Take Advantage of Five Before Five
by Yasir Qadhi
The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam has been blessed with jawaami' ul kalim, the most concise, or precise, speech. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said, "I have been blessed with concise speech." Therefore, when we look at the precious pearls that came out of the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam’s mouth, we find that many of his ahadith are in fact treasure chests of wisdom. The words might be small, but the meanings behind them are great. The speech might be succinct, but the benefits and the blessings that can be derived from them are innumerable.
And of the ahadith that are jawaami', or comprehensive in nature, is the hadith of ibn Abbas radi Allahu anhu reported in the mustadrak of Al-Haakim, musnad Imam Ahmad, and others, with an authentic chain of narration. In this hadith the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said to a man while he was advising him:
"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."
In this small hadith, the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam advised a person. This shows his eagerness and love for his Ummah and his followers because the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam was continually advising. In fact, he was only sent as a rahmatu lil 'aalameen, as a mercy to the world.
He was advising them, exhorting them, and commanding them to turn away from the love of this world, this dunya, and to save themselves from the fire of Hell and earn Allah's pleasure through the worship of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala.
The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam advised this person to take advantage of five things before five other things follow. The first word, ightanim comes from same root that signifies sheep – ghanam. Sheep, in Arabic, means ghanam, and ightanim is from the same root that also signifies sheep.
What exactly is the meaning of ightanim? Ightanim is used to indicate any good that can be obtained without much effort. Just like sheep, they can easily be caught if they go astray. This is why the war booty that is found on the battlefield after the army has fled is called ghanimah. It is easy to take, just like the sheep. You can grasp it without much effort. Ghanimah, ightanim, and ghanam are all from the same root.
It is as if the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam is pointing out that these five matters are very easy to obtain. They are easy to prey on and catch, and very simple to benefit from. That is because they are treasures that everyone possesses but few people
appreciate.
From the beginning of the hadith, we automatically know that these five things are possessed by everyone. Yet, very few of us realize that they are a ghalimah, precious and easy to obtain.
What are these five things? The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam started off and said shabbab or shab, a youth or young person. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said, "Take advantage of your youth before your haram.” And the word haram means old age, maybe even senility. It is an age in which the person does not have the power or mental faculties that he had while he was a youth.
Youthfulness is a time when a person is the most energetic, when he lays out the foundations for his future, and when he plans his life. So the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said to take advantage of this time before the time comes when you do not
have that enthusiasm, when you do not have that zeal, or that outlook. The enthusiasm and energy that you have been blessed with will never again be given to you after this age. Therefore, the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said to seize the moment and take advantage of it. A person should exercise this energy for the sake of Allah by procuring knowledge of Allah, obtaining halal sustenance, and worshipping Allah through acts that he might not be able to do later on in life.
Youth here does not mean the western concept of youth that youthfulness finishes when someone is eighteen or nineteen years old.
In the Islamic Shari’ah, a man's life has been divided into a number of sectors or stages. Shabbab or shab, according to the strongest opinion, means before reaching the age of
forty. This is because forty is the prime of life. His mental and physical capabilities have reached a peak, and after that they start to go down.
Forty, therefore, is the prime of one's life. This means anything before that is still a person's youth. When we say shab or shabbab, we are not talking about a bunch of
teenagers here; obviously they are included, but we are talking about everyone who is beneath the age of forty.
This is something which a person should take into account. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said, "Take advantage of this before your old age," before you reach a stage where you are senile, old, weak or feeble. That is any stage in which you will not have the faculties which you did when you were a youth.
The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said:
"Seven are the people that will be sheltered on the Day of Judgment, the day in which there is no shade except the shade of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala.”
One of the people, the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said was a youth who grew up in the worship of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala. Remember, the youth is up to forty. So this young person, whether he is twenty or thirty or right before reaching the age of forty, he has grown up and has been raised or has raised himself busy in the worship of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala.
Likewise, the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said in an authentic hadith that Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala, is pleased with and amazed at the youth who does not have any evil inclinations. This means he does not do evil. Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala loves such a youth who is straight in the worship of Allah and does not turn left or right to the paths of Shaytaan. Allah loves this person and is amazed at him because in general it is the youth, due to their virility and strong desires, who swerve left and right away from the path of the worship of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala.
Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala praises the people of the cave in Surat Al-Kahf by saying, "They were a group of youth who believed in their Lord." Allah praises them even though they were young because they still had enough wisdom and sense to see through the kufr of their people and believe in Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala. So this is the first of the five: “your youth before your old age.”
The second of the five matters is, "your health, before you fall sick." The fact that he lives a normal life, and that he is not afflicted with diseases and plagues, represents a person’s health. Take advantage of this before diseases and plagues come because mankind, being mankind, will fall sick. Everyone falls sick. If we did not fall sick, we would not be humans, we would be divine.
The very fact that we are human means that we are going to experience difficulties and face problems. One of these problems is that our health will not be at its peak or the level that it is always at.
There will come a time when we will fall sick. Some of those times the sicknesses will be more severe, and for certain people even more severe. So the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam is reminding us that we do not know when we will have full possession of our faculties, of our strength, of our mental powers, before we will fall sick. Therefore, take advantage of it before that time comes.
Subhan Allah, how true this is! When we have a headache, which is one of the most minor forms of pain, we cannot do anything. We have to go sit down and take some headache medicine. We cannot even do the slightest things we usually do like reading a book. We just sit there and do absolutely nothing. And this is just a headache. It is something we know is temporary and will go away a few hours down the road. So what about the sickness and disease that is more than this?
Therefore, we must take advantage of when we are strong and powerful before sickness comes. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said, "There are two blessings the majority of mankind have been deceived concerning." The majority of mankind do not appreciate these two blessings. What are they? "Health," good health, "and free time." So in this hadith, the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said one of these two things is good health. People do not appreciate the blessings of good health.
Once a person came to Yunus ibn 'Ubayy, one of the scholars of the Salaf, and he complained of extreme poverty as he had not been blessed with much. Yunus ibn Ubayy asked him, "Would you be willing to give away your sight for a certain amount of money?" The man said, "No, of course not." Then he asked him, "Would you be willing to give your hands away?" He said, "No, of course not." He said, "Your feet?" He said, "Of course not." When he finished he said "I see that you have hundreds of thousands of millions of blessings, yet you are complaining of poverty?"
We have our full faculties, we can see and hear. Look at someone who Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala has tested with blindness. It is a very severe test, and that is why the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam has said in an authentic hadith:
"There are two things if Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala takes them away from a person and he is patient, he is guaranteed Jannah. These two things are the two eyes."
In other words, if a person is blind, and we seek Allah's refuge from the physical and the spiritual blindness in this world and in the hereafter, then Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala is testing him. And if he is patient, then Allah will reward him with Jannah.
But ask yourselves, do you ever sit down and think about this blessing Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala has given you? Try to live, not even half a day, not even an hour, but try to live five minutes closing your eyes and going around your own house that you know so well. You will not be able to do so.
How about one who has been blessed not just with eyesight, but with hearing, health, arms, limbs, energy, vitality, enthusiasm, and many other things. Should we not appreciate the blessing from Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala? Do we not realize how sweet health is? It can be used for the worship of Allah. When we are blessed with these bodies, why do we not use them in the worship of Allah?
The least we can do, brothers and sisters, is the faraa'id (obligatory actions) such as salah five times a day, fasting in Ramadan, and going for the Hajj. All of these require that we use our physical bodies. That is the least that we can do, the bare minimum. Of
course, the more that one does, the better it is for him.
This is the second of the five matters:
“your health before you fall sick.”
The third is, "your richness, before poverty." We all know that money comes quickly. One day we might not have anything, and the next we might have much more than we need. One day, a person might have the best of jobs and the largest of salaries, yet, the next day, something happens and he does not have that job anymore and loses his source of income. So the wise person uses his richness before he becomes poor. He invests for his future.
What do we learn here in the west? We learn how to invest for the future, to want to retire at fifty-five, or sixty, or sixty-five. We worry about how to support ourselves, investing, how to invest in the best stock markets and business deals. We worry about how to make our money work for us and what we need most.
The Kuffar are learning to invest later on for themselves in this life. Should we not invest for the hereafter as well? Should we not think about investing this money so we can pick it and pluck it in the Hereafter when we need it far more than we needed it in this world?
As for the investments of this dunya, then the Kafir and the Muslim are both the same; they both do that. Even the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam would store staple food items even up to a year. Sometimes he would store barley and grain for a whole year for his family. So this is obviously something halaal as the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam himself did it, and we should do it too. We should make sure we have enough money for our family and our children and ourselves, so we are not poor and we are not beggars. There is no doubt that this is a part of our Shari’ah as well.
But while we are doing this, let us not forget that we also need to invest for the Akhirah. We need to invest for the real future, our real life after our death. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam once asked his companions, "Who amongst you loves his inheritors' money more than his own money?" The meaning of this hadith is that the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam is asking who amongst you loves the money of those that will inherit from him more than he loves his own money. For example, does the father love the money of his son or does he love his own money? Of course, the father loves his own money.
Likewise, every person will love his own money more than he loves the money of other people. The Sahabah said, "Yaa RasulAllah, all of us love our own money more than we love the money of our inheritors. We all love our own money. We guard it and protect it more than the money of our inheritors.” Then the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said:
"Verily, the money that you spend in charity is your money, and the money that you leave behind is the money of your inheritors."
Ponder over that hadith for a while, how true it is.
As for the father who loves his own money more than the money of his son, does he not realize that one day his son will take that very money of his and he will have nothing to do with it? The money that he protected and guarded for thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years, building an empire, is taken away in the twinkle of an eye when his life is taken. All of that money is left in his inheritors' hands. Where has he gone and where has his love and money gone? All of it is gone. But what is left? Where is his money now? All that is left of his money is what he spent during his life for the sake of Allah, if there was any such money.
Any of it spent in charity for the sake of Allah, is money that will be yours permanently. The Arabic word for charity includes zakah, sadaqah, waqf, and any type of monetary good that you did. Everything besides this will go into the hands of your inheritors.
Take the example of Qaroon who was a person who had been blessed with so much money that, as the Qur’an states, he had the keys to open all of the treasure chests. These keys by themselves would be difficult for a group of strong men to carry. One can imagine he must have had thousands and thousands of treasure chests of gold and silver, a multimillionaire. Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala told him in the Qur’an, "And earn through what Allah has given you – the hereafter." Earn the hereafter. "And don't forget your portion of this world." Ponder over this beautiful ayah, "Your portion of this world." The main purpose of your money should be to earn the pleasure of Allah, and attain the real dar – dar al Akhirah – the real house of the Hereafter. And while you are earning the real house, do not forget your small portion of this world as well. Yes, you do need a house in this world. Yes, you do need to live, a family, and food, and a job and income. But remember, this is just your small potion in this world.
The real purpose of your money is to earn the pleasure of Allah for your house in the Akhirah. That is why Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala says that when the Kafir is resurrected on the Day of Judgment, he will cry out, "My money was of no use to me!" It did not do him any good. The Kafir, no matter how long he lives, once he dies and tastes death, realizes that this is eternity and the sixty or seventy years he lived will seem like the twinkling of an eye.
Therefore, when will Allah ask the Kafir on the Day of Judgment, "How many years did you live on this world?" he will say, "I only lived a day or part of a day, a few hours." The Kafir, and even the impious person who is resurrected on the Day of Judgment, cannot imagine, that he spent sixty, seventy, eighty years without doing any good deeds. So he will say, "I only lived a day or part of a day, a few hours. How else is it that I have so few deeds to account for?" When he enters eternity in respect to sixty years, then those sixty years become the twinkling of the eye.
We have to take advantage of richness before poverty. Money comes and goes. When we have it, we invest for the future, not just the future of this dunya, but the future of the Akhirah. Islam is the religion from Allah and it is a perfect religion. Allah does not ask us to do impossible things.
Look at zakah, which is 2.5% of your money. How much do we pay in taxes? Thirty, forty, fifty percent, and in some countries over fifty percent. Look at how much the Kuffar ask you of your income, and look at how much Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala asks you.
As for the taxes, you will give them because there is nothing else you can do. But when Allah asks for 2.5%, which is nothing of a person's income, the people refuse to give. Subhan Allah! Look at the mercy and the blessings of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala, and look at how the rest of mankind treats us in every single country in the world. Look at the tax rates and compare it to what Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala asks of us.
Remember that feeding your family is an ibaadah that you are doing it for the sake of Allah. If you are doing it for the sake of Allah, you will be rewarded. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said that, "A morsel of food," one morsel of food, one handful of food, "if you put it in your wife's mouth, this will be a reward for you on the Day
of Judgment." Now everybody, Muslim or non-Muslim, feeds his family. But will everybody be rewarded for that? No. Because only the one who does it remembering Allah, thinking about Allah, and doing it for the sake of Allah will be rewarded.
Ask yourself if the last time you went shopping, Allah was in your mind? Did you think of doing this for Allah? When you picked up the milk and the bread, was your heart thinking, "Oh Allah, I am buying this food through halaal money, and this is halaal food, because I want to feed my family and this is an obligation that You have put upon me, therefore, I am doing it for your sake."
Frankly, a majority of us do not do it. We go to the market, we go eat out, we go do other things, but we don't think about Allah. So the very act that we do, when we do it for the sake of Allah, it becomes a reward. And when we do it for the sake of this dunya, it goes to waste.
That is why the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said,
“Even when a man satisfies his sexual desires with his wife, he will get rewarded, but only when he does so with Allah in his mind. ‘Yaa Allah, I am a man, I have desires, I know that you have allowed this for me and have prohibited other things for me, therefore, in order to take advantage of the halaal, and keep away from the haram, I will now engage in intercourse with my wife.’”
Who amongst us has this in his mind?
The same act, the same money, the same food, the same everything, but only the Mu'min and the Muttaqi thinks of Allah 24/7, as they say. Only the Mu'min thinks of Allah in every step that he does. He does not move, stop, breathe, or take a morsel of food or a sip of water, except with Allah in his mind. When such a person reaches this state, then whatever he does such as studying, even if he is studying to become an engineer, a doctor, or something else, it becomes for the sake of Allah. His sleeping becomes for the sake of Allah. His eating and drinking becomes for the sake of Allah. Why? Because he thinks of Allah when doing those acts.
Therefore, when we say, "That is spent for the sake of Allah," we are not just talking about money, zakah, sadaqah, and charity. Of course, giving in charity is the best thing you can do with your money. And there is no doubt as well that the best charity you can do is sadaqah jariyah like building a masjid, building a school, supporting students of knowledge, giving books, printing books and pamphlets for the sake of Allah, giving Islamic books and pamphlets, and giving Qur'an out. These are types of sadaqah jariyah, and that is the best type of charity. But do not forget that the majority of income that we spend, and in fact for the Mu'min, 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 subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala.
This is the third of the five things: “your richness, before poverty.”
The fourth is as the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam said, "And your free time, before you become busy."
This is yet another great treasure that every single one of us possesses. Every single one of us must use our free time before we become busy. How much free time do we have and what do we waste it on? Think about it. Think about how much free time all of us have been blessed with. We have hours and hours every day and they go by. What do we waste it on? Primarily, in this country at least, television. It is also wasted on gossip and socialization of which there is no benefit whatsoever, in this world nor the hereafter.
Remember the hadith of the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam that we just quoted about the two blessings (health and free time) most people have been deceived by. In other words, they don't realize their blessings of health and free time. You may have to work eight hours a day, no problem. Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala has allowed this for you. He has obligated it upon you. When you come home, you have four or five hours so spend them wisely for the sake of Allah. And we are not saying that "for the sake of Allah" means standing in prayer for five hours a day, or reading Qur'an every three or four hours. We are not saying this, but the more you do, the better it is.
When you spend time with your family, you make your wife smile. Make your children happy and raise them Islamically. Go out with them just for a picnic so that the bonds of love between you can become stronger. If you do these for the sake of Allah, then they are also examples of spending time wisely.
Do not forget, of course that there are religious deeds which are the best deeds to do. Everyone of us should recite the Qur'an every day, even if it's only for five or ten minutes. You should have some relationship with the Qur'an.
Every one of us should pray some extra prayers as well, a few sunnahs or the nafls, if not the continual sunnahs that the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam used to pray. This is the most important thing for us to do. 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.
Do not waste your time. The greatest waster of time is the television. You turn it on, and an hour or two go by, and not only have you not gained anything for the Akhirah, you have not gained anything for this world. You have literally killed, murdered your time and done absolutely nothing with it. And realize that you are lucky if you don't come away from those two hours without any sin. How many are the sins that are in television, with music, and the women, and other things.
In my opinion, it is better for a Mu'min not to even have this instrument in his house because of the evil that comes from it. Like Allah says about alcohol, the evil that comes from it is more than the good that is obtained from it.
When you have some free time, take advantage of it. The greatest thing that we can do in this free time is to worship Allah. And one of the greatest acts of worship is to seek knowledge. Take a book out to read, listen to some cassettes, or listen to some CD's. Do whatever you can do to increase your 'ilm. Attend some classes or even visit one another for the sake of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala. Visit your Muslim brother with the proper Islamic etiquette and adab. This is an act you can do that will pass your time away, and be worthwhile.
Spending time wisely does not necessarily mean purely religious deeds. Even if it means for this world, spend your time wisely, and do something in this world. Learn a trade. Learn something that can benefit you in this world that can benefit other people as well. Islam is a complete way of life, a complete code. Do not just think that we are talking about religious acts. Of course they are good, and the more you do the better. But, do not forget that all of the acts a Mu'min does can be transformed into acts of worship if, and only if, he does them for the sake of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala.
This is the fourth of the five matters: "take advantage of your free time before you become busy."
The last of the five is: "And your life before your death."
This one phrase summarizes it all. "Take advantage of your life before your death." Every one of us has a life. That is why we are here right now. That is why we are [reading] this. Every one of us without a doubt will die. Look at the generations before us and the generations before them. None of them are alive.
Allah says, "You are going to die and they too are going to die." And it is as Allah said, the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam passed away and so did the people that opposed him and believed in him. They all have passed away. And the turn came for those after them, and then those after them, until it is our turn.
The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam therefore reminded us, "Take advantage of your life before your death." This is the greatest of foresight. Hence the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam concluded the hadith with this phrase. Every one of us has been given just one life.
Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala says, "Everyone will taste death." How are we going to use this life before death comes? As for the Kafir, he will totally waste it because he will make this life his goal. He will live only to appease and satisfy every desire of his. Then on the Day of Judgment, he will beg Allah to send him back to this life. Allah describes this in the Quran, "When death comes to them, he will say, O my Lord!" All of a sudden, when his Lord comes to him he remembers Allah. Whereas throughout all of the years that he lived, Allah was nowhere near him; Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala was the furthest thing from his death.
On the Day of Judgment when he is resurrected, he will say, "Oh my Lord! Allow me to go back so that I may do good in the time that I had left." I didn't do good, let me do good now. Allah obviously will say, "Kalla,” – no. This has not been allowed for you. You have only been allowed one life, this was the life you lived, and you will not be able to go back and change that life. It is as you have done, and now your recompense has come so that for every good you did you will be rewarded, and for every evil you did you will be punished.
Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala also describes them in the Qur’an as saying on the Day of Judgment, "O our Lord, we have seen and we have heard." We know for a fact now, we know for sure what is true and what is not. "Let us go back to do good deeds; we are now believers." They claim to believe in Allah and the Day of Judgment but Allah will not allow this to happen because everyone has only one life. That is what Allah has given and this is what we must make the best of in this world so that we are compensated accordingly in the Hereafter.
These are the five things that the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam told the man to do. He advised him to, "Take advantage of five matters before five others: your youth, before your old age; and your health before you fall sick; and your wealth before you become poor; and your free time before you become busy; and your life before your death."
This hadith deals with responsibility, wisdom, foresight, long-term planning, and good strategy. Every one of us has been blessed with these five blessings. There is no one amongst us who has not been blessed with these five things. So how do we utilize them? What do we utilize them for? Why do we utilize them?
The wise person is the one who strives to achieve the pleasure of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala and then expects the best from Allah. The wise one is one who tries to arrive at the goal and then has tawakkul in Allah. Tawakkul does not mean to sit back and say, "Oh, this will happen to me." Rather, you must strive for it. The fool is the one who follows his desires and then presumes that Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala will reward him.
There is a hadith that has slight weakness in it, so it is not 100 % authentic, but the meaning of the hadith is definitely authentic. The Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam is reported in Tirmidhi to have said:
"The wise person is he who controls himself, he who has a grasp for himself, he who makes himself accountable, and he who strives to work for that which is after death. And the fool is the one who allows his soul to follow every desire, and yet, he expects the best from Allah."
He allows his soul to do whatever he wants, and yet he thinks, "Oh, Allah will forgive me, oh Allah will give me this, oh Allah will give me Jannah." This is the fool, because he allows his soul to follow every single desire, and he does not put the proper effort into obtaining the reward and pleasure of Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala.
We conclude with that hadith and ask that Allah subhaanahu wa ta ‘aala makes us amongst those who can ightallim, those who can seize these five things, who can take advantage of them before the five will come. These five matters will inevitably be taken away from us, and substituted by the others that the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned.
Wa aakhiru da'waana 'anil hamdulillahi Rab al 'Alameen, wa subhanak Allahumma wa bihamdika wa ash hadu'an laa ilaaha illa ant nastaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk.