Do Something! Give Your Time to Your Community

Based on the Friday khutbah delivered at Faizan-e-Islam Mosque, Walthamstow. The full recording is linked above.

The Prophet's first act in Madinah

Allah says in the Quran that in the Messenger of Allah ﷺ you have the best role model. So look at what he did. When the Prophet ﷺ migrated from Makkah to Madinah, the very first thing he established was a masjid. At Quba he built the mosque that Allah Himself mentions in the Quran, Masjid al-Quba, the first mosque of Islam.

Then, arriving in Madinah, he paired the Muhajirun, the migrants who had left everything behind in Makkah, with the Ansar, the locals of Madinah, and made them brothers. Each pair would look after one another, share each other's happiness and share each other's sadness.

The generosity this produced is hard for us to imagine. One Ansari companion said to Abdur-Rahman ibn Awf, a trader who had arrived with nothing: everything I have, I am ready to divide in two and give you half. Abdur-Rahman ibn Awf declined with equal dignity. Just show me where the market is, he said. He went, he traded, and he spent what he earned in the way of Allah.

That is the brotherhood the Prophet ﷺ built. Jumu'ah itself carries this meaning: it comes from jama'a, to come together. We gather, we greet each other, we ask how the family is. But how often do we ask from the bottom of the heart, and how often is it just words on the tongue?

Where is that brotherhood today?

Recently, in Leyton, a man walked into a mosque and attacked one of the worshippers. Waltham Forest has thousands of Muslims. How many raised their voice about it? Compare how much attention that received with other attacks that make the national news. Part of the reason is us: we do not speak, we do not give time, we ignore these things.

Many of us do not know the Muslim who lives down our own road. There was an elderly woman in England who died alone, and it was two years before anyone discovered her. Is that Islam? Caring for each other is an action, and no action can exist without time. You have to give time.

"I don't have time." Really? Let's do the maths

A week has 168 hours.

• Sleep, 8 hours a night: minus 56, leaves 112
• Work, 9 to 5: minus 56, leaves 56
• Family, a generous 5 hours a day: minus 35, leaves 21
• Commuting, 2 hours a day: minus 14, leaves 7

Seven hours a week, left over after sleep, work, commuting and giving your family more time than most of us actually give. Where do those hours go? Open your phone and look at the screen time. Two hours a day on your phone is one twelfth of your life: a full month of every year spent scrolling. We do not lack time. We waste it.

Time is the wealth you cannot get back

Allah takes an oath by time itself: wal-asr, inna al-insana lafi khusr. By time, indeed mankind is in loss. Imam al-Razi said that here, Asr is time. Time is full of wonders: in it you find peace and sadness, health and sickness. These hours are precious jewels.

Nobody walks down Forest Road dropping twenty pound notes into every drain. Nobody throws their phone onto the road and walks away. We do not waste what has value, and the rarer something is, the more we protect it. Time is the rarest commodity there is. No money on earth buys back a single second.

Hasan al-Basri said: O son of Adam, you are but a few days. Whenever a day passes, a portion of you has passed.

And the poet said: و ما كذب الذي قد قال قبلي إدا ما مر يوم مر بعضي And the one before me did not lie when he said When a day of mine has passed, a part of me has passed

And the Prophet ﷺ said: there are two blessings about which most people are deceived, good health and free time. Who has guaranteed you your eyes, your health, your mind, for the rest of your life? Value them before they are taken.

Two hours a week can change this community

Somewhere in our community right now there may be a brother in depression, praying in our rows, close to giving up on life, and nobody has asked him how he is. That is not his failure. It is ours.

So here is the challenge. Out of those spare hours, give two hours a week to your community. Just two. If each of us did that, the community would transform, and communities that are visibly active and present are communities that people think twice about attacking.

What does giving time look like?

• Learn your deen. That is the first obligation. Half an hour, an hour, two hours a week for your own self, then implement it.
• Have a car or drive a taxi? The mosque's students need transport for trips. Say: here is my car, give me two weeks' notice and I will drive.
• Work in IT or computing? Build the mosque's WhatsApp channel. Design the poster for the next event, so the Imam does not spend five hours fighting with software that is not his expertise.
• Into fitness? Lead a Sunday morning community run. Better health for everyone, reward for you.
• Work in security? Even quiet hours on a static shift can serve the community instead of feeding the phone.
• A student on holidays? Come to the mosque and help run events.

Everyone does what they are expert in. That is delegation, and that is how a community works together. The Prophet ﷺ taught that the one who does not care for the affairs of the Muslims is not truly of them.

You will be asked about this

The Prophet ﷺ told us that on the Day of Judgement, nobody's feet will move until they are asked about five things, and among them: your life, how you spent it, and your youth, how you used it. Youth is singled out because that is when you have both of the blessings people squander, health and free time.

Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih conquered Constantinople at 21. Muhammad bin Qasim led the conquest of Sindh at 15 years and 9 months. You might not even be old enough to drive at 15, but you can still do something for your community whose effect lasts until the Day of Judgement, a sadaqah jariyah written for you long after you are gone.

Do not leave this at the shoe rack

Most of us forget the khutbah the moment we put our shoes on. Do not let that happen with this one.

Come back to the masjid. Talk to your Imam. Say: take my number, I am a taxi driver, I am an IT expert, I am a student, tell me what I can do. We will sit together, hold meetings and do something good for this community.

The message has been conveyed. Now it is up to you whether you take it.