139TH FRIDAY SERMON AT AREA
10 JUMA’AH MASJID ABUJA, BY YAHYA GARBA
AL-YOLAWI, ON 8TH MUHARRAM 1439/ 29TH SEPT. 2017
TOPIC: MAKE USE OF FIVE THINGS BEFORE FIVE THINGS HAPPEN TO YOU
In the name of Allah, the
Beneficent, the Merciful.
To proceed;
Respected brothers and sisters in Islam, today’s khutbah centered
on the hadith of the prophet (SAW): Take advantage of five (5) before five (5)
things happen to you.
Islam considers life- time of person to be a great valuable
resource for him; thus believers are encouraged to be conscious of their
actions and in actions in this life. To
achieve maximum benefit out of this life one need to recognize its importance
and organize it wisely. If human beings
do not waste or abuse life but rather perceive
it as a blessing from Allah SWT they would have every chance and hope for success both in this life and in the
hereafter.
Islam teaches us that your life passes quickly and can never
return; it is irretrievable. It is also
the most precious gift that humankind possesses and
can be taken from us at any
given moment. Thus the messenger of
Allah encourages us to make best use of these five things before five things
happen to us.
It was narrated from Ibn Abbas that the messenger of Allah (SAW)
says: “Seize the opportunity 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,imamAhamd and authenticated by
Al-Albani
The Prophet (SAW) is
pointing out that these five matters are very easy to get hold of, because they
are treasures that everyone possesses, but very few appreciate. What are these
five things?
1: Your Youthful age before you become old
One of the things that most people take for granted is their youth
age. Youthfulness is a time when a person is most energetic; when he lays out
the foundations for his future, and when he plans his life. So, one has to
seize the opportunity of this time before the time comes when that enthusiasm
is either lost or greatly reduced.
Therefore, the Prophet (SAW) is advising the youth to seize this moment
and take advantage of it. The youth should utilize this energy for the sake of
Allah by seeking knowledge, obtaining halal means of sustenance, and
worshipping Allah through acts that he or she might not be able to do later in
life. When people lose their youth, they find it harder to do certain deeds
which were easier to do at a younger age. Youth, here, does not mean the concept
of youth where youthfulness finishes after the age of eighteen or nineteen. In
the Islamic point of view a man's life has been divided into a number of
stages. Shabab or youthfulness, according to the strongest opinions refers to
the stage 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 decline.
2: Your Health, Before You
Fall Sick
Secondly, 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. 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 sick that we realize what a great blessing we had and how we lost it by
not doing as much as we could have done. Everyone falls sick. There may come a
time when we also fall sick. Sometimes the sicknesses may be severe. So, the
Prophet (SAW) is reminding us that we do not know the time up to which we will
enjoy the full possession of our faculties, of our physical strength, and our
mental capacities. Therefore, we should take advantage of our good health
before that time comes when we may be deprived of it.
The Prophet (SAW) said: “The majority of mankind does not
appreciate two blessings: ‘health’ and ‘free time.’ Alhamdulillah, we have been
blessed with sound minds in sound bodies. Look at someone who Allah has tested
with blindness. It is a very severe test. We have been blessed not just with
eyesight, but with hearing, with limbs, with energy, with vitality, and with
countless other blessings. Should we not appreciate these blessings from Allah
(SWT)? Do we not realize how enormous the blessing of health is? The Qur’an
reminds us in Surat al-Nahl,“Any blessing you have is from Allah. Then when
harm touches you, it is to Him alone you cry for help” (al-Nahl, 16:53).
The least we can do, brothers and sisters, is to perform the
fara’id or the mandatory actions such as the five daily prayers, fasting in
Ramadan, and going for Hajj. All these modes of worship require physical
exertion. That is the least that we can
do; the bare minimum. Of course, the more one exerts, the better it is for him.
So, this is the second of the five matters: “Take advantage of your health
before you fall sick.”
3: Your Richness Before
Poverty
The third is to take advantage of your wealth before your poverty.
One day we might have much more than we need, and the next day, we might not
have anything. One day, a person might have the best of jobs or the best of
businesses; yet, the next day, something happens and he does not have the job
or the business, and loses all his sources of income. So the wise person uses
his wealth before he loses it. He invests for his future.
As far as making investments for worldly benefits is concerned, the
non-believe and the Muslim are both
same; they both do that. Of course, we have to ensure that we have enough money
for our family and our children and ourselves, so that we don’t have to beg.
But while investing in the duniya, let us not forget that we also need to
invest in the akhirah, where we need to reap the benefits of our investments
much more than we need in this world.
We need to invest for our real future, our eternal life in the
hereafter.
The Prophet (SAW) once asked his companions, "Who amongst you
loves his inheritors' money more than his own money?" The Sahaba said,
"O Messenger of Allah! All of us love our own money more than we love the
money of our inheritors. We guard it and protect it more than the money of our
inheritors.” Then the Prophet (SAW) said, "Indeed, the money that you
spend in charity is your money, and the money that you leave behind is the
money of your inheritors." So, this is the third of the five matters:
“take advantage of your wealth before your poverty.”
4: Your Free Time Before You are preoccupied
The fourth blessing is the free time (opportunity of doing
something) that we have. In fact, it is a great treasure that all of us have to
some degree or the other. We must make use of our free time before we become
too busy or preoccupied. How much free
time do we have and what do we waste it on? Think about it. Think about the
free time all of us have been blessed with. Let us not waste our free time.
Perhaps the greatest wasters of time are
television, smart phones, social medias, games, bad friends and
internet. I am not referring to the time
which is utilized in getting something useful and beneficial from these devices;
something which is productive, beneficial to you in this world and hereafter,
What I mean to say is that very often, we gain no benefit after being attached
to the TV or internet, face book, wathapp etc. for hours on end—benefit,
neither for this world, nor for the next. And we’ll be lucky if after wasting
time, we come out without committing any sin of watching lustful and obscene
images or listening to music or both.
When we have some free time, we should take advantage of it. The
greatest thing that we can do in this free time is to engage in the remembrance
and worship of Allah (SWT). And one of the greatest acts of worship is to seek
knowledge.
Spending free time wisely does not necessarily mean engaging in
religious activities only. One way to spend time is to visit one another; visit
the sick, for the sake of Allah (SWT). Time could also be invested in helping
others with the little opportunity you have or by learning a trade or skill that can benefit us
and others in this world. In fact, all acts done for the sake of Allah and to
seek the pleasure of Allah are transformed into acts of worship. Of course,
there are religious deeds that need to be done. Besides the compulsory ritual
prayers, we should pray some nawafil prayers as well; a few sunnah or the
nawafil, if not the continual (rawatib) sunnahs that the Prophet (SAW) used to
pray. Each one of us should also spend his time to recite Qur'an every day,
even if it's only for 1 hr or 30 mints.
5: Your Life Before Your Death
Brothers and sisters! The last thing that we have been advised to
take advantage of is our life before our death. This summarizes it all. Every
one of us has a life. That is why we are here right now. And every one of us
has to die. Every night when we go to sleep, we enter a state where a part of
our soul leaves us. When we wake up, it is only because Allah has blessed us by
returning back our souls; hence granting us the opportunity to worship Him, to
seek His forgiveness, and to do some more good deeds before it is our last day
on earth. Upon waking up in the morning, the Prophet (SAW) used to say,
“Praise be to Allah who gave me life after death, and to Him is the
final return.” 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 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 there will be no
turning back. We must not forget what a blessing and mercy life is. We should
value every moment of life, and use it to our best advantage. This means that
we should struggle to qualify for Allah’s mercy and get rewarded with peace of
heart in this world, and with Jannah in
the next world.
In conclusion, good things don’t just come to us. We have to strive
for them, day in and day out. Whether we are at school, at work, in the office
or raising a family, we have to excel in whatever we do. We know that we have
to work hard, and the harder we work, the better the reward. Jannah is no
exception to this. If we strive hard enough, Allah will reward us with the
ultimate prize of paradise insha’Allah. The Qur’an says“Man receives only what
he strives for” (al-Najm, 53:3).
Brothers and sisters! The wise person is the one who strives to
achieve the pleasure of Allah, places his trust in Allah, and then expects the
best from Allah. The foolish person is the one who blindly follows his desires
and then presumes that Allah will reward him.
Finally, based on the announcement made by sultan, tomorrowsatuday and Sunday are Days of Tasu’a
and Ashura (9th and 10th of Muharram)
are great days; if possible we should all fast on these two days and we should
not forget our country Nigeria in Prayers. While acknowledging its greatness,
let us shun all innovations and unfounded customs in these days that can
deprive us from blessings and rewards. Let us firmly stick to Qur'an and Sunnah
to attain success of both this world and the hereafter. May Allah (SWT) make us
amongst those who are successful in both worlds.
Ameen.
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