Make the best of Opportunities… For They Pass like Clouds

Many of us begin each new day, new month and new year with a multitude of aspirations. Yet as time progresses throughout that day, month or year, sometimes, when we may be discouraged, we are tempted to believe that only the “lucky” people receive the best opportunities and that we just don’t have that luck. However, anyone can encounter numerous opportunities when we put in the work to step into the right place at the right time. As you engage your dreams for the New Year, how do you strike when the proverbial iron is hot?
It has been said, “Opportunities are like sunrises, if you wait too long you might miss it.”
Ali RA said, “Make the best of opportunities because they pass like clouds. Do not look for traces after having missed the opportunity of seen your actual quest.”

The reality is if we make dua and effort, everything and everyone that comes in our path, is in fact a means and opportunity to the destination we dream of reaching. When we look at life in retrospect, we will realise that ALLAH SWT in His Infinite Mercy was granting little opportunities, using them as stepping stones to reach our current destination. Indeed we need to heed the words of Ali bin Abi Taalib RA, known for his wisdom, “Make the best of opportunities, for they pass like clouds.”

In the reality of life in its entirety, our Beloved Rasool SAW advised us, “Take benefit of five before five: Your youth before your old age, your health before your sickness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before you are preoccupied, and your life before your death”
(Narrated by Ibn Abbas and reported by Al Hakim)
Our Youth
When we are young we have strength, enthusiasm and drive and are ready and raring to take on the world. Ar Rasool SAW conveyed to us that a young person who grows up in the worship of ALLAH SWT, will be among the seven who are granted shade by ALLAH SWT when there no will be no shade but His. (Bukhari)

Our Health
No one can guarantee what tomorrow will bring. Our health is a blessing from ALLAH SWT that we tend to take for granted. Ar Rasool SAW said, “Whosoever begins the day experiencing family security and good health; and possessing provision for his day, it is as though he possessed the whole world.” (Tirmidhi)
Our Wealth
We should all strive to invest a portion of our wealth in the Hereafter. Helping the needy, providing for orphans, being a part of humanitarian efforts, all secure great reward for us in Jannah and is a great means of attaining ALLAH’s Pleasure.
ALLAH SWT has promised us that he will repay us more than whatever sum of money we spend for His sake: “Who is it that would loan ALLAH a goodly loan so He may multiply it for him many times over? And it is ALLAH who withholds and grants abundance, and to Him you will be returned. (Al Baqarah 2:245)
“The feet of the son of Adam shall not move from before his Lord on the Day of Judgement, until he is asked about five things one of which is his wealth and how he earned it and spent it upon.”

Extracted from my articles from the Muslim Woman Magazine 2021 edition

Envision Your Purpose & Your Paradise.

~RSB ~Author, Journalist, International Motivational Speaker, Islamic Scholar, Tahfeedhul Quraan Student & teacher, Humanitarian, Archery Instructor, University Tutor, holds 3 degrees BA(English, Arabic, Islamic Studies) BA Hons IST(Cum Laude) MA IST.