علم الزمن والوقت
Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali did not have a detailed diary in the literary sense of
diary, but only some fragmented ideas written in a form of a book, which does not
contain sufficient details, which can enable us to learn about the daily program of
Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali. However, the Almighty Allah guided me, as I met Dr.
Mohamed Djaidja during the seminar of Sheikh Al-Ghazali, who was his companion
and his secretary even in his house, when he was in Algeria between (1984 – 1988).
When I asked him about Sheikh Al-Ghazali’s daily habits, about his job at the
university, about the time he sleeps, about the number of hours he sleeps, about the
time he stays awake, about his sports, about his recitation of the Holy Qur’an and
about receiving people in his house … i.e., about every detail of the daily schedule of
Sheikh Al-Ghazali, and I learned about the following:
Sheikh Al-Ghazali wakes up at dawn, he prays the night prayer and persists on that.
After that, he prays Fajr and Subh prayer – then goes to his yard to practice walking
as a sport, while reading the Qur’an at the same time – then he devotes time to write
before sunrise, which is his favorite time until sunrise most often – later on, he has his
breakfast, and goes to the university sometimes by foot and sometimes by car.
He is the first person to enter the university at 7 am most of the time. He works as a
teacher, a supervisor, a mentor and a receiver of academic delegations … until noon –
he goes back to his house to eat lunch and takes a short nap – then he reads and writes
until Asr time – after Asr prayer, he receives guests in his house and sometimes the
meetings continue until Isha prayer. Dr. Djaidja said “in fact, having too many
visitors exhausts Sheikh Al-Ghazali, but he accepts that with open arms, though it
takes so much of his time, knowing that he does not reject anyone whether a student or
unexpected guest”. After Isha prayer, he has a short meal, he sleeps a bit early, after
two or three hours of Isha prayer time. Dr. Djaidja recounts that writing the article for
Al-Ghazali is indeed a worth studying art; as he writes all his articles in one page
whatever the topic and tackles the subject as if it is reveled to him without any
hesitation or deletion, starting from the top of the page with “In the name of Allah the
Beneficent, the Most Merciful” and ending up with his signature “Muhammad Al-
Ghazali” after completing the whole idea, and he avoids boring redundancy and short
texts that lack the general meaning”. When he hosts a tv show, Monday talk for
instance, he is a great example in organizing his time, he starts the lecture and does
not check the time, however, when the show is about to end, he wouldn’t need anyone
to remind him, he sits well and says “prayer and blessings of Allah be upon the
Messenger Muhammad” and ends the lecture in the exact scheduled time.
Written by: Dr. Mohamed Babaami
Translated by: Toufik Achour
Date: 24/06/2023
The Article title in Arabic: البرنامج اليومي للشيخ محمد الغزالي
