5 Before 5 Hadith Arabic And Meaning

Here is 5 before 5 hadith Arabic text, English translation and explanation. It is a very apt narration from the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) that serves as a timeless piece of advice for everyone, no matter what stage of life you are in.

5 Before 5 Hadith In English

Ibn Abbas reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, 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.”

Source: Shu’ab al-Iman 9767

Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Albani

Take 5 Before 5 Hadith In Arabic

عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ اغْتَنِمْ خَمْسًا قَبْلَ خَمْسٍ شَبَابَكَ قَبْلَ هَرَمِكَ وَصِحَّتَكَ قَبْلَ سَقَمِكَ وَغِنَاكَ قَبْلَ فَقْرِكَ وَفَرَاغَكَ قَبْلَ شُغُلِكَ وَحَيَاتَكَ قَبْلَ مَوْتِكَ.

Five Before Five Hadith Explanation And Commentary

There are five blessings regarding which many people loose: youth, good health, riches, free time and life.”

Meaning that, many people incur loss through these five forms of favour; that is to say, they are overwhelmed by them.

When the individual is healthy he will be able to carry out what Allah orders him to do and shun what He has forbidden him from, since he is healthy, delighted, and calm.

Likewise free time; when he has what is enough for him, sufficient; he becomes entirely free. So, when a person is free and healthy, he becomes careless a lot.

A good chunk of our time is squandered without benefit; we are healthy, secured, and free, but we still waste much of our time!

However, we will not appreciate this loss in this world; man will only recognize it when his appointed time comes and on the Day of Resurrection.

The evidence for that is Allah’s statement:

“Until when death comes to one of them, he says, ‘My Lord! Send me back. So that I may do good in that which I left behind…”

Surah Al-Mu’minuun: 99-100

Allah – the Mighty and Sublime – also says in Sooratul Munaafiqoon:

“… (do good) before death comes to one of you, andhesays: ‘My Lord! If only You would give me respite for a little while, then I should give the poor-due and be among the righteous.’”

And Allah the Exalted says:

“And Allah grants respite to none when his appointed time comes. And Allah is All-Aware of what you do.”

Surah al-Munafiqun:11

The reality is that a great deal of these periods comes to nothing for us as we do neither benefit from it nor extend benefit to any servant of Allah.

But we will not regret this until our appointed time comes; an individual would to be given a chance even if it were a minute in order to seek rectification but that unfortunately will not happen.

However, a person may not lose these two favours – sound health and free time – with death; he may lose them before he dies.

Perhaps, he may fall sick and become unable to establish what Allah has made obligatory for him. He is already sick, his heart hardens, and he becomes weary.

He may as well become preoccupied with seeking sustenance for himself and his dependents until he misses many acts of obedience.

Therefore, it is necessary for the intelligent to take advantage of the opportunity of good health and free time for obedience to Allah, the Mighty and Sublime, as much as he is able to.

For instance, if he is given to reading the Qur’aan let him increase in recitation, and if he is not learned in recitals, let him engage in much remembrance of Allah, the Mighty and Sublime.

If it is not possible for him, he should command good and forbid evil or extend assistance and goodness within his ability to his brothers, and so, no benefit will be missen.

The reasonable individual is the one who takes advantage of the opportunity of sound health and free time.

This contains proof that Allah’s favours vary, and that some are superior to others. And the greatest favour Allah – the Exalted – grants any servant is the favour of Islam; a favour which Allah has deprived many people.

Allah – the Exalted – says:

“This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as yourreligion.”

Surah al-Maidah: 3

When the individual finds that Allah has favoured him with Islam and opened his heart to it, then this is the greatest favour.Secondly is the favour of intellect.

When a person sees a mentally derailed who cannot manage his affairs and would often harm himself and family – he thanks Allah for this great favour; it is indeed a great favour.

Youth before old age

One of the things that most people take for granted is their youth. When people are young, they are full of energy and are capable of doing so many things for the sake of Allah Ta’ala, but often we see that this energy is wasted in one way or another.

When people lose their youth, they inevitably find it harder to do those deeds and acts of worship that they found somewhat easier to do at a younger age.

With old age, people find it harder to keep fard (obligatory) fasts, they may not be able perform wudhu properly or to pray properly, and they may not have the energy to recite the Qur’an very often.

It is common to hear young people claim that they will start ‘practising’ Islam when they get older. We should always be mindful of the fact that ‘older’ may never come round for us.

We have no guarantee that we will even be alive tomorrow, let alone be alive to see our pensions, or our grandchildren.

And even if we are blessed with a long life, how can we be sure that we have the health – physical and mental – to practise Islam?

On top of all this, we should remember that people do not just magically become ‘good’ overnight; often, we find that bad habits are hard to shift – what if we can’t get rid of our bad habits when we get old?

Health before sickness

As with our youth, we often take for granted our health. We are advised to take advantage of our good health before we are overcome with illness or disability.

What we often don’t realise is that our health is a blessing from Allah Ta’ala. 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 that we realise what a great thing we had and how we let it go to waste by not doing as much ‘ibadah (worship) as we know we could – and should – have done.

Wealth before poverty

Wealth is another blessing granted to us by Allah. Wealth in this context does not necessarily mean that we have large amounts of savings, or the fact that we can afford a huge house, a top-of-the-range car and a state-of-the-art media system.

The simpler things such as a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs and food in our fridges make us amongst the world’s wealthiest people – a fact that we, more often than not, seem to overlook, particularly when we see people that have a lot more worldly possessions than we do.

There are millions of people in the world today that don’t even have a drop of clean water to drink, and they don’t know where their next meal will be coming from.

These are the people that we need to be helping with our wealth. Even a small donation can go a long way.

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:

‘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’.

Surah Al-Baqarah: 261

Free time before preoccupation

Islam always encourages us to make the most of our time, and to spend as much of it as possible in the way of Allah.

We should utilise the time we have available to do as much good as we can, because before we know it, this time will have passed.

As mentioned above, we should use the time we have in our youth to do as much in the way of Allah as possible, because as time passes, as well as having to contend with old age and all that entails, we will inevitably have a lot more things to worry about, like jobs, homes and families – things that most of us at this present moment aren’t necessarily worried about.

If we think that finding the time to practise Islam is difficult now, what will we do when life really starts to pick up pace?

There is nothing wrong with getting married and having a family, but we should appreciate the relative freedom that we have now, and spend as much of it as we can on good deeds.

The concept of time is so important in Islam that Allah swears by it in the Qur’an:

‘By Time. Verily Man is in loss, except such as have faith and do good deeds, and in the mutual teaching of truth, of patience and constancy.’

Surah Al-‘Asr

In line with the above aayaat (verses), we have to discipline ourselves by giving value to the importance of time. We should be prompt in doing good deeds, which will increase our faith and subsequently enable us to gain Allah’s pleasure and mercy.

Life before death

The last thing that we have been advised to take advantage of is our life before our death. Every night when we go to sleep, we enter a state where our soul leaves us.

When we wake up, it is only because Allah has blessed us by returning our souls and granting us the opportunity to worship Him for at least one more day.

Upon waking up in the morning, the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) used to say (and we are also encouraged to do the same):

‘Praise be to Allah who gave me life after death, and to Him is the final return.’ (Bukhari)

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 Ta’ala 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 no turning back time.

We must not forget what a mercy life is. We should savour every moment and use it to our best advantage. This means pleasing Allah in order to achieve our ultimate goal – Jannah.

I’ll end with a final hadith that I feel sums up the importance of all these issues:

‘A man shall be asked concerning five things on the Day of Resurrection: concerning his life, how he spent it; concerning his youth, how he grew old; concerning his wealth, how he acquired it and how he spent it; and what he did with the knowledge he had.’ (Tirmidhi)

I pray that Allah Ta’ala grant us the tawfiq to make the most of all that He has blessed us with, and that He accepts all our efforts.