Alhumdulillah for Our Health 🍎✨
Ibn Abbas reported that the Prophet (SAWS) said, “Take advantage of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your riches before your poverty, your free time before your work, and your life before your death.” [Sahih]
Whether or not you’ve written it down, everyone has goals. Perhaps you refer to yours more as dreams or aspirations. Typically, these goals are a number of things that we want to get done and achieve before we reach a certain age or lose out on certain opportunities. To put it more frankly, things we want to do before we lose our good health and age.
Goals encompass what a person hopes to achieve in the dunya, and as a result, the list will usually only include dunya-related goals. However, as Muslims, we must evaluate our goals for this dunya through a different lens.
Ultimately, our goals should be things we want to achieve in this dunya for the akhirah. This is because, as Muslims, we know this life is temporary. We know that the pay-off is short-term when the intention is to gain pleasure in this dunya only. It is important that we first acknowledge our health as a blessing. This could mean acknowledging your health as a blessing before the next time you catch a cold and have to stay home sick, or even seeing your health as a blessing long-term. Too often, we only appreciate what we have when we no longer have it. Yet, the Prophet (SAWS) is directly telling us to take advantage of our health before our illness. We cannot ignore this.
Moreover, when people feel they have accomplished a goal, they check a box or give themselves a certificate, content that they have fully reached their goal. While it’s great, and necessary, to celebrate our success and use it as motivation…we should not become too comfortable in this dunya. Our ultimate reward is with Allah (SWT) in the Hereafter and until then, we need to continue to strive. When we reach a goal, we should aim to be consistent with it or even set a higher goal to reach. We need to be consistent with our good deeds and acts of ib’adah. We need to take advantage of our health until our dying breath.
The reality is, we don’t always know when we are about to face an illness or lose our good health. However, that should not stop us from wanting to engage in acts of ib’adah and doing all the good that we can for the sake of Allah (SWT). Our body and our health is an ammanah from Allah (SWT) that is simply holding our soul in this life temporarily. It is a gift, but it is also a test from Allah (SWT). Can we truly say, “alhumdulilah for my good health” when we don’t even show it?
We need to be productive in the moments that we are able to. Don’t wait until tomorrow to take advantage of your blessings. Take advantage of your good health and opportunities for khair today, before tomorrow.
May Allah (SWT) keep us all in good health so that we can continue to serve Him, ameen.
