By Shaykh Abdul Qayum
27 June 2025

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A year has gone by. Just like that. It feels like it came and went in no time at all. It feels like time is speeding up. I remember the hadith where the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said the Hour won’t come until time becomes constricted. A year will feel like a month, a month like a week, a week like a day, and a day like just an hour. That’s how it feels now.

It made me think about how we talk about age and getting older. People say, “I’ve reached 70 or 80,” and they say it proudly. But when I heard Prophet Muhammad ﷺ once asked someone how their day was, and the man replied, essentially, that each day he lives, he’s one step closer to his end – that hit me. We don’t often think like that. We mark each birthday or milestone as a gain, but we forget that every added year is also a step closer to the end of our time in this world.

The truth is our life is made up of days. And every day that passes, a part of us is gone too and we will never get that back. We might not see it like losing a limb or a part of our body, but it’s a loss all the same. Time doesn’t pause. It doesn’t wait for us to catch up. We are moving, always, towards our meeting with Allah.

There is hope, though, in having a long life, if it’s filled with good. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:

The best of people are those whose lives are long and whose deeds are good.

None of us were created without a purpose. All of us will be held accountable for our actions in this life. We will meet Allah one day, and on that day, nothing will be hidden. Everything will be laid out. That may spark fear, but remember that Allah’s mercy is greater than anyone can imagine. His mercy covers everything. 

And if someone misses out on that mercy, they really have lost everything.

Now we’re in the month of Muharram, one of the sacred months. A time when good deeds carry more reward, and sins carry more weight. The scholars have said that sinning during these blessed times is more grave. That’s something I need to remind myself, especially during the summer. It’s harder to lower the gaze, harder to stay disciplined. But that’s exactly when we need to be more careful.

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ encouraged us to fast during this month, especially on the 10th, the day of ‘Āshūrā’. When he ﷺ was asked about the reward of fasting on this day, he said:

It is an expiation for the sins of the previous year.

It is also encouraged to fast the preceeding day, the day of Tāsū‘ā’ (the 9th of Muharram), as in the year before his passing the Prophet ﷺ said, “If I live until the next year, I shall also fast the 9th.”

This year, the 9th falls on a Friday. Normally we’re told not to fast on Fridays alone unless it’s linked to another day. But in this case, because of the specific hadith about ‘Āshūrā’, it’s an exception. So it’s fine to fast on that Friday.

But fasting is just one part of it. This whole month is a chance to do more. More du‘ā’, more recitation of the Qur’ān, more reflection. And just as important, avoiding sin. Even something as simple as lowering our gaze becomes more meaningful in these sacred days.

When I think about the year that’s passed, I ask myself: what did I do with it? And more importantly, what will I do differently this year? None of us knows how many more years we have left. But we do know we have this moment right now.

O Allah, help us make the most of our time. Help us to do good with whatever years we have left. Forgive what has passed and give us strength for what’s to come.

Ameen

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