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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books How To Utilize Our Free Time Introduction From the time man is born on this earth, his age begins to decrease gradually. This means that each day that falls away from his age, is detached from the calendar of his life like the pages that fall down one by one until the time which the tree of his growth will be stripped out of its last leaves. Indeed, our age decreases, not increases, as, in our estimation, it apparently seems to do.

The burning hours of age are like a candle dropping its melted tears. What burns of it, warns of the approach of its end till it reaches the moment at which it emits its last breath. What is Age? Age looks like a temporal vessel, containing the days of our life. Its quality and the way it is filled is in our hands, not in the hands of others. People differ; some fill it up with honey, others fill it with poison, still others mix these together while yet others, leave it empty.

Is it Possible to Leave the Vessel of Life Empty? We doubt in this. Even our free days spent in amusement and vanity fill the age vessel with sighs, sorrows, and regrets in a Day called by Allah, the Almighty, "The Day of Sorrow and Regret." It is a day in which all people are gathered in the presence of the Lord of the Worlds - from Adam up to the last creature - in order to be judged on how they spent "their lives" which is entrusted as a deposit with them.

Did they spend it with seriousness, striving, and performing righteous and good deeds? Or did they spend it by doing vicious and bad actions that caused long and permanent sorrows and regrets? Or did they mix a good deed with an evil deed and in their actions, were they among the losers, like a businessman who spends all his life in trading and at the end, finds himself bankrupt?!

The Importance of Time: If we look for the best one who evaluates time for us, do we see other than the maker of time, Himself, and is it not Allah, Exalted and Glory be He?! Indeed, this delicate division of moments, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, is just like a cultivated field and the farmer is me or you. According to the endeavor of each farmer, the harvest will be yielded.

And it is during the time of harvest that an active and diligent farmer will be pleased, and a lazy and inactive farmer will be driven away. How beautifully Imam Ali (a.s.) describes it: "This world is the plantation for the Hereafter." Whoever grows an apple, he will surely harvest an apple.