“How often has a long life brought about so little, and how often has a short life brought about so much.
If someone’s life is blessed, he will reach, in a short time, bounties from God that cannot be expressed in words or comprehended in descriptions.”
Here the concept that the sheikh is dealing with is the concept of Barakah (blessing), when your life is blessed.
How is Your Life Blessed?
When Allah puts blessing in your life, you achieve in such a short time so much for Allah’s sake, for the sake of good, and in the way of good and morality…
And if your life is not blessed, even if it’s a long life, you will not achieve much.
Blessed People
The example of this is Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) during the twenty years while he was receiving Allah’s revelation, he achieved so much, he changed the course of history; he taught humanity so much in a very short period of time.
The Prophet’s life was a blessed life that cannot be comprehended in descriptions or expressed in words.
When Allah blesses people’s lives, they achieve so much in such a little time because there is blessing in their times. If you look at the lives of the companions around the Prophet Muhammad and how much they achieved in twenty years, they changed the course of history and they built a civilization that is unique in human history.
If you look at the lives of the Imams that we know, most of them actually lived until their forties or fifties, not more than that; and many of them left hundreds of students and thousands of pieces of creative writings, books and commentaries…
If you look at the lives of the pioneers in the Islamic civilization, where people were expressing their faith in a way of achieving things, you will find that they created so much and they achieved so much.
Why?
Because they have a life that is blessed by Allah; they have the right heart in the right place and therefore Allah blesses their lives and causes so much impact with their lives.
Blessed Places and Times
Allah also gives special status with special places, for example:
Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al- Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing. (Quran 17: 1)
Allah blessed that place in Jerusalem and made it a special place as much as He blessed the place in Makkah and Madinah. He has special places that He did Barakah in.
Allah also puts blessings in special times. Ramadan has more Barakah than any other month, the time at night has more Barakah more blessing to pray in and to do some good deeds more than any other time, the early morning is more blessed than the rest of the day…
Allah put these blessings in places and times to allow us to achieve more with our lives and to do more with a life that is blessed.
This is a very important step towards Allah to rely on Him so that He blesses your life and multiplies the impact of your life.
We ask Allah that.