Importance of Time
By Suhaib Webb | 2026-01-16T03:07:00.657826+00:00 | Topic: Time
The Importance of Time
Opening and Introduction
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
Those are Ella Collins Institute T-shirts that were given away. Only here, not everywhere else. I actually know nothing about recreational drugs or shisha. So, you know, we're going to have to wing it, if you don't mind. But before we start, let's just make some salawat. You know, in this large of a gathering, we should make some dhikr.
The Value of Collective Dhikr
One of the things that we don't do as a community is make dhikr because we think it's bid'ah. How could remembering Allah be a bid'ah? And in fact, you know, Imam An-Nawawi mentions about 64 proofs to make group dhikr. Alright.
Sisters, don't worry. The ulema said, if you make group dhikr in a large enough gathering, you don't have to worry about letting, you know, your voices down. Sorry, I couldn't say hijab.
Here we go. You all ready? Okay, this is Allahumma salli. Allah with me.
Ya ya.
MashaAllah. Don't you feel a little better now?
Personal Context and Community Challenges
You know, really seriously, I don't know anything about recreational drugs. It's been about 20 years since I tried them. Although these trees do bring back strange memories. But what I would be honest with you about is, as you know, I'm from Boston, greatest city in the world after Mecca and Medina and Palestine.
And, you know, you can say subhanAllah or something. That's the American version. Take it.
But as you know, the Boston community has really exerted a tremendous amount of energy in the last four and a half weeks. I don't think I've had a day off in six weeks. So I'm really tired.
I'm going to be honest with you. We're brothers, we're sisters. You know, I keep it real. I'm not, you know, it's a grunge type imam, you know, on the ground with the folks. So I'm really tired. So I'm going to keep my talk super short, and then I'm going to leave.
I'm going to go to sleep somewhere. Okay? So forgive me. I might kick it with Abdel Nasser, I'm not going to lie. But after that, so just forgive me, you know, people coming salaming me, hugging me, and I'm like... It's just because we're really exhausted. And this week we have to go to the White House again, argue about a policy issue that our community is facing.
The Real Issues Facing Our Community
You know, recreational drugs are important, but when people in the Beltway are talking about passing laws that say American Muslims are a potential security threat to America, we really need to start to understand institution building in a different way. And this is not the place for that. But those are the kind of conversations I like to have. Recreational drugs, this is a conversation you should have with your children.
An imam shouldn't have to come and talk about kush and chronic, you know, and getting dank, and little kids around here waving these lights. I mean, we all know what that means. You know, that's a conversation that you have with your children.
So what it tells me is that if a convention, and I say this with respect, you know, I'm kicking it in and out, that if we have to bring imams to talk in a public gathering about recreational drugs, it's not really a good thing. You know, my father, when I was nine years old, may Allah guide him, sat me down in the front room. There was a Cheech and Chong movie on TV.
And he said to me, if you use those things, I will kill you. Right? It worked until I turned 14. But there was a conversation.
The Central Topic: Understanding Time
What I want to talk about, though, is just time. You know, honestly, if a believer has an understanding of time and their relationship with Allah, and why they're here, and the reason that they're here, these things are very simple to deal with. You know, Imam Suyuti, he was talking about men addicted to porn.
Of course it wasn't the porn that we have today. He was talking about Muslims who are addicted to a form of pornography that existed in the 10th century after Hijri. Yes, they had a type of pornography, albeit not as, you know, explicit as we have now.
And he said, you know, a Muslim who falls into these kind of things, it's like shameful. Because a Muslim lives for something higher. You know, a Muslim doesn't have time to do things that take them off the straight path.
So I'm just going to hit on that and I'm going to dip, inshallah. I'm going to leave, sorry. So number one is, if you want to understand the importance of time, and students of knowledge, now grab your pens.
How the Quran Speaks About Time
If you want to understand the importance of time, look at how the Quran talks about time. And, you know, in Arabic logic, that we studied, you know, overseas and here with some of our older teachers, you know, there's this concept of universals, particulars, types, and parts. Right? So it's very rare to find something which its particulars and its whole are mubarak.
Usually you'll find a whole that's blessed, but there's parts of that, that make up that whole that don't have barakah. For example, humanity. You know, as a universal, Allah says in the Quran:
Allah says, human beings have been honored.
But then from amongst the human beings are those who Allah has designated as not being honorable. For example, people who do evil. So as a whole, yes, umuman, people are considered blessed. But the specifics of that, you find good, you find the bad, you find the ugly.
Allah's Oaths by Time in the Quran
But in time, we find something really awesome, it's unique. Allah towards the end of the Quran, He starts to swear by time. And not only does He swear by time, He swears by types of time, parts of time, aspects of time.
The star is part of this time that we live in.
Then He swears by the whole day. Allah swears by the morning:
He swears by Fajr. He swears by the night:
He swears by specific nights:
So here we see the last part of the Quran swearing on aspects of time and particulars of time like stars, sun, moon and so on and so forth.
The Universal Oath by Time
And then towards the end of the Quran Allah swears by time as a universal:
This is خاص على عام. It's very unique even in Usul that you have يُعَمَّمُ الخُصُوصُ on the opposite. Something that's restricted usually comes after a universal. But here after mentioning different particulars of time, Allah eludes to the importance of time by swearing at it as a universal. And what we understand from that is that time is a نعمة. And that's why the ulema said:
إِنَّ الْوَقْتَ كَالسَّيْفِ
Time is a tool. But how we use that tool is very important.
The Most Blessed Times
Now Allah has given us different parts of time that are advantageous for use. For example, the five prayers are considered one of the most mubarak parts of time. The last third of the night is considered a time of barakah. The first ten days of Dhul Hijjah, you know, the most beloved days to Allah. But then even within our own reality as people, there are times that we should take advantage of the blessings Allah has given us. And from amongst them, the most important and most blessed is youth.
The Story of the People of the Cave and Youth
Look in Surah Al-Kahf. This is straight amazing. Allah talks about Ashab Al-Kahf.
Ashab Al-Kahf. Ashab Al-Kahf is an alam. As Ibn Malik said:
اسمٌ يُعَيِّنُ الْمُسَمَّى مُطْلَقًا كَجَعْفَرٍ وَخِرْقًا
If you don't know the alfiya, sit with Abdel Nasser, they'll teach you this poem, alhamdulillah, in Arabic grammar, which people should know.
Allah uses a title, people of the cave. For those of us who converted to Islam, we actually felt like the sahaba. When we first opened the Quran, and we read companions of the cave, we're like, who the heck is that? Because it's a title.
So it touched us in a way that the sahaba felt when they heard Ashab Al-Kahf. You know, they were like هؤلاء؟ It's called tashwiq al-sama' in rhetoric, to grab the attention of the listener, to use some weird title, to bring people. Who?
Then Allah says:
Then Allah mentions that they were fitya, youth. Then later on in the same page:
He keeps mentioning youth, youth, youth, youth, youth. He mentions it over and over and over again.
The Rhetorical Principle of Repetition
This is a principle in Quran and rhetoric called:
إِظْهَارُ فِي مَقَامِ الْإِضْمَارِ
You need to write that down if you're a serious student.
إِظْهَارٌ فِي مَقَامِ الْإِضْمَارِ
Which means you keep mentioning the name of someone over and over and over again to highlight their importance. All of us should know this. How many of you memorized سورة القدر How many of you memorized سورة القدر Yallah, let's read it.
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ
Watch, watch. Do you say:
وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ
The next verse what?
لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ
You keep saying it. Allah never uses the pronoun. He didn't say:
إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ * وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا هِيَ * هِيَ خَيْرٌ مِّنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ
He keeps saying:
لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ لَيْلَةُ الْقَدْرِ
He doesn't say it once. Normally we'd say, you know, indeed we revealed it on the night of honor. What would tell you what it is? It is better than a thousand. It is never used. He keeps using the title over and over and over again to tell you, you'll be... this night is mad important. Meaning that this night is extremely important.
It happens in Surah Al-Qari'ah:
The Role of Teachers and Scholars
We shouldn't just cheerlead you. We're not avatars. We're not, oh the cool convert who speaks Arabic and he's like a ghorasab and it's like, oh my god, I feel so good. No.
We're your teachers. And if we don't teach you something when we talk to you, Allah will ask us to build literacy of the Quran. So I love Shaykh Nu'man and Shaykh Wissam. Always building Quranic literacy. Coming back to the book of Allah.
The Centrality of Youth in Our Faith
So here watch, youth, youth, and so to have youth, he doesn't say, they, they. Because just as Laylatul Qadr is important for you to pay attention to. Central in our creed. And just as Surah Al-Qari'ah, Al-Qari'ah, Yawmul Qiyamah, is central to our belief.
The employment and investment in youth in our community. Beyond sloganeering, beyond conferences. Real investment is an obligation upon us.
Institutional Investment in Youth
And if we really invest our money, how many of our communities have a functional youth director? Nobody complains when they fly southwest. When we fly southwest, you know, like this peanut is not really like, is this sea salt or is it Morton's? Because like, I don't really enjoy the peanuts here. Dude, you're on southwest.
What do you expect, caviar? In our communities, our budgets, our budgets are a joke. The mediocrity that we run politically in our communities, the lack of transparency, the lack of women in our communities. There's no women speakers at this conference except a few.
We're talking about a common unity that makes a community. But what I love about ICNA is the fact that the youth, you know, their stuff is popping like corn in the cinnamon. But, how many of our Muslim communities have a qualified full-time youth director? Who's making six figures a year? Six figures a year.
Go to the Jewish community. They have four making six figures a year. Go to the Catholics. Four making a very good salary. Because we have to think about it. If we want people to be involved in our youth, then we have to make that a viable career option in our community.
The Problem of Career Opportunities in Muslim Institutions
If everybody's running to be engineers and doctors and lawyers, which are important, but we neglect the career opportunities with our own institutions, we will continue to suffer from institutional malnutrition. We will be
anemic to deal with the problems. I remember a community contacted me recently. They said, we heard the speech you gave. We're going to hire a youth director. I said, really? How much are you going to pay him?
$24,000.
Are you crazy? $24,000. He can work part-time. Then you're going to get a part-time effort. Stevie Wonder didn't like that part-time stuff, man. So, you have to invest full-time.
Building Strong Institutions: The Real Solution
So, when you ask me, what are the greatest remedies for recreational drugs and girls and, you know, I don't know what's out there now, man. You know, Bruno Mars. I don't know what these people are, man. I say this.
Go home. Look at the institutions that you have. Make sure that there's institutional transparency. Make sure that the entire community is represented. Enough of the politics. Enough of the, you know, in the name of our nation and tribe, we're going to destroy our young people, man.
You know, our young people are not losing their deen because of the efforts of others. They're losing the deen because we have failed to act in the right way. And ask yourself about a strategy to bring a charismatic imam.
The Impact of Charismatic Leadership
Studies show now that communities that have a charismatic imam who's free to do what he wants to, like Boston. Right? Mashallah. You know. I've never had a khutbah in Boston where I finished and there's like a cha-cha sub like... No, I love cha-cha sub. We're boys now, cha-cha subs. We can kick it and have some samosas and the whole nine.
But not tonight. But where imams are given freedom to teach, where they're not mistreated like some of our sheikhs, they're able to work within the community, and the institution is strong and healthy. Studies are showing us now that those are communities where young Muslims are keeping their faith.
Number two, communities that have youth directors, people who are dedicated full time to servicing their community. I'm not making this up off the top of my head. It shows that those young Muslims are able to preserve their faith, preserve their identity, and stay away from the fahish.
Beyond Theoretical Solutions
I can stand up here all night long and talk about the qiyas al-jalli on marijuana, and you know the qiyas al-shibha with E. It's not what you want to hear. What we need to leave from this conference is going back and investing in institution building, healthy institutions that really serve our children.
Comparing Budgets with Other Faith Communities
In Boston, there's one religious colleague of mine from a different faith. We were talking about annual budgets.
Their numbers are smaller than our numbers. And I asked him, what's your yearly budget? And he got shy as I finished.
And I said, no, don't worry. You know, we're all struggling, man. We're 501c3s, man. He said, no, I'm shy to tell you because I don't want you to think I'm bragging. I said, no, come on, man. He said $22 million a year.
That's their budget. Their congregation, smaller than our congregation. The number of affluent people in that community, smaller than our congregation.
The Importance of Supporting Islamic Institutions
We have Imam Zayed here now, Zaytuna. Zaytuna is so important to us in the American Muslim community. It's a shame that they have to do fundraisers. We should be donating to them. Andover Newton Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, they started a Hebrew college seven years ago. Imam Zayed, they don't have a problem about raising money because they understand the importance of building healthy institutions that young American Muslims can move beyond abstractions of theology.
This is a key word, abstractions of belief into physical, actual belief and practice. And they gain a sense of belonging to our communities. And they gain a sense of izzah from our communities.
The Call to Action
So I'm not going to take much of your time. I'm about to pass out, to be honest with you. Need some ginseng or something. Speaking of recreational drugs. But my response to this is number one, build strong, healthy, vibrant, welcoming, loving pastoral institutions that will welcome young people of all types to our communities.
The sinners, the strugglers, the salihin, the righteous, the engineers, the fuqaha, the sister who's struggling to keep it real.
The Reality of Pastoral Care
I received a phone call a few weeks ago out of state because they couldn't find a masjid to take a sister who's suicidal. Sheikh Wissam gets these kind of questions all the time. Why is it someone has to call me five states over? They can't find an institution from their state to Massachusetts? So these are all symptoms of a greater reality.
Financial Commitment to Our Institutions
The greater reality is that we really have to start doubling our budgets, the amount of money that we donate. Younger generations, my generation, we don't donate to the communities. We don't donate, we're not regular donors.
That has to change in order for institutions to be as powerful as they should be and as effective by trusting in Allah, establishing His obedience, and making infaq fi sabilillahi ta'ala. So may Allah protect your young
people and my children and your children.
Conclusion: From Mediocrity to Excellence
We have to continue to understand that moving from institutional mediocrity to ihsan, institutionally, is fard kifaya. It's fard kifaya. Each and every one of us have a responsibility. May Allah bless you.
Forgive me if I said anything wrong. I apologize, but we try to keep a little real. From Dorchester, Mass.
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله