Invaluable 90 minutes...

[seekeroftruth]

Invaluable 90 minutes...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Shaykh Muhammad Saleem Dhorat hafizahullah on one occasion spoke on the theme of valuing time. As part of his talk, the Shaykh explained how much loss futile activities bring to a person.



He took the example of watching or listening to 90 minutes of football and questioned what benefit these 90 minutes brings to a person? The fact is that one doesn't gain anything! In fact when one takes into account alternative actions of virtue, one very quickly comes to realise the size of loss.


Let us look at a few examples the Shaykh mentioned:

If one was to engage in reciting the Qur'an for this length of time he/she would on average recite 3-4 juz. Allah grants 10 rewards for every letter recited. Imagine how many letters one would recite in 3-4 juz and multiply that by 10! By reading 3 juz you could have earned yourself at least 282,240 rewards!!!

Recite 'Subhaanallah Wal Hamdulillah'. The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhe wa sallam said, سبحان الله و الحمد لله 'Subhaanallah wal Hamdulillah fills the space between the skies and the earth'. Think for a moment how much reward can be gained from 90 minutes of reciting this.

It is possible to gain the reward which will fill the space between the skies and the earth 2,970 times!!!

Recite سبحان الله و الحمد لله و لا اله إلا الله و الله اكبر

('Subhaanallahi walhamdulillahi wa laailaaha illallaahu wallahu akbar)'.

From the Ahaadith we learn that Jannah is a barren land and these glorifying words plant a tree for its reciter in Jannah. During 90 minutes, you could prepare yourself a lovely forest.



In fact you could have planted 1,620 trees in Jannah!!!



Recite Surah Ikhlas. In the Hadith it comes that Surah Ikhlas is equal to 1/3 of the Qur'an. Hence, by reciting it 3 times you will earn the reward of reciting the full Quran! Along with this, another Hadith explains that when a person recites Surah Ikhlas 10 times Allah builds a palace in Jannah for him!!

In 90 minutes you could have earned the reward of 360 Qurans' & build yourself 108 palaces in Jannah!!!



Recite durood, the shortest version is 'Sallallahu 'alayhe wa sallam'. In the Hadith it is stated that for every durood a person sends upon the Prophet Sallallahu 'alayhe wa sallam, Allah forgives 10 sins, grants 10 rewards and elevates the person 10 stages.

In 90 minutes you could have had 51,300 sins forgiven, 51,300 rewards granted and 51,300 stages elevated in Paradise!!!!



So you thought it was just 90 minutes of harmless fun? Might be worth looking at the figures above and calculating how much loss every game has left for you.

[TraditionalIslam]

.

[hope_n_fear]

Wow.. Really something to think about.
for the post brother!

[sufisticated]

Noone is required to be in worship every minute of their lives. If someone is doing something fun for 90 minutes then whats wrong with that? As long as they don't miss their prayer or any other obligation.

the issue is you can do more productive things in that time that are 'fun'. garthering specifically with brothers to watch, for example, a game of football (soccer) cannot be seen as rewardable to me, even if it is under the pretence of 'bonding' which can quite easily be done by an outdoor activity, or even playing football - as that could be a form of exercise.

regardless of all this; there is a hukm for everything. seek it. i did, and it wasn't mandub. whether one likes it or not is irrelevant. and whether it is hard or not is irrelevant. each to their own, but it is clear that people who simply love games such as football go out of their way to defend that 90 minutes.

sorry if i sound harsh; I think it becomes problematic, if, as in the world cup, it becomes a regular habit as opposed to watching the occasional game and not getting too involved.

[mujahideenryder]

what if your doing dhikr while watching the game

[TraditionalIslam]

.

[Mariah]

I can see where the scholar is coming from in saying that it is 'time-wasting' but the other side of the coin has to be taken into consideration too...

How many people, especially the youth, were going to spend that 90 mins in Ibaadah anyway?
It's not as if they are missing any of their religious obligations to watch the game...

And secondly, to be honest, watching the game for 90 mins is a way of occupying kids and preventing them from doing greater harms..

Many kids that will be sitting infront of the screen on a saturday afternoon will be doing so because of the game, otherwise as normal they would probably be out in town literally loafing about and pulling girls etc... atleast this way they are preventing themselves from the greater fitnahs that are happening outside...

Just my opinion anyway..

[Saalik]

very-well provoking post brother. we should value our time to the best we can, esp. keeping ourselves away from sins for the sake of attaining the pleasure of Allah SWT.

[Saalik]

what if your doing dhikr while watching the game

funny, the zikr could only be istigfaar then.

and then later after closing the t.v set, its better to sit again to do istigfaar (ask Allah for forgiveness) for the previous istigfaar which is done in "guflat"(ignorance).

[sufisticated]

fair points. but the issue of football culture certainly came up before in another thread, and placing your children in front of the tv for 90 minutes can have terrible effects. i know of muslim children who know more about football players than sahaba, and this is a very sad state of affairs. when that happens, it should become clear that something is going wrong. so in moderation it is ok, but the likelehood is that it will become more than that.