Time Management: Advice from the Quran and Pop Culture
39
DANIEL NEHEMIAH OLIVER Time Management Life is like a treadmill: [people] runnin’ in place, gettin’ nowhere fast; a whole year done passed… -Jay-Z
-
Upload
daniel-oliver -
Category
Entertainment & Humor
-
view
147 -
download
3
description
What is the value of time? How can I get more from it. The answers are everywhere. This presentation will take you from Wu-Tang to the Quran to the Rolling Stones to find the answers.
Transcript of Time Management: Advice from the Quran and Pop Culture
DANIEL NEHEMIAH OLIVER
Time Management
Life is like a treadmill: [people] runnin’ in place,gettin’ nowhere fast; a whole year done passed…-Jay-Z
Dedication
Dedicated to the memories of
William Lamont Lemon, my uncle
Benjamin Gardner, my friend
and Jeremy Rees, my colleague
An Interesting Note about Time
1. By the (oath of) time:
2. Verily mankind is in loss,
3. Except those who affirm (the truth), and do good deeds, and advise one another to truth, and advise one another to patience.
-Qur-an 103
Why swear by time that there is loss?
Why not family, for example? You never really lose your family… And do not consider those killed in Allah’s path to be
dead; No, they are alive… Qur-an 3.169
And We gave him (Job/Ayyoob) his family and it’s equal beside it… Qur-an 38.43
Why swear by time that there is loss?
Why not money? You can always make more money
Just ask Donald Trump
Why swear by time that there is loss?
What is the connection between time and loss?
Time is what we lose by With each passing moment we lose another
chance……to get ahead…
• …to achieve…… to live…
How do we lose by time?
Procrastination
Time is on my side, yes it is… The Rolling Stones
Was it really?
Keith Richards,Rolling Stones
Keith Richards,Rolling Stones
Procrastination
Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?-Brazilian proverb
But the truth is…
Procrastination
Tomorrow’s just an excuse…-Smashing Pumpkins
Can’t live for tomorrow: I might not have that long…
-Smashing Pumpkins
Television
If you watch 3 hours a day, you watch:• 21 hours weekly = 1 day/week
91 hours monthly = 4 days/month 1095 hours annually = 1.5 months/year
75,555 hours in a 69-year lifespan = 8.5 years/lifetime!!
Internet, Video Games, Mobile Phones
Think about it…
How much time do you spend?
What else could you be doing?
What else SHOULD you be doing?
Music
And as for the poets, only the deluded follow them. Don’t you all see how they stray bewildered through
every valley, and that they say that which they do not do?
-Qur-an 26.224-226
Aren’t singers, rappers and songwriters the poets of our generation?
Look at the lost lives they lead, and the fantasies they fill you with…
Bob MarleySinger/Songwriter (POET)Claimed Haile Selassie was God(Haile Selassie claimed Jesus was God)Fathered 6-8 children through extra- marital affairs
South Park MexicanChristian-turned-gangsta rapper (POET)In prison for sexual assault……of a 9 year old…
Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)Singer/Songwriter (POET) Committed suicide after years of heroin addiction
Amy WinehouseSinger/Songwriter (POET) Said no to rehab
Pimp C (UGK)Rapper/Songwriter (POET)Died from overdose……of cough syrup
Some of our generation’s poets…
TupacGangsta (?) Rapper/Songwriter (POET)Name was MC New Yorkbefore starting beef with East CoastMurdered at age 25
Janis JoplinSinger/Songwriter (POET)Died of heroin overdose
Eazy ERapper/Songwriter (POET)Fathered 7 children by 6 womenDied of AIDS
Dr. DreGangsta (?) rapper/producer/songwriter (POET)‘nuff said…
Fat PatRapper/Songwriter (POET)Murdered at age 27
DJ ScrewProducer/Rapper (POET)Died of drug overdose at 29
Sid Vicious (Sex Pistols)Bassist/Songwriter (POET)Died of heroin overdose at 21
Notorious B.I.G.Rapper/Songwriter (POET)Murdered at 24
Ozzy OsbourneSinger/Songwriter (POET)Look closely...He’s biting a bat’s head off…
Will their words lead you anywhere worthwhile?
George ClintonSinger/Songwriter (POET)Lifetime drug user
Ol’ Dirty BastardRapper/Songwriter (POET)Father of 13Arrested and imprisoned several times, including for failure to pay child supportDied of drug overdose
But don’t take my word for it…
…see what modern poets say about themselves…
I’m an idiot, a loser…-Limp Bizkit
When I die… I wanna go to hell,‘cuz I’m a piece of ____ and it aint hard to tell…
- The Notorious B.I.G.
I’m a liar and I’m a thief…
I think I’m dumb…
I hate myself and I want to die… -Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
The believers have surely succeeded:
…those who turn away from useless, evil speech…
- Qur-an 23.1,3
Music = Poetry = A waste of time
It is better for one of you to fill his body with pus
than to fill it with poetry…
- Muhammad (May Allah bless him and grant him peace)
“Love” (Romance & Dating)
What is “love”? It’s deception.
"Hey, baby, you're the only one I'm on"
They kick a few lines from a slow song
Havin’ you thinkin’ you got it goin’ on so strong
and can't nothin’ in this world go wrong
They say, "Baby, I'm yours
So go and close the bedroom door”
Make sure the blinds are closed
to keep you comin' up out your clothes
The next day they don't know you no more-Tré of Mo Thugs
“Love” (Romance & Dating)
What is “love”? It’s self-deception.
If my girlfriend think I’m loyal
then that _____ is a fool.
-Big L
“Love” (Romance & Dating)
What is “love”? It’s delusion.
subsequent to beautyin between our lies and our illusions lies realitythe eyes that cry once seemed so high but now they see: the game we all were playing ends in shame and blame and pain comes pouring down like rain
- Daniel Nehemiah Oliver
“Love” (Romance & Dating)
What is love? It’s an investment with no return.
Eleven years I sacrificed And you just leave me at the drop of a dime…
- Mary J. Blige
Be careful where you invest your time…
Sleep Habits
And (have we not) made the night as a covering, and the day as livelihood?
Qur-an 78.10-11
Driving sleepy is like driving drunk…
…inability to focus……forgetfulness……irritability……lack of coordination…
What about doing other things sleepy, like working or studying?
Hurrying
Mistakes make you waste more time than you hope to save…
Slow but steady wins the race…
I need to slow down movin’ through life at a high speed and watchin’ all these slow runners pass by me… - Mobb Deep
Hurrying
Have patience, have patience: don’t be in such a hurryWhen you get impatient you only start to worryRemember, remember: Allah is Patient, tooSo think of all the times that others have to wait on you
- Children’s song
Thoughtfulness is from Allah
and haste is from satan…
- Prophet Muhammad (May Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him)
How can we gain by time?
Set and Check Goals
Daily Every night, before you sleep, ask:
What do I want to accomplish tomorrow? Did I achieve my goals from yesterday?
Why not?
Long-term What’s your 20-year plan?
It’s a point you must walk towards……not a world you’ll wake up from a dream to…
Make a Schedule
Buy a daily planner Keep in mind all that you need to be doing
You don’t have time to waste time…
Keep a calendar Don’t lose sight of long-term goals
Role Models
Noah/Nooh
In his lifetime, he built a ship that could hold 2 of every species
Role Models
Ibn ul-Qayyim
Wrote Zad ul-Ma’ad in a few weeks’ time
Zad ul-Ma’ad is an important ancient book that is thousands of pages
What have you accomplished with the last few weeks?
Role Models
Bill Gates
Started Microsoft at 20
He started another company at 45 to help give his money away…
Role Models
Eleanor Oliver
Mastered a 2nd language at 9 Graduated from high school at 16 Graduated from college at 19 4.0 Masters GPA
How old are you?What have you accomplished?
Expect More of Yourself
Life is what you make it...,
I’ma make it,
No matter what it takes…,
we gonna take it…
-Nas & DMX
You can't party your life away
drink your life away
smoke your life away
f___ your life away
dream your life away
scheme your life away:
‘cause your seeds grow up the same way
- The Wu-Tang Clan
Settle for Excellence, not Excuses
Spectate or make a movehesitate or regulateit’s on you… -Mobb Deep
Check your Level of Sincerity
You can have it all
but how much do you want it? -Oasis
Establish the 5 Daily Prayers
Give everyday a regular schedule of fixed unitsSchedule and time your tasks between regular
breaks
Verily the prayer is written and scheduled for the believers … Qur-an 4.103
O ye who believe! When the call is proclaimed to prayer on the Day of Assembly, hurry to the Remembrance of Allah, and leave off business….
And when the prayer is ended, then disperse throughout the land and seek of Allah's bounty… Quran 62.9-10
Establish the 5 Daily Prayers
Use the prayers to start a healthy, productive sleep schedule:
Sleep after ‘Isha (Night Prayer), NOT after Fajr (Morning prayer)
The prayer is better than sleep!-Call to Morning Prayer
After all…
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.-Benjamin Franklin
Carpe Diem
Take advantage of five before five :
your youth, before you get old;
and your health, before you get sick;
and your wealth, before you are poor;
and your free time, before you are busy;
and your life, before your death.
-Prophet Muhammad (May Allah bless him and grant him peace)
Yesterday’s Tomorrow
When did the sunset close above me?Was it as two lips pour’d the poison of the day?How did the moonlit morning flow through me?This was yesterday’s
tomorroweveryday
I listen to the spring verve in silenceI watch raindrops fall and trickle towards the bayI hear the summer’s song- so soothingThis was yesterday’s Tomorrow everyday
Message: Today was tomorrow when you thought about it yesterday. Everyday is another day’s tomorrow, so when you start to wait for tomorrow, remember that it’s already here…
Al-Fajr
I know when you wake up each morning you say,“It’s just another day.”You yawn and you stretch, you blink and you scratch,“Another day, another dollar- a dollar before tax.”Your eyes and ears focus on the clock as it’s tickingAs each moment passes, do you feel your life slipping?
WAKE UP
You’ve lost time, which isn’t money: it’s LIFE and what’s funny is whether you grasped
it or threw it awayit’s gone; so benefit before you decay
GET UP
Do you know where you’re going or if you’ll get there?The truth of the matter is: you should be scaredBut what’s out of your sightAnd off of your mindIs the same thing keeping you
blind
FACE UP
The End
It’s a trip you’re here todaybut the next day you’re gone… -UGK
*Note: The author doesn’t listen to music anymore All lyrics are quoted from memory
The signs are everywhere…
![Quran (Tajweed Coloured Quran) [High Quality]](https://static.fdocuments.us/doc/165x107/5571f3d949795947648eab3f/quran-tajweed-coloured-quran-high-quality.jpg)
