علم الزمن والوقت
“Time Wasters” 1 are part of time sciences that a number of scholars worked on in the field of time management and sociology of leisure 2 etc. The cornstone of this science is ”the standard of time wasters” for instance, is mealtime part of time wasters? What can be the boundaries? Are leisure and self-entertainment necessary in the schedule? Are they considered as time wasters that are known today? When can an individual be considered as a true laborer? When does his work become dereliction; i.e., failing to fulfill his obligations?
Based on this time introduction, we will have an overview on Sheikh Ibn Badis’s life in hope of learning about “time wasters” according to his opinion and according to his position and his action.
Cinema, Entertainment and the Birth of Scout movement:
Sheikh Mohamed Salah Esseddik reported on the Algerian Islamic Scout secretary, a trader in Kouba, Mr. Abderrahman Saidi who said:
“It was in the morning of 1936 in Promotion Club, we were a team that included the Martyr Mohamed Bouras having a discussion about various national affairs, the discussion raged and our voices raised higher, until some of us calmed down and suggested to go look for a movie that suits us best as young Muslims seeking freedom and dignity. In fact, we did not know that Sheikh Abdelhamid Ibn Badis was in the neighboring room, to whom we did not pay attention until he opened the door and came with a bright smile on his face that indicated satisfaction and relief, he ordered in a strong voice: “don’t go to the cinema, because it will take away your awakened minds, go to nature and entertain yourselves there, meditate as aware, awake and knowing ones”. 3
This incident marked the birth of “Algerian Muslim Scouts”, which keeps shining across the nation and consecrating thousands of youth to charity deeds up to now.
By Cinema, we can simulate all modern audiovisual means, including social media and formulate questions based on Sheikh Ibn Badis’s vision, which are: do they enlighten our minds and our vision? Do they destroy us and kill our skills?
There is no doubt that a minimum necessary use of these tools does not make any harm, however, relying on them entirely and overusing them 4 is the worst form of time wasting during the day, which restrains academic and educational development and prevents initiatives and actions, as they silently kill our skills.
We can ask ourselves about our relation with nature, about the time we spend there, meditating, thinking and praising the Almighty Allah? Especially the fact that people of the cities are imprisoned by walls, concrete buildings and car horns … including anything that can distort one’s feelings, block him from right thinking and delicate sensations.
Conflict, Disagreement and Foolishness:
People have spent so much time on unnecessary arguments, the Almighty Allah described servants of the Most Gracious as people who do not waste time trying to argue with foolish ones “when the foolish ones address them answer: peace” 5 But before, the Almighty behaved His Prophet May Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him and taught him how to address the fools, He said “When you encounter those who gossip about Our revelations, turn away from them, until they engage in a different topic” 6.
Sheikh Ibn Badis wasn’t spared from such fools and ignorant. However, he did not allow himself to waste time on confronting them, but in the meanwhile, he did not put a blame on them, yet blamed himself and those who follow him for focusing on the fools and their madness, he said:
“Dear bothers, we are working daylight and night hours using means that are as clear as the goal we are working on. Let us not be surprised by whoever objects, protests or denies but I feel astonished to see how we give these objections and plots a lot of care by wasting our time, because haters can at least win by wasting righteous people’s time. Therefore, I would like to advise you and myself to have something to work on rather than looking at the fools, once you achieve your objectives, then you become able to eliminate the fools and their falsehood” 7.
We can formulate two golden time-programming rules based on this deep end intensive piece of advice, which are:
= The least objective fools achieve is wasting righteous people’s time.
= You need to have something to work on rather than caring about the fools.
The Imam said in another context as an advisor, instructor and educator:
“I wish my Muslim brothers everywhere will be able focus on what needs to be focused and stay away from foolishness and silly things, because we follow a religion of infallibility and civism, not a religion of stagnation and barbarism, we are living the age of seriousness and decisiveness not an age of entertainment and fun, deviating from this path will make us subject to vulnerability and predation 8.
If time allows, this article will be extended to extract “the overall rules of time management”, to fulfil the duty of time in Da’wah and social reform, based on a unique civilizational, faithful and Qur’anic principal.
Reading the Magazine of Al-Ahram in the Wrong Time:
Sheikh Mohamed Salah Ramadan stated as Ibn Badis’s student that once the Iman saw him reading Al-Ahram Magazine, he told him “don’t waste your time with that”.
The student said: “do you mean I should never read it”.
The Imam said “No, but it’s not the right time, do something that suits your level 9”.
From this incident, we learn about the concept of “the obligation of the period”, “the period of obligation”, including what can be included as part of “priorities”10, “task ranking” “balancing” “preference” which is a big part of time programming established in the Islamic thought.
Walking fast :
The Prophet Luqman peace be upon him advised his son saying: “be moderate in your pace” 11, Umar Ibn al-Khattab May Allah be pleased with him “when he walked he walked quickly, when he spoke, he spoke clearly, when he stuck he caused pain” 12.
It is said that Ibn Badis walks fast, he does not waste time and takes matters seriously. Mohamed Salah Essedik narrated a meaningful story about² his first meeting with Imam Ibn Badis, he said:
“During the last day of our stay in Algiers, my uncle Sheikh Mohamed Tahar joined us. I remember we performed Dhuhr prayer in Djamia al-Djadid, then we went straight to Boursaid. On the way to Bab Azzoun, my uncle looked at me and said: here is Sheikh Abdelhamid Ibn Badis over there, to my surprise I looked and saw him coming to us in fast steps indicating activity, seriousness and action” 13.…
1 – The Three Tenses and the Idea of Making Reforms and Change:
Past, present and future are three tenses of time and civilization 14. Researchers wrote a lot about them. We may have included brief samples in our research and let researchers dig more in the thought of the Imam starting from this creative introduction; because the cognitive insight has similar traits to the insight pertaining to the relation between civilization and society.
About the past, Ibn Badis says “Inherited Islam cannot make nations progress, because nations flourish only after the development of their thinking and reasoning and the expansion of their vision, whereas inherited Islam is built upon stagnation and imitation; it contains neither thought nor vision” 15.
About the present, the Imam urges his students to be the men of their time rather than strict and stick to the past. He advised “Guard strictly your prayer; you have no life without your people, nation religion, language and your beautiful habits”. If you want to have all of that, then be the men of your time, keep up with your time according to the living conditions and the way you cohabitate and deal with others 16”.
About the future, Sheikh Ibn Badis gives it a significant interest, but he believes in the idea of periodicity, instead of jumping up the steps, for instance he says:
“Those who fight Arabic language are causing disruptions and will ultimately regret, because Arabic will be wide spread by the power of righteousness and primitiveness against their will” 17. Furthermore, he warns about future consequences and said “we are waiting, but waiting has limits, if the Algerian nation gets disappointed, France will be disappointed too” 19.
Those who deny Ibn Badis’s efforts and wrongfully accuse him for not thinking about Algeria’s independence and deny the idea of periodicity that he went through, we reward this paragraph to them, which reveals how he was aspiring for freedom as an observer and as an expert, who said when he predicted the future:
“Independence is a natural right to every nation on earth, precedent nations with less power, education, immunity and civilization than us gained independence. We do not claim to know the Unseen like Allah and say that Algerian situation today will remain forever. As long as Algeria changed along the history, it can also change again to be a widely independent country that France deals with as a free country!” 20.
In another context, I get attracted by the Imam’s saying: “We do respect the opinion of a minority of people and hope them to stick to their opinion when claiming independence, who do you think doesn’t like independence gentleman? Even animals aspire to live the freedom, which is a natural matter for all nations” 21.
Nevertheless, looking at the work procedures and following the path that leads to the purpose, lead people and the project to unfruitful results. There are examples of people who followed big purposes, but on the wrong path ended up failing … read about the problem of Arab revolutions – known as Arab spring- in the light of this meaning.
When combining between the three tenses (past, present and future) Ibn Badis formulates an accurate meaning for nation: “Algeria is a special country, where special past present and future relations associates between me and its inhabitants” 23.
The idea of reforming may have attached the thought of the Imam and made him formulate lots of artistic images about time and change, for instance he says: “We were affected by two disasters and didn’t yet witness the consequences: first: the ordeal, which was hastened. Second: the required social reforms, which we have to wait for” he said: “When is the building going to be fully constructed, if you build it up while others destroy it” he adds “what if you destroy it too” 24.
Conclusion:
Since the day when my teacher El Hadi El Hassani asked me to write an article about Imam Ibn Badis, I felt scared because I knew that what I am supposed to write should not be a “description” at a certain level that requires hard work and seriousness in addition to generative scientific research. However, after choosing to write “Time according to the Imam” I discovered a path to idea and action and I found myself reviewing the course of my life in the light of this scholar in order to: correct my path, betray my laziness, regret the time I wasted and my long sleeping hours, then I underestimate my ambitions and I find my schedule very poor … I end up making real reforms to my life, not drafting unbeneficial article.
In short; I do not care about combining terminology and words or analyzing and structuring styles and thoughts. However, what concerns me and may concern every aware reader who has vision and ambition is to follow the truck and act like a man who consecrated his spirit and his life to his religion and his nation. We have to fight impossibility in our life and celebrate the birth of possibility in the present when re-reading “Time according to Imam Abdelhamid ibn Badis” May bless and peace be upon him, who said:
“Life is a treasure that a human owns, which is about countable and limited moments, every second that passes full of good deeds is considered as a chance and a gain, whereas every second wasted is a chance missing and loss … the wise person is the one who makes the best use of that precious treasure, so he spends his time doing good deeds, yet the fool one is he who uses his time inefficiently and at the expense of his working time
1 – Look – MAKENZI; Time Trap; Art of Science Management; translated by Djarir library; best sellers series; Djarir library, Riyadh, 2000.
2 – Dumazedier Joffre, Vers une civilisation du loisir ; ed du seuil ; 1962.
3 – ATTIET Muhammed Khattab : « Awqat al-Faragh wa Tarwuh = Free time and Leisure”; al-Maarif, Cairo, 1990. “He said so then returned to his room, we then went to nature motivated by his words with some of us commenting on the idea and grasping the meaning of it… In the garden of Zghara, we saw a team of French scout, Mohamed Bouras looked at us after being influenced by the instructor’s words and its dimensions, he said “what do you think of creating Algerian Muslim Scouts”
4 – Look – Marie Winn.: Plug-in Drug; encyclopedia series, No. 247, translated by Abdulfattah Subhy; National Council for Culture Arts and Literature, Kuwait; 1999.
5 – Al-Furqan Chapter: P63.
6 – Al- Ana’am Chapter: 68.
7 – Shihab, ed. 9, book 9, Rabi’ II 1352 A.H. – August 1933, Essedik, Ibn Badis’s Opinions, P101.
8 – Al Basair, 21, 2, 1937, Ech-Chaab Newspaper: Memory of Sheikh Ibn Badis, P87.
9 – A dialogue with El Hadi El Hassani, Blida, April 2016.
10 – Babami: Time Programming Ausul: Time Programming Priorities; P213 and the following pages. Look – al-WAQILI, Muhammad: The Matter of Priority, regulation studies; university dissertation series, N0. 22; Global Institute of Islamic Thought; Vigrinia; 1416 A.H./ 1997, al-Qaradawi: The Matter of Priorities, new light under Qur’an and Sunnah; Ar-Rissala Nashirun institution, Beirut; 1420 A.H./1999.
11 – Luqman Chapter: 19.
12- Reported by Ibn Saad in Al-Tabaqat, by Tabari in history and Ibn Asakir in Damascus history, including other sources.
13 – Essedik: Ibn Badid’s Opinions, P 151.
14 – I noted this observation in the book of “Az-Zaman and Time” “For several reasons Az-Zaman remained proportionally out of the applied Islam Sharia law, in particular, what was written during Muslims backwardness, as no sources or books were written, no specialties or sciences were established under “Az-Zaman Science” despite the fact that Qur’an, Sunnah and Islamic heritage are full of such scripts, purposes, rules and indications …” P41.
15 – Ibn Badis’s Heritage: ed. 4/ P124.
16 – Heritage; ed. 4/ P43.
17 – Heritage; 142/4.
18 – Waiting in Zaman studies, look –
Edward-T Hall : La danse de la vie, temps culturel, temps vécu ;ed. Poche – 2 mai 1992
19 – Heritage; 119/4.
20 – Shihab Magazine; ed. 3, No. 12 Rabi’ I 1355 A.H./ June 1936, I like the comment made by Mohamed Saleh Essedik about this paragraph, he said: mentioning independence was like a passport to prison if not to hereafter, though Imam Abdelhamid stated this expression publicly and indeed” Ibn Badis’s opninions; P126.
21 – Heritage; 118/4.
22 – سداد المسلك : among the bases of Ar-Rushed Model, look – Babami: Paradigm Golan; An-Nil publishing house. 2011.
23 – Heritage; 112/4.
24 – Heritage; 57/4.
