Khamsan Qabla Khamsin

Praying Isya' at the Datuk Keramat Musholla made me realise two things.

1. That the majority of the makmum..and of course plus the imam were elders. I mean really elders. So I started thinking..is the population by age an inverse triangle? I mean, are there more fifty plus2 aged men in this country than twenty plus2? Answer yourself, because the musholla seemed to prove that.

2. That actually being old is not that easy. I mean yeah, i know its hard...with the health problems and everything. But as I prayed ba'adiah, i couldn't help notice the man in front of me lethargically rising for his second rakaat. I apologise if this is considered as an insult, but generally speaking he was old and cranky. And in seeing this, I finally realised what Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam meant by your youth before your old age in this hadith:

"Ightanim khamsan qabla khamsin: hayaataka qabla mautika, wa sihhataka qabla saqamika, wa faraaghaka qabla shughulika, wa shabaabaka qabla haramika wa ghinaaka qabla faqrika.""Take advantage of five before five: your life before your death, your health before your illness, your free time before becoming busy, your youth before your old age and your wealth before your poverty."

All this while  i didn't realise the fact that if by His means, each and everyone of us will individually grow old. And by that time everything we have now would be gone. Our strength, our spirits, our dreams, our abilities..all gone..engulfed by age. So would we wait. Wait till the age comes, when at that time we are sure of death around the corner. And only then we would struggle to repent, to do 'amal, to seek jannah..and without strength, without dreams, without energy..would it be that easy? Think for yourself while you still can.

So ightanim!!
Ightanim shabaabaka qabla haramik!!