How many palm trees have we frivolously given up?

Turn all your attention to that which benefits you, for indeed life is short. Be greedy as regards to your day and night. And no one will benefit you, because you will die alone and you will enter your grave alone and you will be questioned alone and you will stand before Allaah سُبحانه وتعالى  alone. Then, for sure you will be asked about your deeds. So invest your time and do not waste even a single moment of it. And do not be like those who when death, the destroyer of pleasures and separator of people, comes to them they say:

“O' my Lord, return me!"

[Sooratul-Muminuun (23):99]

Why is it that he wants to return? Is it because he wants to build a house? Or that he wants to furnish a home? Why is it that he wants to come back? Why does he want to return? He wants to do good deeds!

"...Such that I may do good deeds with what I have left behind."

[Sooratul-Muminuun (23):100]

Now you are here! So if you are one day going to say: “O' my Lord return me, such that I may do good deeds with what I have left behind.” You are here now! Because you will not be returned. As for now, you are here. Such opportunity, none, by Allaah will let slip out of their hand except the crazy. The weak of mind let such opportunities slip by. This person that will later say:

"Return me to do good, return me to the dunyaa to engage in the doing of the good deeds."

So, now you are in it so do the good deeds. Now you are not asking to be returned. And this is very soon, because surely you will not be returned. The return is impossible, and the way back is so long. So work towards that day and prepare yourself for it. And know that no one will fast on your behalf. No one will pray on your behalf. Do for your ownself. And be greedy as regards to your next life. Because Allaah, Blessed and High is He, has informed us that the disbeliever, on the Day of judgment, will say in regret and sorrow:

“I wish I had prepared for my life (Hereafter)."

So what was this that you were in? It is not life! It is more like a mirage! This dunyaa is like a mirage that is soon to disappear. A rainbow soon to go away. Like lightning is there for only a flash, it doesn't stay. If you want to hang on to this life and remain within it, try to grab a fist of water, you will not be able to. The one who wants this dunyaa to remain for him, is like the one who grabs a fist of water; betrayed only by the cracks between his fingers. We need to leave off those things that we have become accustomed to. And from the things that have become habitual to us. As regards to how we spend our time, we have to be greedy, as regards to the moments and minutes and seconds of our lives. The students of knowledge particularly are the foremost candidates for being careful about how they spend their time.

Imam Ibn Jawzee, may Allaah have mercy on him, after he narrates the hadeeth of the Messenger (صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم) in which he (صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم) tells us that Ibraheem (عليه السلام) told him to deliver his salaams to his Ummah (of Muhammad) and tell them that Jannah is fertile soil (empty land) and to populate it is to say 

SubhanaAllaah, Alhamdullilaah, Laa illaaha illaAllaah, and Allaahu Akbar.

So whenever you say these words, these lasting words, these good words, a palm tree will be planted for you in Jannah.

Ibn al Jawzee comments after the hadeeth saying:

“SubhaanAllaah! How many palm trees have we frivolously given up?"

This is an easy matter, SubhaanAllaah, Alhamdullillaah, Laa ilaaha illaAllaah, and Allaahu Akbar. However I understand the excuse of those who were not aided by Allaah. I ask Allah that we should not be from them, sometimes an individual knows where the khayr is and he has unshakable belief of what his path should be, and he has knowledge of which way he should take, but is unable to move towards that bounty of Allaah - not even a single 

movement. Nor take towards it a single step, because his sins have tied him down and because his transgressions have bound him. So to Allaah we belong and to Him we shall return.

We ask Allaah, Elevated and Might is He, to give us vision and insight as regards that which benefits us and to give us the benefit of that which we are able to see.