National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Delhi is entrusted with the task of keeping Indian Standard Time (IST) accurate to the minutest possible fraction of a second. It uses cesium atomic clock which does not miss even a second in 10,000 years, so accurate and precise it is. For this clock one second is equal to time spent in 9, 192, 631, 770 oscillations of an atom of cesium in an undisturbed state.
A good leader is the conscience keeper of a nation. Likewise our NPL is the conscientious time keeper of our nation. Leaders may fail in their duty of conscience keeping but NPL never fails or falters in its precise task of calculating time.
However accurate Atomic time, more precisely called Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) may be, it has to synchronise with the annual rotation of the earth around the sun which take 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 45.51 seconds. There are microscopic anomalies in earth’s rotation due to various geological fluctuations. This affects atomic clock also. To set right one such mistake one correction of one second would be carried out. Therefore time will stop for one second on New Year day at 5:30 am (IST).
Actually, time never stops even for a microsecond, neither for us nor for our earth nor for this universe. It is a continuing stream and ongoing march of events and changes. If anything stops it is we, the human beings who have been created as the heroes of this universe. Famous Urdu poet Nushoor Wahidi has rightly said:
Waqt Ka Quafila Aata Hai Guzar Jata Hai
Aadmi Apni Hi Manzil Mein Thahar Jata Hai
Loosely translated it reads: The caravan of time comes and moves forward, on the contrary it is man who stops and does not move.
Even if we are sitting idle actually we are moving towards our appointed hour. Therefore, our success lies in making the best use of these borrowed hours and bestowed years. Every second which has been made available to us is important. If it is utilized it becomes eternal and if not used it is lost forever. When we fail to do our duty at a particular moment we never would be able to do it, as every coming second brings with it its responsibilities and demands.
The Holy Qur’an, the last testament of God, which is a lasting source of inspiration and guidance for all of us, exhort us to do our duty to God and to humanity. The Almighty Allah, the All Seeing, the All Knowing is ever watchful upon us. The 60 or 70 odd years at our disposal must be spent with subservience to Allah and a genuine sense of dutifulness and righteousness.
Responsible individuals make responsible society. Today human society is ridden with extreme moral, social, economical and political corruption. Lack of faith in God, rejection of His guidance and transgression from his teachings have become a hallmark of present times. Ethically it is the worst of times.
In spite of explosion of knowledge and ever increasing prosperity large numbers of people are suffering from poverty, indignity, ignorance and depravity. Muslims have a special responsibility of joining hands with like-minded people to correct the course of human life and reorient it towards the divine guidance.
It is a happy coincidence that the Islamic year 1430 and the commonly used Georgian Calendar’s year 2009 are starting at almost the same time with a difference of one or two days. We take this opportunity to wish very happy prosperous, meaningful and successful New Year to all of our readers, countrymen and members of human fraternity.