Ulamah and their Practises: Time Management and Sleep

Asslamo Allaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,

Last year someone asked me to review his website. The first problem I found was that he had put his mobile (cell) phone on the website. While sitting at his house (over some nice food) I discussed why this isn’t such a good idea because people will ring or text or WhatsApp at odd hours of the day.

Instead he should rely on email because email allows him to Schedule and manage his time. He did also admit that having the phone and people messaging all the time puts him under compulsion to answer it immediately because he thought that it was the way of our Akabir to respond adequately and quickly to the needs of people.

I fully agree that our Akabir responded to people and their needs but I disagree on having mobile numbers and WhatsApp.

Our Akabir were able to accomplish this through a system of time management and not through random picking up tasks and accomplishing them. They had a time fixed for posts and a fixed time for personal meetings and either deferred meetings outside of these hours or dealt with them as an emergency which couldn’t be deferred.

Today I see people with multiple phones and hooked to their devices and this most certainly affects their personal lives and their sleep patterns and if you can’t relax or sleep you can’t deal with life! And this is a very serious issue. In USA Insufficient sleep is now a public Health Epidemic.

The situation has become so alarming that Doctors are recommending kicking the tablet, phone out of the bedroom because a person cannot just reply to a WhatsApp message or a facebook post and then go back to sleep, humans are not designed to operate like this.

Fortunately we have Ulamah who continuously guide us on these matters:

Setup a Schedule for checking your emails, WhatsApp and voicemails like how our Akabir used to do and don’t just randomly answer and respond as needed.
Switch off your 3G/4G Data connection and switch it on when it’s time for you to act. Just because you have an unlimited package doesn’t mean you have to use it 24/7
Shaykh (Maulana) Husain Abdul Sattar (HA) describes his email tactics in one of his talks. He says that he goes through his email and actions them (and deletes them) so the only emails in his inbox are the ones which are not actioned. Don’t hoard emails
Shaykh (Maulana) Tariq Jameel Saheb (HA) says that he usually texts people and asks their permission and time to call and doesn’t just randomly call people. He encourages people to learn the Adab of using a mobile (cell) phone and says that just because you have someone’s phone doesn’t give you a right to randomly call them at anytime!
MUTE your WhatsApp group
Switch off your devices when you go to sleep

Responding to everything live and all the time is neither productive, nor heroic and it will take its toll on you like it’s doing to majority of Americans. If you have disturbed or interrupted sleep it will take its own toll on you and your physical, emotional and spiritual health will suffer and email, WhatsApp, twitter, facebook is not worth it!

Moreover, it is against the Sunnah. Your family, wife, children and your own body has rights upon you. We are not required to CRUSH the Nafs but required to CONTROL the Nafs and scheduling and time keeping is part of CONTROLING the Nafs. Our Akabir showed us how to manage our lives and it included Time Management and Huqooq (right) Management. We will be questioned about both!

3 Comments

Bilal wrote on 7 Jan 2014

how true this is.....if only we can act upon this!!!

a brother wrote on 7 Jan 2014

Asalamukum w w

Your post is very interesting i.e. about time management etc. Even in sulook you get ulema who are bombarded with emails, phone calls etc and either they don�t respond or there is kind of like favouritism. I mean a shaykh is a human being. So far I have come across various mashaikh but something like the following system works;

1. A mureed should be assigned to phone duties. So he books the time for calling a shaykh for other mureeds. There should be clear slots and ideally a shaykh should spare 2 hours per day or even 1 to answering phone calls. Mureeds should be given lessons on phone adab and in a phone conversation questions should be limited to around 3 except in genuine cases and a mureed should have the questions written beforehand so it is easier.
2. A mureed should not be allowed to call each day and depending on the number of mureeds and urgency the number of phone calls should be limited to 1 phone every 3 days.
3. Weekly text messages should be responded to by the shaykh. He should dedicate a day and time when he dicates reply to a mureed/mureeds who writes down the reply and then sends a text on behalf of the shaykh
4. Emails should be limited to max once every 3 days and the shaykh should either get a mureed to print it out and write email responses and then the mureed can type etc.
These are some suggestions. The reason why I�m mentioning the above is that many times favourite mureeds waste time, others feel neglected, chaos and at the end a lack of islaah. I know 1 big shaykh who visits the UK every 3 months or so. He never responds to emails and mostly he reads them and gives an answer in person. Another shaykh is so busy that mureeds don�t hear from him until he visits every 6 months or so. This effects islaah etc. Anyway these were just some thoughts

Acacia wrote on 10 Jan 2014

Masha'Allah, great reminder and excellent practical tips.

Insha'Allah when time permits, if you would be so kind as to assist with the youth that was mentioned some time ago. I truly would appreciate feedback insha'Allah.

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