The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) advised:
بَادِرُوا بِالأعْمَال فتناً كقطَعِ اللَّيْلِ المُظْلِمِ ، يُصْبحُ الرَّجُلُ مُؤْمِناً وَيُمْسِي كَافِراً ، وَيُمْسِي مُؤمِناً ويُصبحُ كَافِراً ، يَبيعُ دِينَهُ بعَرَضٍ مِنَ الدُّنيا
“Race to do good deeds against seven things. What are you waiting for? A poverty that makes you forget, or prosperity that makes you transgress, or illness that disables, or senility that destroys, or death that comes without warning, or the Dajjāl (False Messiah) so that hidden evil is what is awaited, or the Hour? For the Hour is most grievous and most bitter.”
Takhrij:
[Related on the authority of Abū Hurayrah in Tirmidhī #2228 and al-Bayhaqī’s Shu‘b al-Ῑmān. According to the late Shaykh Bin Bāz, it is an authentic narration.]
This general Prophetic advice is of immense relevance to our times and consists of seven items with universal implications. These seven items may be viewed from two varying perspectives—warnings and predictions. At face value, they represent a warning against seven universal dangers which surround and threaten the lives of all human beings. These matters potentially affect each of our lives in a major way and can decrease our opportunities for doing good. Hence the advice to increase our individual efforts towards good. From another perspective, however, they can represent predictions of matters that will increase in the world with the passage of time, and hence, they are a call to societies and communities to take heed and increase towards good. These seven mortal dangers are:
Poverty that makes you forget- Prosperity that makes you transgress
- Debilitating illness
- Senility that will destroy you
- Sudden Death
- Dajjal
- The Hour
Of these seven, four matters—poverty, illness, senility and death, are universal human fears and drive the behavior of most human beings on this planet. The majority of us are engaged in a desperate and bitter struggle to escape these four threats. To these, the Prophet out of his wisdom added a fifth which is not so universally recognized as a danger—wealth. Finally, the last two things represent matters about which most people are in denial—the end of times and the Day of Judgment. The point to be noted is that the Prophet was warning about these seven items in their extreme forms and overwhelming states.
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