The blessed in this temporal life.
In his well-known book, Al-Hikam (Words of Wisdom), sheikh Ahmad ibn `Ataa’illah as-Sakandari says:
“How often has a long life brought about so little, and how often has a short life brought about so much. If someone’s life is blessed, he will reach, in a short time, bounties from Allah that cannot be expressed in words or comprehended in descriptions. “
In Islamic terminology, especially in Sufism, there is a lot of attention given to what is called barakah (blessing). Blessing is defined as the divine good displayed in something. When we invoke Allah’s blessing in something, this means that we would have favorable results due to the divine blessing.
The Sheikh says in this word of wisdom:
‘How often has a long life brought about so little, and how often has a short life brought about so much.’
He wants to say that someone may live for so many years but there is no blessing in his life, and that some other person may live for a short time but there is much blessing and great good in his life.
Then, the Sheikh says:
‘If someone’s life is blessed, he will reach, in a short time, bounties from Allah that cannot be expressed in words or comprehended in descriptions’.
This means that you cannot count Allah’s bounties in a blessed life even if it were to be short.We have a good example in Prophet Muhammad’s life. During the twenty years which he lived after receiving Allah’s revelation, he conveyed Allah’s message to the world at his time, and he changed the course of human history until the Day of Judgment.
