The Value Of Time: A National Tragedy

It was a while ago when I met an elderly gentleman in a relatively old area of Karachi, the City of the Quaid. He was sitting leaning back in a chair on the veranda of an old mansion by the roadside. There was a cup of tea in front of him, and he was holding a newspaper in one hand.

When I greeted him with Salaam, he replied with a smile: "Come, my son! Sit down, today I will tell you two incredible incidents." The first incident is about a companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and his name is Hazrat Abdullah bin Masood (may Allah be pleased with him). He used to say:

"I do not regret anything as much as I regret the day when the sun has set, and there has been no increase in my good deeds."

One day, someone asked him: "Respected master, why such a great regret?" He replied: "Because life is continuously decreasing, and good deeds are not increasing."

The second incident belongs to our modern era, inside a private office. I saw five papers for a single task, which required the signatures of three different individuals.

He asked me: "You tell me, how much time do you think this entire process took?" I replied: "Maybe one or two hours." That elderly man laughed a meaningful laugh and then continued his talk, saying: "No, sir! This back and forth shuffling took a whole month, and the poor souls whose work was stuck kept making rounds of the offices day and night. This is the secret of our national ruin, that we simply do not know the value of time!"

Respected readers! This is the reality of today. If we reflect upon it, the biggest tragedy of our current miserable plight is that we do not take time seriously. In our lives, there are such methods of massacring time that you will not believe it when you hear them.

Look at the people sitting at the tea stalls. Debates on politics take place here. Every person acts like a politician greater than the Prime Minister. The country's economy, foreign policy, inflation... the solution to every problem is right in their pocket. But if you ask any one of them how much time he spent with his child today, how much hard work he put into his job, or what he did to improve his skills, sudden silence prevails.

The world of TikTok and social media is the latest laboratory for killing time. Have you ever thought about it? A young person wakes up in the morning, picks up the phone, and then his fingers keep dancing on the screen. Dance, funny videos, political commentary, news... these are all thieves of time that are quietly stealing our most precious asset.

The question arises, why after all? Why do we waste our time so ruthlessly? The answer to this lies hidden in our psychology. We are victims of an escapist mindset. To run away from real life issues, we have invented such ways of wasting time that we do not even realize we are murdering the most precious moments of our lives.

Look at another tragedy: our meetings. In offices, we stretch one hour of work into five hours. We wrap a simple matter in the cloak of rhetoric and make it so long that reaching the core of the matter and extracting a summary becomes not just difficult but impossible.

In our society, wasting time has become an art form. Whether it is wedding ceremonies, office gatherings, or chat sessions with friends, brand new methods of killing time are present everywhere.

I have a friend who says that time is more valuable than money. Money can be earned again, but the time that has passed never returns. He speaks the truth. Have you ever thought about why developed countries are ahead of us? Is it only because of resources? No! Rather, it is because they know the value of time. Whether it is China, Japan, or Germany, a citizen there keeps track of their time. They consider every moment precious. They give the right amount of time to every task. Look at our misfortune, we have made wasting time a habit. Waking up late in the morning, delaying work, failing to reach meetings on time... all of these have become a part of our daily life, so how can we progress in this entire situation?

The question is, how do we get rid of this massacre of time? Something has to be done! The first step for this is to evaluate our use of time. How much time do we waste throughout the day? How much time do we spend on which task? Ask yourself, can I not use the time I am wasting in a better way?

There is a very excellent Arabic proverb:

"Al-waqtu kas-saifi in lam taqta'hu qata'aka"

Which means time is a double edged sword; either you cut it, or it cuts you.

The second step is setting priorities. We should do those tasks first which are more important. Give the minimum amount of time to unnecessary tasks.

The third step is discipline. Waking up on time, working on time, and finishing work on time; this discipline alone can set us on the path to progress.

The fourth step is getting rid of time wasting habits. Spending excessive time on social media, aimless gossip, unnecessary meetings... avoid all of these.

The last and most important step is to learn to value time. Value your own time as well as the time of others!

Remember! Time is a river that keeps flowing. The one who knows how to catch fish from it becomes successful, and the one who just keeps splashing hands in the water to enjoy remains empty handed.

Come, let us make a pledge today that we will not let our time go to waste. We will consider every moment precious. We will try to make every second better, because there are no two opinions about the fact that the killers of time are the killers of their own success.