Remember yesterday when we were discussing how important salah is and we said that Allah ﷻ will put blessings, or barakah, in our time when we put Allah ﷻ first? 

Question: Why do you think our time is so important?

Question: Who can tell me a surah from the Qur’an that talks about time? 

Yes! Surat al-Asr. A word that is related to asr is ‘aseer (عصير). Do you know what ‘aseer means? 

It’s juice! The juice that has literally been squeezed out from fruit. And ‘asr is the time of day where the last bits of our day are being squeezed in before maghrib comes and the sun sets. 

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told us to take care of five things before five. Do you know what they are? 

Okay, let’s go through them one by one. The first one is your youth before your old age. 

Question: What does it mean to take advantage of your youth? 

(An example is someone who is able-bodied and healthy has more energy to do good deeds) 

That’s great! The second one is your health before your illness. 

Question: What are some of the blessings that we take for granted when we are healthy? How does it feel when we’re sick? Do we have any energy when we’re sick?

The third one is to take advantage of your wealth before your poverty. 

Question: What do you think it means to take advantage of your wealth? 

(Kids may say to save their money and not buy silly things.  Guide them to mention charity and how Allah ﷻ multiplies whatever we give in charity back to us)

The fourth thing we need to take advantage of is our free time before our work. Right now, as kids, you may have a lot more free time than adults. You have less responsibilities, but you may not be using your time wisely. 

Question: What’s one way you can make better use of your time?

The last one is to take advantage of your life before your death. On the Day of the Judgment, people will be begging Allah ﷻ to go back to this world for even a day so they can do as much good as possible. By then, it’ll be too late. So anything good you can do while you’re still alive, make sure to do it to the best of your ability! 

Okay, so let’s recap! Who can remember the 5 before 5?

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

Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ 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”

Did you notice that 3 out of the 5 have to do with our time? That’s how important our time is and we need to do our best not to waste it!