Quarantine -Taking Advantage of the Blessing of Good Health and Free Time - Shaykh Muhammad Baazmool
﷽
All praise belongs to Allaah, Lord of all that exists. May the prayers and peace be upon the noblest of prophets and messengers; our leader Muhammadﷺ, his family and all of his companions. As to what follows:
Indeed, the blessing of Allaah upon the servants are many, (Allaah says)
وَإِن تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَا ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَغَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
"And if you would count the blessings of Allaah, never could you be able to count them. Truly! Allaah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (19:18)
Indeed life is a blessing, good health is a blessing, free time is a blessing, children are a blessing, spouses are a blessing. Therefore all of the affairs of life and what you seek within it are from the blessings. Look now during these days that we are in this quarantine. How many blessings of Allaah upon us have been revealed to us in our lives which we used to call previously routines. So with this it is a must for the Muslim to take advantage of these blessings and not waste anything from them. So he lives (taking advantage of) his health incase of sickness, his free time incase of becoming busy, his prosperity incase of poverty, his life incase of his death and his strength incase of his weakness. He knows that a day will come in which the book will be opened; the book of his deeds and he will see with in it, what he did on this day, and what he did on this hour, and what he did on this minute and what he did on this second.
It was reported in a hadeeth: "A people will not sit in a gathering, and not remember Allaah in that gathering and not send prayers upon their prophet, except that ترة tiratan will be upon them. If He (Allaah) wills He will punish them and if He wills He will forgive them." The meaning of tiratan is regret, deficiency and lost. The muslim will feel regret when he looks into his book in which Allaah says regarding:
مَالِ هَٰذَا الْكِتَابِ لَا يُغَادِرُ صَغِيرَةً وَلَا كَبِيرَةً إِلَّا أَحْصَاهَا ۚ وَوَجَدُوا مَا عَمِلُوا حَاضِرًا ۗ وَلَا يَظْلِمُ رَبُّكَ أَحَدًا
"What is this book that leaves nothing small or great except that it has enumerated it?" And they will find what they did present [before them]. And your Lord does injustice to no one." (18:49)
Therefore the Muslim takes advantage of what he will fill his book with from these blessings of Allaah with (things gaining) the pleasure of Allaah and obedience to Him, therefore gaining with these blessings that which will bring him close to the pleasure of Allaah and distance him from His Anger and His Fire. This is because he took advantage of these blessing in obedience to Allaah.
The deprived, loss and reward deficient is the one who wastes these blessings and does not use them in obedience to Allaah. This is the meaning of the hadeeth of the Messengerﷺ:
"There are two blessing in which many people are wasteful regarding them: good health and free time."
Meaning many people possess good health and free time but they waste them and do not use them in gaining Allaah's pleasure and they do not take advantage of them with what they will put in their books - from actions of obedience so that they will be happy when they receive this book on the Day of Judgement.
For this reason - O Muslim - take advantage of the blessing of good health and free time, particularly, during this quarantine which we are living during these days because of calamity of this epidemic which is worldwide. Therefore it is a must for us to take advantage of our good health and free time in the obedience of Allaah and His Pleasure, unless this become a regret and sorrow for us on the Day of Judgement, whereby we open our books and find that we have wasted this time in other than what pleases Allaah or perhaps in play, wasting (time) in idle false speech not benefiting or gaining benefit.
An Advice given by the Shaykh Friday, April 17th 2020
Translated by Abu Anas Atif Hasan