How productive was our prophet Muhammad (pbuh)?

It is an irrefutable fact that the Day of Judgment is the ultimate accumulation of the most difficult set of conditions for a human being to operate in.

 “On the Day you see it, every nursing mother will think no more of her baby,

 Every pregnant female will miscarry, you will think people are drunk when they are not,

 So severe will be Allah’s torment”.  Allah says.

You might expect, under such harsh circumstances, the prophet (pbuh) would tell us to throw away anything in our hands and start praying or something. Yet, the Prophet manages to draw a breathtaking picture of someone who’s fighting against the Day of Judgment, it starting to happen and the man is trying to plant a shoot before it happens!!  SubhanAllah, not even the Hour is an excuse for the one of us not to contribute to society and to the benefit of humanity.

“If the Hour starts to happen and in the hand of one of you is a palm shoot or seedling; then if he’s able to plant it before the Hour happens, then let him plant it.” The prophet (pbuh) says.

There may never be an ideal condition for you in this life that perfectly suits your liking, as it’s either not comfortable (too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet, etc.), or it’s too comfortable (too cozy, too beautiful, too soft, etc.), but it’s never just right!  If you are waiting for the perfect condition to start working for Islam, it may never materialize, not soon anyway. 

The moral of this Hadith is crystallized in the following example,, Abu Yusuf (may Allah have mercy upon him), the famous student of Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy upon him) was on his death bed and was losing consciousness when his student Ibrahim  (may Allah have mercy upon him)arrived.  When Abu Yusuf woke up and saw Ibrahim he asked, “What do you say about this issue?”

 Ibrahim shockingly replied: “while you are in this state?”  Abu Yusuf told him:  “what’s wrong with that?  We study so maybe one person will benefit or be saved [by the correct answer]”.  Ibrahim goes on to narrate that it only took him to finish debating the issue and reaching the door till he could hear the weeping of his teacher’s family [signaling his death].

Subhanallah, see how Abu Yusuf was eager to learn until his very last breath. See how he contributed under the harshest of conditions!

Just like this man that the Prophet described.  He’s planting the palm shoot, but he’s not sure if he or the plant will make it for the next hour.  But that’s okay since this man has fulfilled his responsibility.  The rest is on Allah.