How Time Should Be Spent

To read the previous part: Just a Matter of Time

By  Dr Ahmed Adam

There is a time to live and there is a time to die. From the time that a child draws its first breath, only Allah Almighty has the knowledge how many breaths the soul will take before it draws its last and final breath in this physical world. No mortal knows how long anyone will live. There are two broad categories simplified as follows:

1. Some souls breathe only a few times before they depart this world; they are only here for a brief visit, innocent at birth and innocent at death: These are visitors from Paradise, sinless from their first breath to their last breath, bringing both joy and heartache to their parents and siblings (We should, however, always put in mind that Allah Almighty knows best).

2. Other souls have a much longer life span in this world. The average healthy adult breathes 22,000 and their heart beats 104,000 times daily. A person who lives for an average life span of 70 years, has been given 560,000 breaths and 2.5 billion heartbeats. Each person’s life is like a candle. Each person’s candle has a different length.

However, from the moment a child is born, the candle begins to burn, and each day, the candle gets shorter, just like life. The greatest mystery is that no one knows the length of their candle. No one knows if they have one hour left to live, one day, one week, one year, or ten years. Only Allah Almighty knows the answer. Each person’s time will come at the precise moment that Allah Almighty has decreed, not a minute later and not a minute sooner. This is the decree as mentioned in the following verses:

[And a soul will not die, but with the permission of Allah; the term is fixed] (Aal `Imran 3:145)

[Say: You have the appointment of a day from which you cannot hold back any while, nor can you bring it on] (Al- Saba 34:30)

To read the next part: Time Management