of it!
The believers in Allah, who have been given the responsibilities such as observing the daily canonical prayers, the yearly Ramadan fasting, the yearly pilgrimage to Makkah(Hajj) and who have been taught to believe in the power of the Creator every time, must do away with the notion of African – Time, in all their doings,whether in religious, social or political aspects of their life!
They are unlike others whose responsibilities are not divinely tied to times. They must therefore, refrain from using their precious time on frivolities that cannot add to their life, greatness, rewards and good deeds!
Of equal importance to the users of time among the faithfuls is the need to exert their time on deeds and actions that can benefit them eternally!
These kinds of deeds have been endorsed in both the Book of Allah and the tradition of the prophet(saw), for every soul who cares for his present life and the time to come, in the hereafter!
For examples, we have Awqaf, ( establishment of foundations to cater for one’s family, poor people, travellers and the likes), and Ribaat ( dedication of activities or deeds that can be of benefits in term of rewards to God when one is alive and when he dies).
Ribaat is mentioned in the last verse of the chapter of Al-Imran as follows:
” O ye who believe! Persevere in patience and constancy;vie in such perseverance :strengthen each other(ribaatu); and fear Allah ,that ye may prosper.”
The Prophet (salawatullahi alehi) in one of his sayings has mentioned to us what is Ribaat.
He said that:” Constant walking to the Mosque, frequency of ablution,i.e, making one ablution after the other, and anticipation of one sallat(canonical prayers) after the other, are Ribaat”
If one makes any of the activities that constitute Ribaatu his habit, he is sure to have the rewards not only when he is alive but when he dies, the rewards would still be writing for him as if he is still doing them!
Furthermore, it is necessary for the believers to know that the time he will spend in this life has already been dated.
Besides, they must know that this Life itself is ephemeral, passing and not stable. Therefore, every breath and minute spend there must be exerting on beneficial endeavours.
Indeed, the believers must be ready to spend every minute of his life here judiciously. And surprisingly, if they will strive to achieve this, they will see that the time spent daily to observe most religious deeds are not up to 20 minutes each for the prescribed ones among the soldiers of good deeds.
In the true sense of it, if they want to be dedicated they will see that:
– Ordinary two minutes out of their time can be used to remove harmful objects from the people way which the prophet has said that its reward is tantamount to having faith in Allah.
– Two or three minutes can be used to recite Ayatul-Qurisiyu after any of the obligatory sallat, which the prophet has said to be a precursor to entering the paradise!
-The same two or three minutes every night can be dedicated to recite Ayyatul-qurissiyu.
The reward of this is that Allah will apportion some angels to watch over the reciter while Allah Himself will not leave him to himself for minute.
-Most prescribed and recommended Askar or remembrance can be achieved between 10-30 minutes, if the faithfuls will be dedicated to them.
Remembrance such as: Lailaha-illa-llahu, wahdahu lasarika lahu, lahul-mulku, walahul- hamdu, wahuwa ala kuli saahin qadiru, which the rewards of its reciters every morning after the Subhi prayer are security of life, emacipation of slaves and so on , can be done within 20-30 minutes in the morning!
Likewise the saying of Astagafrilullah for hundred times daily can be done only for 3-5 minutes, the rewards of which are repentance, favour and mercy of God and wealth
The magic of the Dawn;the Islamic philosophy about the Dawn(al-Subh)
Reflecting On Quran 81 vs 18:
“And the Dawn
When it breathes away
The darkness;-”
No doubt the periods of the day are exclusively signs of the Almighty Allah who Has created the earth and the heaven and what abound therein, but each period of the day has its own significants and signs. One of these is the “breathing of the Dawn”!
The dawn which signifies the dissipation of the Night, the blowing away of the darkness and the illumination of the morning is so important to the Islamic world views for these reasons:
Metaphorically it signifies Islam itself!. Islam which is a religion, a way and a total submission to the will of the creator of all things, came to man like the Dawn and breathed away the darkness of the Zoroastrian,exposed the intransigence of the Jew against the entire world and the superstition of the pagan!
On the other hands it shows that the arrival of the Dawn itself is a beneficent operation of Allah.For if He had wanted, He would have perpetuated the Night until the Day of resurrection!
The occurrence of the Dawn is a pure work of the Almighty, who Had created both the day and night which the ignorant people are adjudging as the force of Light and force of darkness respectively!
No doubt, the coming of the Dawn has nothing to do with evil spirits, witches or magic but a clear manifest of the power of the most powerful Allah to do all things,and His subliminal method to direct and influence His creations;Allahu Akbar!
In the same vein, the Dawn in Islam is attached to the remembrance of Allah which unties man from the evil who has been accompanying him since the previous night! It is reported from the prophet (saw) that:
“Satan will sit at the back of all of you when he sleeps and tie on him three knots (to weaken him spiritually), and will then inform him as such ‘you have a long night sleep’, but when the man wakes up before the dawn and remember God, one knot is untied, when he makes ablution,the second knot is released and when he prays(observe the Dawn prayer), the last knot is released.
While he will wake up into the day energized and upright but when he does not wake up to remember God or perform ablution or pray the Dawn prayer, he will wake up with lethargy and become lazy all day long”!
Significantly, the prophet as a role model and a good master of no equal has also done the Muslims a favour by praying to God to bless them on the Dawn!
He says: ” O ye God bless my community in her Dawn!”
It is for the reasons above and many others that the Muslims are admonished from using the Dawn(morning) on frivolities such as sleep, loitering and the likes as the Dawn is the most blessed of all times of the Day,the perfect time for business and all legal transactions and the best of time that offers clean air and breath to man!
It is also of equal importance to the parents in Islam to seize the opportunities offer by the Dawn to wean and educate their children in the manners and ethics of Islam.
They will need to teach their children how to pray by waking them up to observe the Subh prayer, praying for them , teaching them the prophet manners and traditions as well as preparing them for schools! Indeed, the rewards attached to parenting is better imagined by reading the Hadith of the prophet below:
“May the Lord bless a man who helps his child on his good(manner)!”
While the time of life is a precious gift from the Creator of all things to be judiciously devise for the good of mankind by man, its period of Dawn is equally an important era of showing gratitude to the Creator for another opportunity of life and to shower praise on Him for all He has been doing in man’s life and possibly to seek more bounties of life from Him.
This is the wisdom behind the precious period of the day known as the Dawn!