How many employees of both genders spend hours at work sitting idle? Although they are classified as employed they are in fact actually inadequate and useless just like the thousands of unemployed people in Saudi Arabia. Many employees have to force themselves to perform their duties during official working hours, yet the minute they go back home they become incompetent and careless. They kill their boredom by wasting time doing nothing. Negligence is one of the worst reasons that force people into criminal activities and thus ruining their own lives and the lives of others.
Working to accomplish something in life is in itself a sign of life and living — in fact it is a message that all human beings have to fulfill and meet — whereas laziness and carelessness are symptoms of the dead. People may think that I’m telling them to work night and day, and to wrestle and struggle, but this is not what I really mean. People should have a sense of balance in creating time for leisure and work, thus making achievements.
It is only natural that after a long productive day one ends up consuming so much physical and mental energy. But then one must engage in entertaining activities that benefit the individual and society in general. I don’t mean just financial benefit but perhaps psychological and mental as well. Studies in the field of psychology have proved that it is impossible for any human brain — regardless of how intelligent the human is — to become occupied with more than one thing at the same time. On this basis, we must find different practical things to occupy our brains with so that we don’t leave room for uselessness that may eventually destroy us.
Despite the fact that Islam doesn’t recognize what is commonly known as “spare time,” Muslims still have a lot of spare time and they compete in creating free time just to waste it.
This is something that is crystal clear and observed in our community among every family and individual. Let us try for one day counting the hours in which we have seriously worked and those hours in which we have hardly worked. I wonder how many hours would be left at the end of the day, which we wasted doing nothing fruitful.
Westerners are not very familiar with the concept of “leisure time.” For instance, you see a Westerner traveling on a plane, a bus or a train never sleeping or wasting time by indulging in long conversations or endless chitchat. He usually has a book to read and immerses himself in reading for long hours so by the time the journey is over he has gained and acquired so much.
Parents in the past knew the dangers of free time for youngsters, especially the posh. Recently, we have youth growing up with more luxury and wealth but with the misery of more free time.
