Answer
Wa `alaykum as-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger
In this fatwa:
1- Yes, there is blessing (barakah) in time in the same way as there is blessing in the Divine Providence.
2- Although all of us have the same twenty-four hours every day, some people manage to accomplish more tasks than others. This is an indication of the blessing in time.
In this regard, Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, former President of the Islamic Society of North America, in which he states:
Barakah in Arabic means blessing, increase, comfort, happiness. In the Qur’an, this word is used in different forms in many places: baraka, tabaraka, barakat, mubarak, etc. It is used for Allah, for His Blessings upon certain people, places and times.
The night in which the Qur’an was revealed is called “Laylatun Mubarakah” or a blessed night; the Qur’an is called “Kitabun Mubarak” or a blessed book; the Ka`bah and the land of Jerusalem and its surroundings are called “Mubarak” or “barakna hawlaha”, etc.
In fact, all blessings are in Allah’s Power. Nothing has blessing in itself unless Allah gives it. A Muslim always turns to Allah for blessings. Allah blesses places and He blesses times as well. We should ask Allah to bless our time, our life, our home, our places of work, each and every thing.
Barakah in time comes when we use our time, our life in a right way. All of us have the same twenty-four hours every day, but some people are more blessed and they accomplish a lot within the same time.
There are people who benefit from their time and give benefit to others, while there are those who waste their time or misuse it by harming others.
Allah has mentioned in the Qur’an in Surat Al-`Asr, “By the declining day. Lo! man is in a state of loss. Save those who believe and do good works, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance.” (Al-`Asr 103)
Surat Al-`Asr is one of the shortest surahs of the Qur’an, but it contains so much wisdom that Imam Shafi`e is reported to have said that if people would reflect on this surah alone, it would be sufficient for them.
`Asr means “time”. In this surah, Allah Almighty holds time as a witness to the fact that most human beings are losers. They do not use their time in the right way. But the successful are those who have faith, do righteous deeds, and remind each other about what is right and about patience. Such people are not losers. They are successful both in this life as well as in the Hereafter.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.