Assalamu’alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim
1. Introduction
Friends beloved by Allah,
Many of us delay learning or reading because we are waiting for a long stretch of “free time” to arrive. Yet amid the siege of daily busyness, hours of free time almost never come. In modern neuroscience and cognitive psychology, there is an efficient method called _micro-learning_—using narrow fragments of time to absorb small bits of information, done repeatedly and routinely. The human brain actually binds long-term memory more easily through this periodic stimulation than when forced to take in large amounts of information all at once. Islam, 14 centuries ago, already alluded to this concept through the encouragement to remember and be mindful of Allah with every breath and in every condition, no matter how small the time gap. Knowledge does not demand that we become idle people who read all day; rather, it demands that we become servants skilled at inserting goodness into every crack of activity.
Allah Subḥānahu wa Ta‘ālā says about chosen servants who use every change of state and time to reflect:
ٱلَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَٰمًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِى خَلْقِ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ
“Those who remember Allah while standing, sitting, and lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth.” (QS. Āli ‘Imrān: 191)
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ also reminded us of the importance of seizing even the smallest opportunity before it is gone:
ٱغْتَنِمْ خَمْسًا قَبْلَ خَمْسٍ ... وَفَرَاغَكَ قَبْلَ شُغْلِكَ
“Take advantage of five before five… [one of them] your free time before your busy time.” (HR. Al-Ḥākim)
2. Lessons and Message
Let us picture a laborer, or a mother struggling to run a household after disaster struck her home. From before dawn until night, her hands are full of laundry, rubble, and kitchen work. Physical exhaustion goes without saying. Yet, if we look closely, near the kitchen table or in the pocket of her worn-out shirt, there are a few small slips of paper with a verse of the Qur’an or a short hadith written on them. While waiting for water to boil, her eyes glance at that paper. When she sits for three minutes to catch her breath, her tongue recites that line of knowledge. Her tears fall quietly, not from mourning her weary fate, but from overflowing gratitude—amid the crushing weight of the world, Allah still allows her to steal time to feed her soul. Truly, that is a sight that touches the heart and a slap to us who have plenty of free time yet waste it on vanity.
Friends, imagine an empty bamboo piggy bank. If we wait to have a million rupiah all at once to put in it, the piggy bank might stay empty forever because we rarely have that much money at once. But what if every time we have spare change—a hundred rupiah, five hundred, or a thousand scattered in our pocket—we drop it into the piggy bank every day? Without realizing it, in a few months, when the piggy bank is opened, it is full and has become a hill that saves us. Our small bits of time are the “loose change” of life. Reading one page of a book while waiting in line, memorizing one vocabulary word on a commute, or listening to five minutes of an educational recording are real micro-learning solutions. That spare change of time we collect will, little by little, turn into a vast ocean of knowledge.
There was a student who complained to a scholar, “Teacher, I really want to read this thick book, but it’s a thousand pages! I don’t have that much free time.” The teacher smiled, took a small knife, and cut the book into ten thin sections. The student was shocked, “Teacher, why did you damage the book?” The teacher replied, “This book isn’t damaged—it’s being ‘chewed.’ Now, slip one of these thin sections into your robe pocket. Every time you go to the market or wait for food to be served, read just two pages. If you haven’t finished, don’t you dare eat lunch!” It turned out that within a few months, the student had finished the entire thick book without feeling burdened. The lesson is clear: even a huge elephant can’t be swallowed in one bite—it must be cut into small pieces to be enjoyed safely!
3. Conclusion and Closing
Brothers and sisters, the obstacle of busyness that consumes our time can be unraveled by intelligently dividing our focus through micro-learning. Never underestimate the five minutes you have between daily routines. The solution is simple: carry a small book, keep digital materials on your phone, and read a little—regularly—every day. The blessing of knowledge does not lie in how long we sit still in a library, but in how consistently we keep close to knowledge in every crack of time Allah grants us. Let us bind our small moments with the rope of knowledge, so that our lives always hold the value of worship
والله أعلم بالصواب
الحمد لله رب العالمين
Wassalamu’alaikum Warahmaullahi Wabarakatuh.
ِAbu Sultan Al-Qadrie
