Time: A sword in disguise

The Arab was right
When he said
That time was a sword.
He couldn’t have been more true
Because look at the way
It’s killing us now.

My life mostly went from,
“I have so much time,
I don’t know what to do!”
To “Oh my God!
24 hours aren’t enough for me!”

And then came the solemn oath
That next time I’m making sure
That that’s not how my story turns out to be
But hey, surprise! Surprise!
Before I know it,
I’m back in the procrastinator’s wheel!

From the clock’s mocking tick tock
With the daunting needles
That seem to tease me
As they inch closer to the finish
To the digits flashing on my phone,
That seem to taunt
And yell at me,
They were devils
When you needed their help.

Your time whizzes past you.
Some days,
It slaps you on the face,
Startling you
Like the nightmare it is;
On the others,
It is a gentle caress
That lulls you to sleep.
And before you know it,
You are napping
With a false sense of calmness,
That the world around you
Has also stopped
With you.

You’re tricked
Into believing
You have all the time in the world.
And once you don’t
You’ll have every second you wasted,
Rushing into your mind
Pushing you into a realm
Of only regret and humiliation.

For our teacher warned us
Before he left.
Take heed
Of five before five, he said.
Don’t regret your youth when you’re old,
Use your free time wisely
Before you are craving for some with all the work.
And never give yourself the opportunity
To ever regret your life,
And your time spent
When death faces you,
Because every minute,
Every second counts.

Every minute you’re free,
Moisten your tongue
With the remembrance of your Lord.
For your Lord swore with time,
When he mentioned mankind’s loss.

O son of Adam,
Today you’re hale and hearty,
Of tomorrow, there’s no guarantee.
Be in this Dunya
Remembering the life that you’re preparing for
And you’ll find your time
Too precious to waste.
For that is how the best of us lived
And they too had only twenty four hours in a day.

You can control time,
Or time can control you.
It’s only a matter of choice
You think you’re killing time
But darling,
The sword is actually at your neck.

Written by: Noorain Assim
© The Islamic Reflections Blog