Time as Our Guidance For A Better Tomorrow

A Speech by Amilpasa T. Bandaying

As old as existence itself, Time is even defined as “the indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future”.

Ladies and gentlemen, honored guests and visitors, speaking of time is quite a challenging task, since no one could ever be expert on this matter, as we have not studied time like we study many scientific issues and daily existence, and no one had invented time, that we realize that time is ultimately of divine reality. So often we ask ourselves, do we have a grasp time?

I am now reminded about what Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had once said about time, as narrated by Ibn Abbas, that “There are two blessings which many people lose: (They are) health and free time for doing good” (Bukhari 8/421)

That indeed time is God-given, for us to to utilize wisely, for our own benefit and health, that if we misuse time, it becomes our own perdition instead.

It is but a very good timing that I speak of time as the world today is on a threshold of so many radical and monumental changes, of advancement in technology, the great changes about how the way we live, and thereon the way we make our living.

Time is a free force. It does not wait for any one. It is commonly said that time and tide waits for no man. Time is money. A minute not usefully spent is an eternal loss. You can never get back the lost minute. One has to strike the iron when it is hot. The time flies and never returns. If you waste time, it wastes you.

In this hurried modern life, time becomes the most vital and important, that if we waste time just for a single minute, we lost great profits and also opportunities.

In Islam, we are instructed to use time wisely, using our time in doing beneficial things especially those that make us closer to Allah and earn His Mercy. in our own hands, and use it for own advantages.

We must plan time carefully and use it as guidance for us for a better future. It is not for us to waste time, that even in our free time, we must use it for the benefits of ourselves and perhaps, of others.

This thought is of great importance to you since you are very youthful and have the feeling of vigor and dynamism, which would incline you to go out there in the world, in your professional and personal lives, like a raging bull, out to conquer the world.

This is a natural thing, and yet, if we will not stop for a while and make this realization about time, any haste would merely end us up in great waste, even in harm and negativity.

That it is of great advice that we seek the hands of time like a brother, a companion, most importantly, as a guidance that will see us through in our future successes.

We must plan time – not merely by the hour or by the day, even by the months and by the years.

Like for example, by next year, I have planned in time, to have a good job, in five years, I planned to earn a law degree, two years hence, I am going to get married and have a house and perhaps a car. And so on and so forth.

Do not be swayed innocently by unplanned time, just to float and swing by the hands of time and tide, like a paper in the wind. Time and tide waits for no man. If you will get behind, that will be you own fault. Take hold of time. Be the master of your own faith