Sheikh Uthman Hadi - Health and free time | Isha Reflection

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Today, I want to talk about the importance of prioritizing our health and time, focusing on two essential aspects: physical health and spiritual health. Both are interconnected and vital for our overall well-being as Muslims.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sheikh-uthman-hadi--6689369/support.https://sheikhuthmanhadi.beam.lyhttps://open.spotify.com/user/315hadqmwxllibu6ubi5us2cbn2y?si=572b4d8898284e9ehttps://open.spotify.com/show/3MQHfrpjj3XXcqoPbN5Dl8?si=v6YQ42kpSx-VONBFhT3CzA

Bismu'llah, Rahman, and al-hameduilah, Rubeh, Rabeh, Rāsa'allat, and al-Rasolidhah, and al-Arihi, and saffi, and man, wala. Al-aa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-aaaaa. My brothers and sisters, we ask that Allah, Allah, so on our sins are a sure-coming that the greatest is a special mercy, not only in this life,

but mainly in the next. My dear brothers and sisters, today I want to talk about the beautiful gift of health and time in Islam. You know, my dear brothers and sisters, I will say, I will say to a mild level, you know, a very moderate level, I was sick since Tuesday. And, al-hhhhhhah, I was able to gain more closeness to Allah through it. And I was able to also develop this talk by the mercy of Allah, Sufana, how it ta'a, throughout that time. And it made me realize that when you go about your day, you waste so much time and so much of your health,

doing things that are not pleasing to Allah. Allah's upon the whole is how I gave us the health to do things that please him not to do things that this please him and among one of those things is that when it comes to our health we decide that you know yes we want to take good care of ourselves sometimes for the wrong reason sometimes we don't take good care of our health in total period and you know today and shahua d'all my dear brothers and sisters I want to talk about two particular types of health And that is the physical health, the health of, if you want to the dunya, or the health of your body, right? And then you have the health of the Dunya and Achina, which is the spiritual health, right? And inshallah, ta'all, we'll go into both of those in a minute. But what I do want to remind us of my brothers and sisters is that any time that we get sick is a test from Allah. It is a reminder from Allah that you, have the health, you have the time right now to do any and everything that you need to do and

you want to do yet you wasted on things of this dunya rather than on the athera, rather than focusing on the main goal and the main journey. You know, when it comes to anything that we do, my brother and sisters, anything, rather than right now may be me speaking. Insha'a. If Allah, if Allah allows for me to live long enough and I'll become among the elderly people, it will be difficult for me to speak maybe, right? You never think about that. You never think about the fact that there are people out here who are dealing with all types of illnesses and who are going through all things and you have a slight fever and

you're upset with the divine the divine heikamar, the divine decree of Allah. And like I talked about last week, I spoke about the nefs and the way in which you are able to be contentment, you were able to be content and have contentment with the decree of Allah with the Kadra of is through being of the tranquil state.

So just a little quick recap from what I talked about last week. I've been working on some other stuff this week. Very difficult

stuff to get done but inshallah will allow for us to get it done and before I will go into the physical health and the physical well-being.

My daughter says I would like to bring up that reinvent yourself this Ramadan event is coming up in 18 days. So inshawal Allah Tallah, go ahead and ensure that you are registering and you are getting ready. Inshallah, I'll put the link for that here tonight, inshallah, as well as I would like to let everyone know that we have a big surprise coming February 1st.

And inshallah, there will be something, you know, letting you know what's coming February 1st. But inshallah, just wait for that surprise, inshallah, and we'll continue on from there. And we ask Allah to find out to cure all of those who are ill and sick and facing, you know, unbelievable or unimaginable circumstances and illnesses. I mean. My brothers and sisters, I want to begin with the physical health here, right? The health of the dunya,

as we recall. Allah suprana huadallah has placed our bodies here upon this earth for a reason. That is to worship him, that is to do good with him, that is to ensure that we are remembering him, and that is to ensure that no matter what happens in our lives, we are always turning back to Allah

because just like in the authentic adith in which the promise of Allah a lao al-a-a-u-sul-s spoke about those who when they sinned they repent back to Allah all of the children are Adam who sinners but they repent back to Allah the best of sinners are those who repent so Allah supranahu-ah created us and placed our bodies here to seek his forgiveness and to repent to become better to worship him and of course many other reasons that i could state but inshallah that I'm not going to get too far into that. My dear brothers and sisters, our bodies are an amana or trust. You know, the Arabic language,

amana means trust from Allah, subhannahu and we are accountable for how we treat them. And there is an authentic hadith in which the province of Allah Allah al-a-u-Salam spoke about two blessings of the body. Do you know it? They are.

He specifically said that there are two blessings that people will take for granted and that is their health. health and their time. So this Hadith is essential. It's essential for us as Muslims

because the Prophet of Allah A'u'u'u's Islam is signifying here two specifically important aspects that we take for granted, which is our health and our free time. Because he could have said time. We have time. We have 24 hours in a day. We may not be awake for all 24 hours,

but we have time. Let's just say on an average, let's say you're awake for 18 hours. At least I am. be maybe I'm not I don't know well let's just say 18 hour I just kind of try to do the math in my head I'm not over here with a calculator okay I'm just kind of thinking in my head but if you have 18 hours asleep or you have 18 hours in which you are awake if you think about this that's 18 hours out of your day that you have in the remembrance of Allah at least you should have in the remembrance of Allah to worship Allah to focus on your connection with Allah yet how often

is it that we turn and we say to people, loved ones, to ourselves, and we ask Allah, yeah, Allah, please extend the time. Allah, suprana huatallah is not going to extend the day for us for 24, from 24 hours to 48 hours, right? And there's a specific reasoning why we have a day, why we have a night, and why the day is a specific point, and that's because Allah wanted it that way. But also, Allah, suhpana huatala mentions it in the Quranan and so it's a naba. He says that he placed the day here for people to live.

for people to remember him, for people to act upon his guidance, and he placed the day for us to sleep, and for us to worship him in secret, for us to call out to Allah, to ask any and everything that we weigh one of him, especially in the last third of the night. But your brothers and sisters, when you think about your physical body,

there are four main characteristics of that physical body. And among those four characteristics, the first one is the food the first one's the food what is it with the food that is ensuring that you have halal food halal nutrients that you are putting in your body

it's halal and hosom right and it is according to the Quran right and Allah supranahua tells this specifically in the Quran he says eat good things that we have placed upon the face of this earth

right so that it may help you in the remembrance of me. And, you know, ensuring that we have moderation as well, because sometimes people overeat, sometimes people under eat. You want to be among those who are balanced. Because even the Prophet of Allah, Aalahu Salam, would eat to a good degree, right? He wasn't obese or wasn't fat, or he didn't have, you know, fat, so he wasn't skinny, right, or, you know, anything of that sort.

But he still ate to a certain period, a certain point, right? And, yes, there were times in which he ate. less and there were may have been times in which he ate more but it didn't change how he acted period right because you eat more some days doesn't mean that you're going to be a happier person because you eat less some days doesn't mean that you're going to be a crankier person or a person that wants to rage automatically so you know and that's that's one thing that sometimes we deal with i'll give you that example of the teenage years when you're in that time period in time frame just to let all the parents know out there in that time period and I deal with it myself as well I still do

with it sometimes a little bit sometimes that when you're hungry you get a little cranky you're kind of like give me the food after I get the food then al-hamsalina and I'll go on you know but training our bodies to fast is very important as well as fasting is great for the remembrance of Allah suhanna my new brothers and sisters another thing in which I want to mention is exercise As the prophet of Allah al-a-a-a-a-a-hi would send them emphasize exercise in our lives, right? He emphasized it. He emphasized physical fitness. And we, as we should aim to incorporate exercises to our daily routines, whether that is walking, whether that is sports.

You know, I used to play sports a long time ago, but I kind of got away from it, you know, when I started teaching. But, you know, whether that is, you know, sports or whether that is just, you know, doing activities that are moving your body, right? So ensuring that you are getting exercise and the proper exercise, because sometimes we call our exercise exercise exercise, but it's not actually exercise. We are like, okay, I'm running on a treadmill today, and then you're going to go eat a whole box of donuts. You just wasted the whole point of it. It kind of reminds me of how I speak about sometimes when it comes to sinning and then repenting, right? The sin is the donuts, and the repentance is the workout. You decide, okay, I'm going to repent.

You know, I'm going to repent. I'm going to try again. I'm going to seek the forgiveness of Allah. And then after that, you go right back to that sin again and be like, got to God again. All right, let's go back to the repentance. No, you have to stop, right? You have to stop.

You have to train your body, which is shallot all that is something we will get into, inshallah, not in this talk, but maybe in the next one or someone's coming up, inshallah. Many of your brothers and sisters, among one of the other things that's important is sleep. We don't get enough sleep sometimes. And yes, sometimes people can also be cranky from sleep, right? and ensuring that you are getting rest. It's very crucial for our physical health.

And the Prophet's Allah, He will suddenly emphasize the importance of sleep as it rejuvenates our bodies and minds. We should ensure that we get enough sleep for function because, you know, sometimes we still have to go to work. We still have to do things. We still have a family. We can't just decide, you know what?

I'm going to sleep for eight hours today. And then, you know, when I wake up, I'll pray together two pre prayers I miss. and then I go on about my day. You know, there are things that still have to be done. So I'm sure you're getting moderate sleep. And if you're having troubles waking up for Saddha's and Fudder, go to sleep earlier, set an alarm clock,

make God to Allah, renew your intentions, and inshallah, to Allah, Allah will make it easy for us. We ask Allah to make it easy for all of us to wake up for Fudgeon, to worship on time, to worship for his sake, and to purify our intentions. I mean. So when it comes to our sleep, ensure you're getting a good balance of sleep.

You don't want to sleep like a camel, right? You don't want to sleep for a long period of time or a short period of time. You know, we're not koalas sometimes as well. Koalas sleep for a long time. They sleep for like pretty much 23 hours, 23 hours. That's almost a whole day. So we don't want to sleep the whole day, but we do want to sleep a good portion of it. At least try to get at the minimum six to eight hours, depending upon your schedule or whatever time that you have.

So under brothers and sisters, ensuring that we are. getting enough sleep, not only for our functionality, but also for our worship and our remembrance of Allah. Because ensuring that we are remembering Allah is very important. Because sometimes we work all day and we're so tired at night and we're like, yo, I can't even give you the true dedication and the true focus I want to give you. Well, in this case, if you have the opportunity to go to bed early enough where you can wake up at least 30 minutes before a pleasure, do it. At least if you can't do it. Because at that point, now you have a point to say, yeah, Allah, I didn't get a chance to worship you last night.

Like I wanted to, maybe in Kiyama al-Aid or something of that sort. But you can say, inshallah, yeah, I'm going to worship you, I'm going to worship. I'm going to seek your forgiveness, seek your mercy, you know, ask upon you within Tajjid. So that's one thing that we have to remember, along my dear brothers and sisters, is ensuring that we get enough sleep. And the last and most important thing I'm going to mention my dear brothers and sisters, which, you know, focuses on all three points I made already.

is taking care of our bodies. How many of us don't take care of our bodies, right? Whether that is exfoliating the skin, whether that is doing things that are going to help us, you know, with our skin, because sometimes, you know, we have tight skin. Sometimes we have, you know, different problems. Using a product is not going to help. The only natural cure is Allah, Supperna, Ho'adana.

So ensuring that, you know, we are also trying to stay away from that, which is, you know, negative as well. Remember, my dear brothers and sisters, that take care of your body. Just because you are Muslim and because you are worshipping Allah doesn't exclude you from taking care of your body. Take showers every day, right? The reason why is that you can stay clean, right? You don't want to be a dirty person. You don't want to be someone who is not clean or who stinks or who is, you know, filthy

because that is one of the pillars of Islam, one of the parts of faith, excuse me, and thigh of the pillars of When it comes to your faith, it's cleanliness, right? It's a very crucial part. So you want to ensure you're clean. You want to ensure you're taking care of yourself. If you have problems, you need to deal with those problems sometimes with your body, whatever it could be. You know, clipping the finger and the toe nails. You don't want your nails to get too long and you don't want your, you know, nose to be too short, right?

But you want to ensure you have a balance between everything. And ensure that on a day-to-day basis, you do some type of self-care, whatever it could be, whether that is getting in the shower, whether that it's bathing, whether that is soaking, you know, whether it is doing anything. You know, so ensuring that we are doing that, even throughout our busy schedules, taking that time out for the sake of Allah, because we are trying to do everything I just mentioned for the sake of Allah, whether that was eating so that we can fill our bodies for the sake of Allah, whether that was exercise so we can be fit for the sake of Allah, whether that was

sleeping and rest so that we can be awake for the sake of Allah. and whether that is taking care of ourselves for the sake of Allah, right? So as I said, in the beginning of this talk, our bodies are an amana from Allah, they are in trust. So ensure that you are handling the responsibility in which Allah, Supanahua Tala, has placed upon us with beauty. So, my dear brothers and sisters, I would like to, inshallah, move over to the next heart, which is our spiritual health, right? And the spiritual health is something that's more in depth, something that we have.

to go on to that level right and this is our connection to Allah the remembrance of Allah our do a you know our communication to fellow you know brothers and sisters and Islam all of that is like our spiritual but the main most important part of the spiritual is our connection to Allah right as the spiritual health encompasses our relationship with Allah our remembrance and is and hit and a hearing to his guidance and seeking it, of course, as well, right? But my de brothers and sisters, when we are establishing a strong connection with Allah,

Supanah, It helps us with our spiritual well-being. And this connection is nurtured through regular daily prayers. I want to give a comparison here. See if you can spot the differences and see if you can spot the comparison, the same thing, things that are the same, right? When it comes to, we just spoke about the physical, When it comes to the food, we use the food to nurture our bodies.

When it comes to the sara, we use the sala to nurture our souls. Right? There's a part here that's the same. The food and the sala is not the same. But what it does for us is like the same. You know? So you think about it in the case of our sola is the nourishment for our heart. And the food is the nourishment for our body, which the nourishment for the food for our body helps us with the nourishment for our Salah for our soul.

So, my brothers and sisters, just like Allah supranahua'u'u'etal says in the Quran, and I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship me. Allah supanihu and His God is speaking about our purpose is to worship him. Our main purpose and life is to worship him. Through this act of worship, we will find peace and fulfillment and contentment within our lives, which is why you want to be among nefs al-mutemain. This is a part of the tranquil state, which remembers Allah. They have a great connection with Allah. That no matter what happens, they are focused on their connection.

Nothing can divert them away from the connection that they have with Allah. We ask Allah to make us among those. So, my de brothers and sisters, among the most beautiful of things to do as well when it comes to our Salah is engaging in vikr. Engaging in vikr is very important. It is one of the remembrances of Allah, one of the acts of ibalah, right? The acts of worship to Allah, Sufana, and it's very essential for us. And it's a very powerful way to strengthen our spiritual health and our closest to Allah.

And Allah, Siphanahua-Talda says in the Quran, it says in the Quran, it's very essential for us. veryly in the remembrance of Allah, do hearts find rest? So here, Allah, Suhannahu, Tala is saying that remembrance in me is not just categorized for a sala, it's not just categorized for dua, it's not just categorized for your vicar, for you paying sqad,

for you paying your charity, it's actually categorized in all of them. It's in every last one of them. So Allah, Sufana-ho-Talda says in this beautiful ayah, veryly in the remembrance of love, will your hearts, will your souls find me?

rest and they will find peace and contentment. So my dear brothers and sisters, ensuring that we are regularly reciting the phrases subhahalah, al-hah, al-hah, al-hazir-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a. Any phrase that we can recite that is praising Allah, supanao-a-wa-ta-a-a-a-a-a and try to throw in a little extra praise as much as you can because it's good for the remembrance of Allah and try to keep your tongue wet with not only the Quran, but also the vicar and remembrance of Allah suhphanahua ta a da'a. So my dear brothers and sisters, when it comes to our vikr, when we perform our vikr,

it helps us stay connected to Allah supaniahuata and it brings tranquility to our hearts. And, you know, the third thing I would like to mention here as well is our dua. Dua is very important. It is a vital aspect of our spiritual health and our soul when it comes to Allah. as is a direct line, a direct connection to Allah. You know, the promise of Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, and He was saying, Dua is the essence of worship.

I want to kind of break that down real quick as I have the time. Then think about it. When you are praying, right? You're praying your five daily prayers. You are praying your namas, right? In these prayers, there's a Dua that you make, right? There's a Dua you make to start the prayer.

Sirt al-Fatihah is a dua that you are making to Allah and every Sura, Allah, Suu-Supana-Hu-Talāla, is giving you an answer to what you are asking for as you are asking for guidance. You first are starting off in this dua by praising Allah. You are exulting the praise. You are saying, al-Hamdulillah, you're saying all praise is due to Allah.

All praise. Right? But you're saying, al-rahman and Rahim. Allah is the most merciful or he is the most compassionate. right and then you continue on going throughout the surah asking for guidance so when it comes to our dua it's an essence of worship right it is an essence of worship in kuran it is an essence of worship and vizkr is an essence of worship mainly in our sala as sala is a if you want to call it a kalaj of everything right you put everything into one picture or one area and that's sala

Salah is a collective of all the other acts of worship into one. So when it comes to dua, dua is our main link to Allah. We should regularly turn to supplication, turn to Allah subpoena hua Tala and supplication, seeking his guidance, his forgiveness and support in our lives. We should not just do it in times of ease. We should not just do it in times of hardship,

but rather we should do it at all times. And one thing that we have been taught is that if you want a true connection to Allah, make dua. You must ensure that you are making dua. And it's beautiful. Think about it how in a human mind, right, if you continuously call upon a person,

call upon a person, call upon a person, they'll get upset. We know how that works, right? But if we don't call upon Allah, he gets angry with us. He wants to hear us calling upon him. He wants to hear us asking of him, seeking his mercy, seeking his forgiveness,

seeking his guidance. So my brothers and sisters make dua'at to Allah every situation. It doesn't matter what it is. Whether that is you're putting on shoes, whether that is before you go to bed, making the sunnah dua' duaas you're supposed to make, whether that is going out.

There is a dua for everything. And Allah, Sufanao'u'u'u'a'u'a through the Prophet of Allaha'u'u'u'slam has taught us that, that there is a dua for literally everything. So ensure that you're connecting with Allah. My brothers and sisters, the last thing I would like to mention,

and shah-h-h-h-a-da, before my time is up, is when it comes to our spiritual, ensure that you have good community. And what do I mean by community? If you're not able to be a part of a big community, like a big mashtit or something of that sort, have a mini-community. And when in a mini-community, I mean a group of friends.

Whether or not it is one friend, whether or not it is 10 friends, but pick good friends, right? Pick good friends that are going to bring you closer to Allah. Pick friends that on the day of resurrection, when they stand before Allah, they will be there to help you intercede. They will be interceding upon your behalf, and you will do the same, vice versa. These are the qualities of true friends. True friends, the true quality of friends are not those who make TikTok videos and those who, you know, do things and say things that are not pleasing to Allah,

or those who video game all day, or that's not true friends. The true friend is the one who remind you. of Allah. They are there any and every time of your life, right? They are there any and every time of your life helping you, guiding you, and you're doing the same for them. It's actually a two-sided affair here. You can't be, you can't want good friends, but you're not a good friend to them. It's two-sided affair. You're helping them throughout their way closer to Allah, and they're helping you throughout your way closer to Allah. And in turn, inshallah, you guys will both enter and be raised up in the ranks of paradise because of your friendship.

We ask Allah, to grant us all great friends. I mean, my dear brothers and sisters, throughout our spiritual journey, the most important piece of it is remembrance of Allah. And the four things I mentioned here in spiritual are very important. And among them is your family.

Among them is your companionship that you have, unlike the community that you are surrounded with, whether or not you have a couple of people in your family, whether or not you have a whole bunch of people in your family, you need to ensure that you are able to pick through and say, okay, you're going to gain me closest to Allah. You're going to help me gain Jinnah, and inshallah, I'm going to do the same for you. Pick one good friend, whether that's family, whether that's friends, anyone, love ones. Ensure that you are picking people who are going to bring you closer to Allah, subhaphan, So my dear brothers and sisters, prioritizing both our physical and our spiritual health is essential for a balance and fulfilling life.

And as Muslims, we must recognize that our bodies and souls are interconnected by taking care of our physical health. We enable ourselves to worship Allah and, you know, more effectively and engage in acts of goodness and acts that are pleasing to Allah, to all my dear brothers and sisters nurturing our spiritual health provides us with the strength and motivation to maintain our physical health. So my dear brothers and sisters, we ask Allah subana hoataata to grant us the wisdom, to grant the hickma to prioritize our health and our time, and we ask Allah subpoena to strengthen our connection with him, strengthen our connection with those around us to help us build great friendships with those who are going to help better us not only in this life but mainly

for the next life and we ask Allah Safanahua toada to bless us all with great relationship with him and with a better and more beautified soul inside than we are on the outside. And I amaikum and al-a-rahomethallah and braggat and your brothers and sisters.