TIME TO THINK
By Rosemary (Mariam) Al-Attar

Contrary to what we normally think, our age does not actually increase week by week and year by year. In fact, quite the opposite is true! From the day a baby is born, he begins to use up his allowance of the days left of the rest of his life. Our lives are like a calendar in which each day is cast off at dusk until the final day of our life on this earth arrives, and we pass away.

Now imagine that there is a bank that credits your account each morning with £86,400. No balance is carried over from the previous day, and every evening it deletes what you have not used. How would you get the most advantage from it? Of course, you would withdraw every penny, every day.

Now consider your life. Every morning you are credited with 86,400 seconds, and every night all the seconds which you have failed to use profitably, are written off as "loss". No balance is carried over, and no overdrafts are allowed. Each day, just like the bank, a new account is opened for you, and each night it cancels what you have failed to use. The loss is yours. There is no going back, and no drawing against tomorrow.

Each day must be lived on each day's credit. Therefore, don't waste it, but do your utmost to invest every second wisely for your future, always seeking the best possible return on your investment. Imam Ali (a.s.) described the situation beautifully, when he said: "This world is the plantation for the Hereafter."

And it is obvious to everyone that whoever plants an apple tree will pick apples, and whoever scatters flower seeds will gather flowers, but maybe not so obvious that whoever grows laziness merely will only harvest regret. This life is merely an interlude, a preparation for the real life which is the Hereafter, when we shall reap what we have sown, and realize the outcome of our actions in this worldly life.

In this respect, the Holy Qur'an says:
"On that Day will men proceed in groups sorted out, to be shown the Deeds that they (had done).

Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it,

And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it. (99: 6-8)

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