Time Management
Life is short, do not shorten it with negligence.
—one of the salaf
(Read on pg 122, Aa’id Abdullah al Qarni, Thirty Lessons For Those Who Fast. Message of Islam. UK:1999.)
You should structure your time, arrange your regular devotions, and assign each function a set period of time during which it is given first priority but which it does not overstep. For if you abandon yourself to neglect and purposelessness, as the cattle do, and just do anything that may occur to you at any time it happens to occur to you, most of your time will be wasted. Your time is your life, and your life is your capital; it is the basis of your transactions [with God], and the means to attain to everlasting felicity, in the proximity of God the Exalted. Each of your breaths is a priceless jewel, and when it passes away it never returns.
—Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī [d. 505H/1111CE]
(Ihya Ulum ad-Din)
(Read on pg 14, Khurram Murad, In the Early Hours. Revival Publications. UK: 2007.)
Many people used to pay me social visits and I likewise, until I realized that time is a most noble and precious thing and hence began to dislike visiting. However, I became caught between two possibilities: if I refused their visits, I would feel lonely and miss something which I had grown accustomed to, but if I accepted their visits, my time would be wasted. Consequently, I began to avoid visits to the best of my ability and if it became unavoidable, I would limit the conversation in order to hasten the visit’s end. I also prepared work to do during my visits so that no time would pass idly by.
—Ibn al-Jawzi [d. 597H]
The Devil’s Deception. Al-Hidaayah Publishing and Distribution. UK: 1996.