Our Creed
THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY
By Imam Khalilullah Qadri
We, as humans, are perpetually striving to achieve
our purpose in life, but sometimes fail to understand
that we need tools to achieve that purpose.
Time and strength are two essential tools that are needed
and help to maximize our purpose in life. Allah says, “I did
not create jinn and humans except to worship Me”(51:56).
We recognize that the primary purpose of our creation is to
worship Allah. However, comparing our worship to that of
previous nations, we find that our lifespans are significantly
shorter and our strengths considerably weaker. How will we
ever match their worship when they have the advantage of
time and strength over us?
The quantity of worship is proportionate to the lifespan. If
we live longer, the higher the probability to perform more
worship. But despite modern medicine and technological
progress that has helped extend our lifespans, we still find
our lives to be comparatively shorter than past nations. The
Prophet a said, “The lives of my nation range from 60 to
70 years. There are only few that pass that age” (Tirmidhi).
In other words, if anyone lives beyond 70, it’s a bonus. Comparing
70 years to the 950-years of Nuh e, our entire life is
equivalent to a passing phase of his life, let alone his worship.
Allah says, “And We certainly sent Nuh to his people,
and he remained among them a thousand years minus fifty
years, and the flood seized them while they were wrongdoers”
(29:14). The nations preceding Nuh e, such as Adam e
and Idris e and their nations too, lived enormously lengthy
lives. In a hadith in Ibn Abi Hatim, the Prophet a narrated
the story of a believer from the previous nation who strove
in the path of Allah for a 1000 months.. Again, his contribution
to the good deed was accomplished for a prolonged
period of time, granting him enormous rewards. This cumulative
worship was achieved through the utility of a long
lifespan. Time plays an extensive role on the quantity of
worship, thus fulfilling more of the purpose of life.
The force of quantity is always overlooked. Usually, we focus
more on the quality, while disregarding quantity. However,
quantity leads to higher quality, even in terms of worship.
Sometimes quality cannot be achieved or even possible
without a required amount of time. Many a times a child
needs quantitative time from parents. This can include
picking up and dropping them off to school, being there for
them at their soccer game or giving them a good night kiss.
This time spent develops a special bond which builds a qualitatively
stronger relationship. Because the parents invested
that time, the child feels safe knowing that he can confide
his inner feelings with the parents. The more time that is
invested in the relationship, the more opportunity to improve
the quality of the relationship. During this pandemic,
more families are spending time together as compared to
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8 March – April 2021 | AL-MADINAH