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!