Don't Procrastinate

By Abul Layth

The time arrives. “I’ll make it in a few minutes,” you say to yourself. One thing after another overcomes you. At first, time is measured in moments, then moments quickly, unknowingly, turn into hours. Before you realize your state, the time for it is nearly gone. Deceived you were! As your enemy crept upon you, so heedless, unaware, was your person. He took pride in his victory over you, boasting to his cohorts,  ‘how easy it was defeating this person, he was heedless of his state as it ever worsened!’

Or have we forgotten The Real’s words, “So woe unto those performers of Salat (prayers), Who delay their Salat (prayer) from their stated fixed times…” Salah did you miss just as it missed you. In wise words spoken by Al-Ghawth Abu Madyan (radhiya allāhu ‘anhu), he warns us all of procrastination. He says,

من تعلق بوعد الاماني لم يفرق التواني

“One who adheres to the expected [false] promise, does not part company with procrastination.”

Abul Hasan Ash-Shaadhilī (radhiya allāhu ‘anhu) said,

‘Do not delay your acts of ta’ah/obedience for a single moment, lest you be punished for missing that act of obedience, or something like it. For there is a share of slavehood in every single time that passes by.’

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Mustafā Al-‘Alawī stated in his explanation of this aphorism,

“People are of two types in procrastination: The first group puts off beginning their works of obedience and the second group puts off seeking to reach Allah ta’alaa, due to their lack of love for Him ta’alaa. If you long for Allah, Allah will long for you. The Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa ‘alā Ālihi wa sallam) said ‘ He who wants to meet Allah, Allah wants to meet him.’ In a Hadith Qudsi, Allah says: ‘When my servant draws near to me by a handspan, I draw nearer to him by a cubit, I draw nearer to him than a fathom, and if he comes to me walking I come to him running.’
Is this anything but pure generosity and a pure gift from Allah! Isn’t it sufficient in your ignorance, oh murid, that you seek that which does not have any being (that which does not absolutely exist – the mundane – that which winks in and out of time), and you leave that which necessarily is (i.e. Allah)!

If you knew that which was in front of you, you would return from your misguidance. Allah is closer to you than yourself; He says, “And when my servants ask about me, [Certainly] I am near, I answer the call of those who call upon me…”
And a way in which one is cut off from that which one seeks is that the murid takes his time, and he is like the person who continually stalls. Everyday he says to himself, ‘tomorrow’ ill keep going, and it is until that his whole lifetime is used up, [that he realizes] the result is nothing. […]

Allah, the Real, exalted is He, longs for the servant more than the servant longs for Him. Mawlāna Abdul-Qādir Al-Jaylānī says in his intimate prayers, “The blessed, the Real, told me [via inspiration]: ‘What a wonderful seeker am I! And what a wonderful thing sought is a human being! If the human being knew what his drink in my eyes meant to me, he would say in every breathe he takes, ‘whose is the dominion today!’” [End Quote from Mawaad Al-Ghaythiyya]

Shaykh Nuh, while explaining the above, commented: “No one seeks Allah, except because Allah is seeking Him!”

Shaykh ‘Alawi also said, “As for those who procrastinate, it seems to him that he is doing that which Allah has destined for him. Rather, it is only because of his own worthless caprice of his own ‘self’ [that he behaves as he does]. […] Allah says in the Qur’an, “No one feels safe from Allah’s plan, save the people who are in utter loss!” (End quote, ibid)

Our Nabi (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa ‘alā Ālihi wa sallam) said:

حَدَّثَنَا ‏ ‏بَهْزٌ ‏ ‏حَدَّثَنَا ‏ ‏حَمَّادٌ ‏ ‏حَدَّثَنَا ‏ ‏هِشَامُ بْنُ زَيْدٍ ‏ ‏قَالَ سَمِعْتُ ‏ ‏أَنَسَ بْنَ مَالِكٍ ‏ ‏قَالَ ‏قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ‏ ‏صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ‏ ‏إِنْ قَامَتْ السَّاعَةُ وَبِيَدِ أَحَدِكُمْ ‏ ‏ فَسِيلَةٌ ‏ ‏فَإِنْ اسْتَطَاعَ أَنْ لَا يَقُومَ حَتَّى يَغْرِسَهَا فَلْيَفْعَلْ ‏

 “If the hour (as-saa’ah, i.e. the day of judgment) is established upon you and in your hand is a plant, if you are able, do not stand until you have planted it into the ground.” ((Reported by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad via a Sahīh chai, visit the following link for further discussion: http://seekingilm.com/archives/76 ))

Keep planting, keep working, do not hesitate to do what pleases Allah. 

One Response to “Don't Procrastinate”

1. Mustafa says:

   October 6, 2007 at 5:04 pm

   Allah! A beautiful article. May Allah Ta ala make us not heedless and may Allah not allow us to be decieved by the enemy of man.

   Reply