‘Winter is springtime for the believer.’

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒖𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒖𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆. We may become distracted by pelting snow, showering rain, or else wrestle with the wind on a cold blustery day, umbrellas wrenched from hands. However, it might not occur to a believer that winter can be a welcome season of the year, filled with its very own blessings. For some of us, the daylight hours may have shortened, and its nights extended; yet it can be a time of great opportunity for reaping rewards.

Imam Ahmad relates from the narrations of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri(ra), that the Prophetﷺ said, “Winter is the springtime of the believer.” Al-Bayhaqi and others in another version said, “Its nights are long so he spends them in worship, and its days are short so he fasts them.” Even Ibn Mas'ud(ra) used to say, “Welcome to winter, blessings descend during it; its nights are long and therefore conducive to praying and its days are short conducive to fasting.”

It’s made easier in those long nights to awaken for qiyam al layl. To pray tahajjud or recite Qur’an, still having had a healthy dose of sleep; and even then, retain the energy needed to get through our routines by day.

It’s easy reward to fast as the days are shorter and cooler and not challenging, draining as they might otherwise be in those hot summer days that are long and drawn out (where a great reward awaits for its hardship). Still there’s merit to be had in winter.

‘Amir ibn Mas’ud reported: The Prophetﷺ said, “Fasting in the winter is the easy reward.”

[Tirmidhi]

So it’s quite apt that, ‘Winter is springtime for the believer.’ Spring is a time of freshness, of thriving grass in fields and meadows. When water is more likely to be in abundance, so animals graze and fatten unhindered.

A believer too can graze in the gardens of obedience, fattening themselves on good deeds that are reaped in abundance, in a season and time where worship through prayer and fasting is made easy. So let’s make the most of this time in the season of winter, if short days and long nights have fallen upon us.🌙

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