Take Advantage of Five before Five: The Phases of Life
Allah
Almighty has created mankind for some specific purpose. We all have
some purpose in our life. We should know about this purpose and the
basic purpose of our life is to worship Allah (SWT). Allah Almighty is
alone in His worship; we should consider Him alone in worship. He (SWT)
has blessed some people with some things out of His wisdom and taken
them from others, also out of His eternal wisdom. Allah Almighty has
made some of His blessings permanent and will stay with His slaves
during their lives. Still, there are some blessings that will vanish at
different times of their lives.
In
this article, we will discuss those blessings which we should utilize
before they vanish. We should take notice of them and begin using them
before they begin to disappear. When we want to know or figure out
something the best place to know about is the Book of Allah Almighty and
the Sunnah of Prophet (SAW).
Our beloved Prophet (SAW) said:
“I have been blessed with concise speech.”
So
we should consider His (SAW) speech as a source of knowledge given by
Allah Almighty. Every word that came out of His (SAW) mouth considers
valuable wisdom. These words might be small but meanings behind them
are great.
There is a Hadith of Prophet (SAW) in which He is advising a man while saying:
“Take
advantage of five matters before five other matters: your youth, before
you become old; and your health, before you fall sick; and your
richness, before you become poor; and your free time before you become
busy; and your life, before your death.” (Tirmidhi)
Prophet
(SAW) is pointing out that these five matters are very easy to attain.
They are easy to chase and very simple to take benefit from. That is
because they are valuable and everyone owns but few people appreciate.
Want
to know about these five things? In this article, we will discuss these
five things that we should consider and utilize them best before their
disappearance.
Take Advantage of your Youth before Old-Age:
It
is known that the one, who spends his youth in obedience to Allah, will
be rewarded highly. He will also be amongst the 7 to be in Allah’s
shade on the Day of Judgment where there will be no shade. It is usually
within our youth, we have less responsibility, we are at the peak of
our health, and we have great amounts of time which we can let easily
slip away. We should try to spend our free time to worship Allah
Almighty so that we can earn as many blessings as we can in our youth.
When
a person getting old he has not that power or health that he had while
he was a young. Allah (SWT) loves such a youth who is smooth in the
worship of Allah and does not turn left or right to the paths of
Shaytan. Allah loves this person and is amazed at him because in
general, it is the youth, due to their virility and strong desires, who
deflect left and right away from the path of the worship of Allah
Almighty.
Take Advantage of your Health, Before you get Sick:
As
when we are in youth, we often take for granted our health. We are
advised to take advantage of our good health before we are taken with
illness. What we usually don’t realize is that our health is a blessing
from Allah (SWT). When we are in good health, we take it for granted and
don’t always appreciate what we have. It is only when we fall ill then
we realize what a great thing we had and how we let it go to waste by
not doing as much worship as we know we could and should have done.
We
need to be familiar with the fact that there is no guarantee of our
good health. There are so many things that can happen that can leave us
full of regret for not having taken advantage of what we had when we had
it. The least we can do in our good health are obligatory actions in
which we have Salah five times a day, fasting in Ramadan and going for
the Hajj. All of these obligatory actions require that we should be
physically fit.
Take Advantage of your Richness before Poverty:
Wealth
is another blessing granted by Allah Almighty. We should give as much
as we can in the way of Allah, and we are assured of the rewards for
doing so by Allah in Holy Quran:
“The
likeness of those who spend their money for Allah’s sake, is as the
likeness of a grain (of corn), it grows seven ears, every single ear has
a hundred grains, and Allah multiplies (increases the reward) for whom
He wills, and Allah is All-Sufficient for His creatures needs, All
Knower” (Quran, 2:261).
So
for those of you that Allah has blessed with wealth, use it in ways
that will truly benefit you before you wake up one day and it is gone.
Spend it in the path of Allah Almighty. Do not forget that the most of
the income that we spend, all of the income that he spends, can be for
the sake of Allah as well. This means thinking of Allah, spending for
the sake of Allah, and having the intention of pleasing Allah (SWT).
Take Advantage of your Free Time before You Become Busy:
Spare
time is another blessing granted by Allah Almighty to us. Just take a
look at all the time that you did not take advantage of, in which you
could have been earning the reward by doing simple and easy things like
glorifying Allah, exalting Allah or reading the Quran. There are
religious deeds which are the best deeds to do. Every one of us should
recite the Quran every day, even if it’s only for five or ten minutes.
We
should have some relationship with the Quran. Every one of us should
pray some extra prayers as well, a few nafls that the Prophet (PBUH)
used to pray. This is the most important thing for us to do. But at the
same time, do not forget that there can be many acts that can be
rewarded if you change your niyyah and do them for the sake of Allah.
Just remember do not waste time just by watching television or some
movie and other things like that. Remember to do good deeds for the sake
of Allah Almighty and earn best rewards and blessings for this world
and hereafter.
Take Advantage of Life before Death:
Life
is the greatest blessing of Allah Almighty. We all know that one day we
have to die but we should spend our lives in the best way so that we
can earn Jannah in the hereafter. Once we die we will never be able to
get back. We must not forget what a mercy life is. We should savor every
moment of life and use it to our best advantage. This means pleasing
Allah Almighty in order to achieve our ultimate goal Jannah.
In
short, we must give attention to these blessings for what they are. We
must begin to use them while they exist and we do not have access to
them. May Allah protect us from being inconsiderate of His blessings and
write us down with those who are not only taking full advantage of His
blessings but also thankful for them. Ameen!
FIVE BEFORE FIVE
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate
All praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)said:
“Take benefit of five before five:
*your youth before your old age,
*your health before your sickness,
*your wealth before your poverty,
*your free-time before your preoccupation,
*and your life before your death.” (Hakim)
- Youth before old age
One
of the things that most people take for granted is their youth. When
people are young, they are full of energy and are capable of doing so
many things for the sake of Allah Ta’ala, but often we see that this
energy is wasted in one way or another.
When
people lose their youth, they inevitably find it harder to do those
deeds and acts of worship that they found somewhat easier to do at a
younger age. With old age, people find it harder to keep fard
(obligatory) fasts, they may not be able perform wudhu properly or to
pray properly, and they may not have the energy to recite the Qur’an
very often.
It
is common to hear young people claim that they will start ‘practicing’
Islam when they get older. We should always be mindful of the fact that
‘older’ may never come round for us. We have no guarantee that we will
even be alive tomorrow, let alone be alive to see our pensions, or our
grandchildren. And even if we are blessed with a long life, how can we
be sure that we have the health – physical and mental – to practice
Islam? On top of all this, we should remember that people do not just
magically become ‘good’ overnight; often, we find that bad habits are
hard to shift – what if we can’t get rid of our bad habits when we get
old?
- Health before sickness
As
with our youth, we often take for granted our health. We are advised to
take advantage of our good health before we are overcome with illness
or disability. What we often don’t realize is that our health is a
blessing from Allah Ta’ala. When we are in good health, we take it for
granted and don’t always appreciate what we have. It is only when we
fall ill that we realize what a great thing we had and how we let it go
to waste by not doing as much ‘ibadah (worship) as we know we could –
and should – have done.
- Wealth before poverty
Wealth
is another blessing granted to us by Allah. Wealth in this context does
not necessarily mean that we have large amounts of savings, or the fact
that we can afford a huge house, a top-of-the-range car and a
state-of-the-art media system. The simpler things such as a roof over
our heads, clothes on our backs and food in our fridges make us amongst
the world’s wealthiest people – a fact that we, more often than not,
seem to overlook, particularly when we see people that have a lot more
worldly possessions than we do.
There
are millions of people in the world today that don’t even have a drop
of clean water to drink, and they don’t know where their next meal will
be coming from. These are the people that we need to be helping with our
wealth. Even a small donation can go a long way.
We should give as much as we can in the way of Allah, and we are assured of the rewards for doing so by Allah:
‘The
likeness of those who spend their money for Allah’s sake, is as the
likeness of a grain (of corn), it grows seven ears, every single ear has
a hundred grains, and Allah multiplies (increases the reward) for whom
He wills, and Allah is All-Sufficient for His creatures needs, All
Knower’.(Al-Baqarah: 261)
- Free time before preoccupation
Islam
always encourages us to make the most of our time, and to spend as much
of it as possible in the way of Allah. We should utilise the time we
have available to do as much good as we can, because before we know it,
this time will have passed.
As
mentioned above, we should use the time we have in our youth to do as
much in the way of Allah as possible, because as time passes, as well as
having to contend with old age and all that entails, we will inevitably
have a lot more things to worry about, like jobs, homes and families –
things that most of us at this present moment aren’t necessarily worried
about.
If
we think that finding the time to practise Islam is difficult now, what
will we do when life really starts to pick up pace? There is nothing
wrong with getting married and having a family, but we should appreciate
the relative freedom that we have now, and spend as much of it as we
can on good deeds.
The concept of time is so important in Islam that Allah swears by it in the Qur’an:
‘By
Time. Verily Man is in loss, except such as have faith and do good
deeds, and in the mutual teaching of truth, of patience and constancy.’ (Surah Al-‘Asr)
In
line with the above ayat (verses), we have to discipline ourselves by
giving value to the importance of time. We should be prompt in doing
good deeds, which will increase our faith and subsequently enable us to
gain Allah’s pleasure and mercy.
- Life before death
The
last thing that we have been advised to take advantage of is our life
before our death. Every night when we go to sleep, we enter a state
where our soul leaves us. When we wake up, it is only because Allah has
blessed us by returning our souls and granting us the opportunity to
worship Him for at least one more day. Upon waking up in the morning,
the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to say (and we are also encouraged to do the same):
‘Praise be to Allah who gave me life after death, and to Him is the final return.’(Bukhari)
Often
we do not fully appreciate how great a blessing it is to be given
another chance. We become relaxed about death, and we don’t fully
comprehend or appreciate that at some point – and only Allah Ta’ala
knows when – our life will be taken away from us for good, leaving no
second chance, no opportunity to make up for the wrongs we have done,
and no turning back time. We must not forget what a mercy life is. We
should savour every moment and use it to our best advantage. This means
pleasing Allah in order to achieve our ultimate goal – Jannah.
I’ll end with a final hadith that I feel sums up the importance of all these issues:
‘A
man shall be asked concerning five things on the Day of Resurrection:
concerning his life, how he spent it; concerning his youth, how he grew
old; concerning his wealth, how he acquired it and how he spent it; and
what he did with the knowledge he had.’(Tirmidhi)
I
pray that Allah Ta’ala grant us the tawfiq to make the most of all that
He has blessed us with, and that He accepts all our efforts
Insha’Allah.
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