LEAP YEAR: LET’S LEAP AHEAD IN SUBMISSION

The year 2008, which has just begun, is a “leap year.” This means that there are 29 days in February instead of the usual 28. This happens every four years, and it happens because our time calculation of days, hours and minutes isn’t exactly the same as the earth’s rotation around the sun. The time between vernal equinoxes (the time when the sun is directly above the earth’s equator) is about 365.2422 days. Our year is 365 days long, which means that after 100 years, the calendar would be more than 24 days ahead of the seasons. To minimize the difference between seasons and dates, it was decided to add a day to the calendar every four years. That still leaves a small difference, as noted in Wikipedia:

“The marginal difference of 0.000125 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years, the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount which cannot be accurately predicted. Therefore, the current Gregorian calendar suffices for practical purposes, and

Herschel’s correction (making 4000 AD not a leap year) will probably not be necessary.”

Probably not! For those of us who understand the Quran and God’s promise of the end of the world, we know that we really don’t have to worry about 8,000 years from now!

What we do have to worry about is now, and the things we need to do to prepare for our future in the Hereafter. Any time we can come up with a little edge, a way to make our submission to God stronger and better, we want to take advantage of that.

So let’s look at this leap year. We’re given an extra day this year. February 29 won’t happen again for four years. This is a bonus twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours is 1440 minutes. We have 1440 extra minutes to enjoy this year. We can waste them or we can use them.

If you spread 1440 minutes out over the whole year, it amounts to a little less than four minutes a day. What if I said that every day this year, I’m going to spend four extra minutes meditating on God. I’m going to spend four extra minutes reading Quran. I’m going to spend four extra minutes asking forgiveness. This is extra minutes. In addition to my usual practices of prayer and reading and meditation, I’m going to spend four

extra minutes every day just thinking about God. At the end of the year, I will have spent one whole day in the devotion to God.

[5:35]  O you who believe, you shall reverence GOD and seek the ways and means to Him, and strive in His cause, that you may succeed.

[22:77]  O you who believe, you shall bow, prostrate, worship your Lord, and work righteousness, that you may succeed.

I started today. I’m going to begin using the time to read all the Psalms in the Bible. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and God willing, I’ll make the commitment and follow through. Just to see how long four minutes was, I set a timer. Four minutes is nothing. No time at all. I think we can all find four more minutes in our day for God. When I finish the Psalms, God willing, I’ll find something else to commit to—four minutes of zikr, keeping a “four minute God journal,” counting my blessings. And maybe when the year is over, I’ll continue to set aside that extra time for God. For all that God does for us, it’s a miniscule amount of appreciation. And it’s truly for my benefit, for the growth of my soul.

So here’s to leaping ahead in 2008.

Lydia