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Thursday, October 16, 2014

Time Management

Nana's notes on yesterday's talk on Time management by Shaykh Waleed Abdulhakeem  :

1.There are two blessings which  a lot of ppl don't pay attention to:

  • Free time
  • Health

2. How people waste their time?

  • By doing something haraam
  • Doing something permissible but not beneficial
  • Doing something good when there is something more important to be done (Priorities issue)

3. Time is like our capital. we have only limited amount of it. And the amount is predetermined.
4. Allah sent a surah in the Quran about this topic, Suratul Asr. Allah named the whole surah as Time. All human beings are losing. Except those who possess the 4 qualities.


  • being a believer
  • does good deed. 
  • remind each other of doing good deed
  • remind each other of patience


4. What are other nations doing with their time management? We have 2 exemplary nations here:

Japanese-when you take the train, they set not just the hour and minute of when the train will arrive and leave, they even tell you what the specific second is!
- When sheikh was travelling in Japan, he had the chance to watch the Japanese TV specifically the NHK station. On the show, they were celebrating the fact that for the last 20 years, the average delay duration for the trains system has been reduced from 18 seconds to 15 seconds. While we think that seconds are insignificant, they multiply the 3 seconds they'd saved with the number of Japanese people. They were celebrating because they know that they are saving multi billion seconds that the Japanese could have lost!
-The Japanese are very successful at economic level. They are honest people too. In Tokyo: they dropped 300 wallets to test the people's honesty. 298 was returned.
Swisswhen you cross the street, there are trams. the trams never slows down. They don't allow delay in their tram transport system.
Etc 

5. Now, looking into our religion, does second really matter?
In ramadhan if you broke your fast seconds before the adhan, will your fast be accepted?
If you perform your salah a second after the prayer time ends (without any excuse), will it be accepted?
Our religion teaches us that seconds really matter.

6. Ibn Jawzi when advising his son:
"My son, your life is just a connection of breathes. And every breath will come on the Day of Judgement, When you receives your book, what are you going to find in it?  The book itself, you are the author. We are holding the pens. What do we want to write in it?
7. Go travelling as travelling helps you to become less ethnocentric, to not claim that you are the best.

8. Have mission and vision
mission: what we want to achieve and work on now.
vision statement: what we see ourselves in the future.
Whenever you do mistake or things don't work out, go back and check your mission and vision of life

9. Set your daily mission and vision. Look at how disciplined the mufasir of one of the most extensive tafseer, Al-Tabari(? check back),
He set his daily mission: I will not sleep until i write 35 pages a day.

10. Habit stacking: having small habits that helps you to achieve your goal.

  • You make a 20 minutes time blog and choose 7-10 habits that you do daily that will maximize productivity
  • E.g want to improve relationship? send your greeting to one friend daily
  • Want to gain widened insight? Read a powerful quote each day
  • Others: habit for increasing knowledge, habit to improve health

Make the mission small (the minimum level in which you can go beyond but not less) or else you get burnt out.

the time not used will be lost.

11. Imam Hasan al Basri (attabiin) said:
You are made of days. When your days are gone, a part of yourself are gone as well.
Umar Abd Aziz ruled for 2 and a half years. That was short in duration but it was a golden era. No one want to accept donation at that time because the economic prosperity was so good. The power of utilising time the best we can, whether as a ruler, as a student, etc.

12. Ammar Ibnu Qais
People stop him when he was walking and said "talk to me"
He said "hold the sun". If you can stop the sun, I can talk to you.
He was not being arrogant. He has goal and he has to work on it.
This implies the importance of avoiding certain distraction to achieve our goal.


13. How do we manage our life through prayer?

Imam abu hanifah

  • Wakes up for dawn prayer. 
    • The successful CEOs in the world wake up 3 hours earlier than the time they go to work. They set what they want to achieve for the day and what are their priorities.
  • Reads the quran
  • Prepares for the lecture that he'll give
  • Pray dhuha when the sky becomes blue (45 after subh), to around 20 minutes before zuhr
    • do dhuha prayer becauses we owe charity for all the joints we have, and the life.
  • go to work (as merchant)- as 25 y-o, someone senses that he has intelligence, and he should do something more. He starts to take different courses until he found himself being excellent in jurispudence, law. So he later specialised in that.
  • Zuhr prayer
  • Lunch
  • Qailullah (power nap)
  • Wake up
  • Asr solat
  • Teaches his children (he threw questions and his children will be discussing.
  • Maghrib prayer
  • Sits with his children
  • Isya prayer
  • Intimate time with his spouse
  • Sleep early
  • Night prayer (qiyam)
Of course, not all if us can live similar routine like Imam Abu Hanifah as we have different life routines, but we can nevertheless use prayer time to help manage our life routines.

When people don't have balance in their spending of days and nights, their lives will be imbalanced. Our body has its rhythm.

14. What kind of person are you? Night owls or early birds?


******************************************

Health management

We don't have to be reminded to breath, or to pump our blood. A lot of the body processes are automated. Why does Allah give us autonomic nervous system? so that we can focus on the reason why we are created- of how to serve for the community and how to go to a Jannah


Okinawa, Japan
California
A town in Greece
In these town, there are many people living over hundred.
There was a study done to investigate the underlying secret behind their long lives.  Upon study, they found that:

In Okinawa, the people are very active physically. Women in their hundred dived in the seas to get Oysters. They also love to eat bitter guard, a special type of cucumber.
In Greece, they started to live long after WW2. Their sheeps were taken by the Hitler. They boil grass and drink the water. Most of their diet is vegetarian.

When compared, they found similarities between the three places studied. They eat and stop before they get full. The number one reason of how to increase life duration: to fill your stomach just two-third
the son of adam should have a few bites until they can stand. fill one third for food, one third for drink, one third for the air.


Additional:
-when you learn different languages, you learn different ways of thinking.





Monday, September 22, 2014

Mungkin

Mungkin tak cukup ikhlas.
Mungkin tak bersungguh.
Mungkin tak semangat.
Mungkin asyik nak orang layan.
Mungkin mudah putus asa.
Mungkin senang sangat terasa.
Mungkin kadang nak dihargai.
Mungkin ada dua muka.
Mungkin cuma nak suka
Dan tak mahu duka.

Mungkin.

Tapi boleh tak?
Boleh tak kalau tetap nak cuba?

Boleh tak nak lupakan diri sebenar ni macam mana?
Boleh tak kalau still nak bayangkan diri ni boleh jadi baik walaupun rasa sangat susah dan fake?
This is so fake and insincere.
But ah, just be fake and insincere.
Than not trying at all.
Than risk losing what literally are HOPE and CHANCE.

Kadang kita terlalu kerap membenci diri yang semalam,
Sampai kita yang esok hilang terkunci.

Aku mahu yakin,
Yang Tuhan mahu pandang aku.
Dan mahu pilih aku.




Saturday, September 20, 2014

Happy Friday

Alhamdulillah.
I had beautiful Friday yesterday.
In the morning, Nina and I packed up mira's stuff for shipping.
I Had lunch with Anati at Chicken Noodle.
I Had Dinner with my Arabic classmates and Ustadha at An-Najeeb.
I Went to bed early.
And after all those, I still have my weekend :P
Yahoo.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
I think I have problem in expressing my stand.
As in,
While Islam is what I think completes my life,
And Allah as the best companion for me to depend on,
I find it difficult to let others know.
As in,
I'm still not used to expressing my thought and my way of life.
I need to learn on how to express.
I want to let other people around me know that Islam is the solution,
Allah IS the best companion.
He really is.
But well, I want to express with hikmah of course.
As in,
knowing when and how to express.

For instance,
when I tell my friend that I normally go travelling in order to find peace
what I really meant is,
travelling allows me to reflect and depend and ask to Allah alone.
Thats how I find peace.
It's not just a normal travelling.
But I can't make myself to say things I'd wish to say.

Oh Lord.
Sepatutnya tugas aku bagi orang makin kenal Engkau.
Bukan makin kenal aku :(

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Inspiration - Episode 6 (The Women Of Our Lives)

"Your mother", as the uncle says, "She did not only change your diapers. She built your character." 

Sweet video indeed. 

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: 

“The best of you are those who are the best to their wives, and I am the best of you to my wives.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 3895; Ibn Maajah, 1977; classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Tirmidhi



Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Inspiration - Episode 5 (Rules Made Not To Be Broken)

The beauty of obligation.

Islam has always been a religion which teaches discipline- how people can refrain themselves from eating all day long during fasting month just because Allah ask them to. How people pray when they can simply choose not to.

To do things or not do things 'cause we know our Lord is watching. To know who we are, and under whose rules we are governed by. To know that He doesn't need us but it's really us who needs Him.

The Ehsan comes because Allah wills it to come as part of our conscience. May He choose us to be a person with Ehsan till the end of our life.  As on our part?
Make prayer and strive hard..



Inspiration - Episode 4 (A Helping Hand)



It was related on the authority of Abu Hurairah, radiyallahu ‘anhu, that the Prophet,sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam, said: 

“Whosoever relieves from a believer some grief pertaining to this world, Allah will relieve from him some grief pertaining to the Hereafter. Whosoever alleviates the difficulties of a needy person who cannot pay his debt, Allah will alleviate his difficulties in both this world and the Hereafter. Whosoever conceals the faults of a Muslim, Allah will conceal his faults in this world and the Hereafter. Allah will aid a servant (of His) so long as the servant aids his brother. Whosoever follows a path to seek knowledge therein, Allah will make easy for him a path to Paradise. No people gather together in one of the houses of Allah, reciting the Book of Allah and studying it among themselves, except that tranquility descends upon them, mercy covers them, the angels surround them, and Allah makes mention of them amongst those who are in His presence. Whosoever is slowed down by his deeds will not be hastened forward by his lineage.”
[Muslim]

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Inspiration - Episode 3 (I almost sold Islam...)



"Honour the trust of those who give it to you
Do not betray the one who betray you”