Long Holiday! An exciting feeling floods us whenever we think of holidays.
Before a long holiday comes, what sort of plan do we make?
Most of us plan on how to spend our time, don’t we? The main element in holiday is time. It is free time from work, business, and other stressful activities, and during a holiday we become busy again with activities to undo our stress.
Holiday period ends for most people with further tiredness due to lots of fun activities. That’s how free times comes and goes. Is that all about holiday? Or should we think about holiday beyond that?
My first thought is that holiday is free from work, but there is no holiday for believers in worshipping Allah.
Until death we are in an exam period to worship Allah, obey Allah, and to be loyal to Allah’s code 24/7 without leave.
Satan also never takes holiday in misguiding us, and in our free time Satan encourages us to misuse it with activities that may be sinful or will make us forgetful about our duties to Allah.
From work we need holiday for our rest, but for our spiritual food we must never take holiday from the bond with Allah.
The Messenger of Allah said, reported by Abdullah Ibn Abbas
“That most people are deceived about two blessings of Allah, one is health, and another is free time.” [Hadith: Sahih Bukhari]
For believers, time is clicking towards the end of exam with death. They can’t afford to waste time, neglect time, or misuse time by fun, games, and enjoyment without focusing their everything on worshipping Allah.
My second thought is that holiday brings an opportunity to engage more in the activities that Allah loves, and that helps in earning more rewards to pass the exam in this life for eternal happiness in Paradise.
In busy time, we cannot do certain things for Allah even though we want to. Can’t we then plan before holiday about activities for ourselves, our families, and friends to pray more, to learn more, to enjoin one another more about Allah’s worship?
Shouldn’t we take the opportunity in free time before we become busy again? Our life is slipping away by seconds, and there is no guarantee that we will be alive by our next long holiday.
All Merciful Allah’s advice is, “Therefore, when you are free (from your immediate duties), continue in your hard work (worshipping Allah), and to your Lord, turn (all) your attention.” [Quran 94:7-8]
My final thought is that I do not want to regret at my death for misusing my precious time. Allah has warned believers to avoid regrets like those people who will scream at death saying, “My Lord! Why did You not give me relief for a little while? I should then have given (largely) in charity, and I should have been one of those who do good (deeds).” [Quran 63:10]
May Allah guide us about time in our lives, Ameen!
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