Take Advantage of Five Before Five

Take Advantage of Five Before Five

The Prophet has been blessed with jawaami' ul kalim, the most concise, or precise, speech. The Prophet said, "I have been blessed with concise speech." Therefore, when we look at the precious pearls that came out of the Prophet’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.

Hadith of ibn Abbas reported in the mustadrak of Al-Haakim, musnad Imam Ahmad, and others, with an authentic chain of narration. In this hadith the Prophet 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."

So it is as if the Prophet 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. What are these five things?

#1: Take Advantage of Your Youth before Your Old Age

The Prophet started off and said shabbab or shab, a youth or young person. The Prophet 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 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 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, when mental and physical capabilities have reached a peak, and after that they start to go down.

The Prophet 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.”

One of the seven people, the Prophet mentioned was a youth who grew up in the worship of Allah. 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.

Likewise, the Prophet said in an authentic hadith that Allah is pleased with and amazed at the youth who does not have any evil inclinations. This means he does not do evil.

Allah 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. So this is the first of the five: “your youth before your old age.”

#2: Take Advantage of Your Health, Before You Fall Sick

The second of the five matters is, "your health, before you fall sick." The fact that one lives a normal life and 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.

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 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.

The Prophet said: "There are two blessings the majority of mankind have been deceived concerning." The majority of mankind does not appreciate these two blessings. They are "health," good health, "and free time." 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 asked, "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 has tested with blindness. It is a very severe test, and that is why the Prophet has said in an authentic hadith: "There are two things if Allah takes them away from a person and he is patient, he is guaranteed Jannah. These two things are the two eyes."

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? 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 than one does, the better it is for him. This is the second of the five matters: “your health before you fall sick.”