Time Management – Salah Mindset

Author: Rabia Tariq

I was reflecting upon the time we have in this life in general. For starters, we have 24 hours in a day, which is equal to 1,440 minutes, and from these 24 hours, we spend about 6 to 10 hours sleeping depending on the academic, domestic, or professional work we do, and the duties we have to perform. Now we are left with roughly 14 hours in hand (840 minutes).

No matter how much we think we are in complete control of our time, our schedule, our day-to-day routine, and our important tasks in hand, or we believe how perfect we are in terms of time management, we consistently tend to forget, there is one superior omnipotent (dictatorial) power i.e. Allah SWT, who is in control of ‘everything’ in each one of our lives. and not even a ‘single atom’ of this universe is on its own, without His control. He directs and permits all the tasks taking place in this universe.

It’s part of our human psychology, the things that we receive in our lives without putting an effort or struggle, we don’t usually pay attention to it, nor do we show gratitude or value the stuff we have. If we reflect for a few minutes, Allah has given us all our organs and limbs working in a perfect state, with clean food on our table, plus all the luxuries that we never even asked for or never even thought about it, a good night’s sleep, a comfortable shelter, no health issues, no severe financial needs where we need to ask other people for our necessities, no war-zone terrors, no chronic diseases. Allah has given us the majority of everything that is needed for our ‘Survival’. (Yes! You must be thinking about the things or people you ‘Don’t’ have in life because we keep asking for more and more every day. That’s another topic to discuss. As human beings, we will keep desiring more and more that’s part of our nature, we will never be satisfied with the things that we have today, and neither will we will appreciate the blessings that we own and enjoy because in the Quran Allah SWT has mentioned multiple times that Human being is impatient, unsatisfied, complaining and un-thankful).

However, the topic that needs a spotlight here is ‘Salah’ (aka ‘Prayer’ in English and ‘Namaz’ in Urdu). As a Muslim praying Salah on time is the most basic fundamental obligatory task that Allah SWT has ordered us to perform. We think of it as a boring act or an unproductive task that leads to procrastination. I hear most of the time people telling me they couldn’t pray regularly because they have a ‘busy’ schedule and they could not fit in the ‘Salah’ times in between their more important tasks. It makes me think, what would happen if Allah SWT withdraws or takes back our capability or the source from us to perform these ‘important tasks’ or this ‘busy schedule’? Not even a single second passes by, without His permission. Who are we to decide we are in charge of our schedules? e.g. the intellect that He has given us, which is the reason that we excel in our academic careers and professional lives, it would only take a millisecond for Him to order a tiny part of our nerve to stop the Neuro function in our body. This is how helpless we are! On the other hand, the money we are earning or spending is also not in our control either. He is the one who is ‘All-Provider’ and ‘The Ever-Dominating’, and yet we believe we are the best in our fields, whatever we have is our own accomplishment, and we deserve to be richer due to our exceptional talent. Indeed, we are far away from reality!

“Verily, between a man and idolatry (Shirk) and disbelief, is abandoning the prayer.”

Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him

Unfortunately, we don’t recognize the deep sensitivity of this matter. Leaving ‘Salah’ regularly actually excludes us from the fold of Islam and we never pay heed to it.

Praying Salah is not an exercise or ritual but if we deeply contemplate the translation of ‘Salah’, it is actually praising our ‘Lord’ (our “sustainer, cherisher, master, nourisher”) who provides us innumerable blessings throughout the day even when are aren’t awake or when we aren’t paying attention to.

If we inculcate this concept in our mind and prioritize ten minutes for every Salah, we can think of it as a quick way of thanking Allah SWT for everything taking place around us even if it’s against our desires, things that are apparent or not apparent to us. Sometimes we believe we didn’t get what we want, but in actuality, He is planning a different path for that specific blessing to reach us, which we don’t see coming. We should thank Him for that as well!

Even if things aren’t going our way, we can still thank Him for giving us the opportunity to meet Him five times a day and discuss our fears and problems with Him. As I mentioned above, He is in charge of all the matters, when we make Salah a part of our routine, we know to whom we should go when we want things to be sorted out. No appointments are needed!

Put Allah first in everything you do and then see the magic around you 🙂