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Taking advantage of five treasures before five others (20 February 2013)
With the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.
Ibn Abbas (ran) narrated, the Prophet (saw) 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. [Mustadrak of Al-Hakim, Musnad
Imam Ahmad]
These five matters are easy to obtain, they are easy to prey on and catch, and very simple to
benefit from. Lets discuss shortly about these five things.
(1) Taking advantage of youth before old age: The old is an age in which the person does not
have the energy, enthusiasm, or mental faculties that he had while he was a youth. Therefore 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. Allah (swt) is pleased with and amazed at the youth who does not have any evil
inclination, who is straight in the worship of Allah and who does not turn left or right to the paths
of shaytan.
(2) Taking advantage of health before fall sick: The fact is that, being mankind, we do not
know when we will have full possession of our faculties, strength or mental powers before we will
fall sick. Therefore take advantage of your good health before that time comes when you fall sick.
We have our full faculties; we have been blessed with eyesight, hearing, health, arms, limbs,
energy, vitality, enthusiasm and many other things. Should we not appreciate these blessings
from Allah (swt)? These can be used for the worship of Allah. The least we can do is praying the
obligatory Salah five times a day, fasting in Ramadan and going for the Hajj.
(3) Taking advantage of richness before poverty: One day we might not have anything, and
the next we might have much more than we need. So the wise person uses his richness before he
becomes poor; he invests for his future. There is nothing wrong to make sure we have enough
money for our family and our children and ourselves, so we are not poor and we are not beggars.
But while we are doing this, let us not forget that we also need to invest for the real future, our
real life after our death. The Prophet (saw) 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.
(4) Taking advantage of free time before become busy: This is yet another great treasure that
every single one of us possesses. 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? It is wasted on
television, gossip and socialization of which there is no benefit whatsoever, in this world nor the
Hereafter. The greatest thing that we can do in our free time is to worship Allah, and one of the
greatest acts of worship is to seek knowledge of the straight path. Every one of us should recite
the Quran everyday and pray some extra prayers as well. Spending time wisely does not
necessarily mean purely religious deeds. Spend your time wisely to learn something that can
benefit you in this world and other people as well. All of the acts of a Mumin can be transformed
into acts of worship if, and only if, he does them for the sake of Allah (swt).
(5) Taking advantage of life before death: Every one of us has a life. That is why we are here
right now. Every one of us without a doubt will die and never comeback. How are we going to use
this life before death comes? Those who make this dunya/world their goal and live only to
appease and satisfy their every desire, on the Day of Judgment those will beg Allah to send them
back to this life. But Allah (swt) allows everyone only one life and nobody will be able to go back
and change his life. For every good we do we will be rewarded, and for every evil we do we will be
punished.
Do not forget that the most important treasures of our life are our youth, health, wealth, free time
and life. Value these treasures and use them wisely to take advantage of these before they are
taken away from us and substituted by old age, sickness, poverty, busyness and death.
May Allah make us amongst those who can take advantage of these treasures.