A True Test of Faith: Time

لَن تَنَالُواْ ٱلۡبِرَّ In Surah 'Ali-'Imran (chapter 3) verse 92 of the Qur'an, Allah says, one cannot reach a level of safety and stability in their faith until we perform this act of goodness.

حَتَّىٰ تُنفِقُواْ مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ‌ۚ From the things that we most love - not all things that we love but a small portion of what we like for ourselves, we must spend on others to prove our faith.  Charity is a true measure of one's faith. This is why every time a beggar came knocking at Aisha (r.a)'s door, she would dab the money with a little bit of perfume before donating it. When asked why, she explained that the charity reaches Allah first before it reaches the beggar's hands. So she wanted the donation to be given to Allah in a beautiful manner. Overtime, people began to call her, the Mother of Fragrance.
She was so magnanimous (r.a) that over the course of a few hours, she personally donated to the poor and needy of the city, one hundred thousand silver coins (dirhams) which were gifted to her by her nephew. Shortly after it was time to break her fast and she requested her helper to assist her in preparing food. The helper said there were no edible provisions at home to cook with. So questioned why Aisha (r.a) didn't save a single silver coin for groceries. Aisha (r.a) said, "She genuinely forgot."

There are two kinds of people in this world, those who walk into the room and say, 'Here I am' and those who say, 'There you are.' Aisha (r.a) was the latter type. She went beyond the well-accepted rule of reciprocity because the Islamic faith is not about you as a person; faith requires others. Service to others is one of the greatest forms of worship in Islam. We as Muslims, need to help others in order to reach a level of safety and stability in our faith. A true measure of one's faith is connecting with and fulfilling the needs of others before we focus upon our own. We grow in faith and in reward from Allah when we learn to put our interests and our pride aside, and aim to put others first.

Abu Hurairah (r.a) reported the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) said, "Allah will certainly say to His servant on the Day of Judgement: 'O children of Adam, I was hungry and you did not feed Me.'
The servant will answer, 'How could I feed You Master? You are the Owner of the worlds!'
Allah will say: 'Did you not know that My slave so-and-so felt hunger, and you did not feed him. Alas, had you fed him, you would have found that (reward) with Me.'" (Sahi Muslim)
Allah is with those who are in trouble and in need. It is through helping people in need we receive nearness and happiness from Allah.
Atiyyah Al-Awfi narrated from Abu Sa'eed Al-Khudri, that the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) said, "Whoever feeds a hungry believer, Allah will feed him from the fruits of Paradise on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever gives drink to a thirsty believer, Allah will give him to drink from the sealed nectar on the Day of Judgement. Whoever clothes a naked believer, Allah clothes him from the green garments of Paradise." (Sahi Muslim)
We can begin with our own family, friends and co-workers. As we try to understand the needs of our parents & our spouse, our siblings & our children, our neighbour, and we consider their needs before we insist on satisfying our own, we will find ourselves closer to Allah. This kind of goodness, weakens our ego-centeredness and opens us for a deeper relationship with Allah.

The ability to put others first demands faith in Allah and trust in the promises of reward from Allah. This virtue only comes with practice. The more we control our passions and go beyond our own likes and dislikes, the more we gain strength to think of the needs of others. 

However, something more precious and costly than material wealth is time. Time is the most invaluable asset and believe it or not, it is more coveted than money. If a person has all the money in the world but no time left to enjoy it, she will eagerly give up every last penny to extend her life. 

We are constantly engaged in spending time. The best time of our lives is when we are young, we have the most energy and vigour. Our grandparents have the same number of minutes and hours as us everyday, sadly their capability to use that time is diminished. Time has eaten away at their physical and mental powers and their strength. 

When Allah asks us to spend from what we love, this includes our money and our time. Friday night is the best time to go out with friends. Weekends are the best time to sleep in or to binge watch movies. A true measure of faith is when we spend from the time that we love on faith based activities. We give up some of ur chilling time and sleeping time to Allah - to pray on time, to give more time to our prayer, take a few extra minutes to pray our sunnah and nafil. To designate a set time to recite and reflect no the Qur'an daily. To give quality time to our family. Take time out to volunteer for social justice events, at soup kitchens or animal shelters. 

وَمَا تُنفِقُواْ مِن شَىۡءٍ۬ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِهِۦ عَلِيمٌ۬ Allah is aware of all the time that we spend and where/how we spent it. We don't need to hide from anyone; Allah knows. We don't have to remind anyone; Allah has it on record how long it took us to walk in and out of the Masjid and log in and out of Facebook. 

We give ourselves and everyone a false impression of our faith. We try to perfect our faith from the outside but remain spiritually hollow from the inside. We give a lot of importance to physically observable actions - we will dress Muslim, try to use Islamic terms in our conversations and this is all that is left of our faith; the essence is lost. The true measure of our faith is contingent on the amount of money and time we invest in coming closer to Allah.