Unbeneficial Past Times.
Hazrat Ali (R.A.) said: Unbeneficial past times angers Ar-Rahmaan (The most Merciful), pleases Shaitaan and it causes a person to be alienated from the Quraan (due to two reasons):
(1) Firstly a person does not get time to repeat the Quraan and the Hifz (memory) of the Quraan is dependant on constant repetition, and
(2) This Makrooh action is a source of decrease in Barakat (blessings), thus causing Allah Ta`aala`s help to decline. (Advices of Hazrat Ali pg. 14)
The next time you want to engage in a past time ask yourself, ‘Is this beneficial to my Dunyaa or Aakhira in any way?’ If we can cut down or stop the one`s of this Dunyaa that is better and if we can replace it with ones that will benefit us in the hereafter that is fantastic.
From the statement of Hazrat Ali (R.A.), when we engage in frivolous pursuits, then we lose out in this world and the hereafter and our open enemy becomes happy.
The consequences are grave, as one will start finding little or no time for Quraan. When last have you read the Quraan? Not out of compulsion like in school but for yourself willingly. Did you read it today or last weekend? How about holiday time? If we find the answers to these questions being that you hardly read it, then examine yourself and see what are the activities that take up your time. Is it the phone? Is it the internet? Is it nothing important or beneficial? Is it the television? Where is your time being spent? When you recognize where the time is being spent then make the necessary changes for betterment to please Ar-Rahmaan and displease Satan.
This increase in our good and decrease in futile pursuits will reap for us that divine help from Allah and His pleasure.
May Allah grant us the Tawfeeq to be always connected to the Quraan and away from useless activities, rather, let us be connected to those actions that always please Ar-Rahmaan.