6. Idleness

6. Idleness “And made the day for earning a livelihood.” Al-Naba’78:11 T he physical events of the present world are indicative of the nature of the Hereafter. The ‘present’ of our world implies that it should have a ‘future’ consistent with it. Considered from this point of view, it must be accepted that there is going to be a great end to match a great beginning. This world is not going to finish without a befitting end. The second Caliph, Umer ibn Khattab, often used to express his sense of disillusionment about people he had come to like when, on further acquaintance with them, he discovered them to be idle. “On learning that he does not work, he appears to me of no value (he has debased himself in my eyes).” Whichever way you look at idleness, there is no gainsaying the fact that it is a great evil, causing one to fritter away one’s best talents and leaving one unqualified to face life. A student who is too lazy to study cannot ever hope to acquire knowledge or have his critical faculties sharpened in any way, and his failure in examinations will leave him without the ‘paper’ qualifications which is the ‘Open Sesame’ to good jobs. Without the necessary groundwork, he will find himself leading a vacant existence, simply drifting