notifications_active Weekly Meshkat-e Noor Session: Thursdays at 20:30 at Haj Reza Mosque
Good deeds are directly linked to a longer life, but why did the Ahl al-Bayt (AS) and some of the devout have short lives?
َّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ
A person’s lifespan is in God’s hands. It is either fixed and unchangeable (ajal-e maqḍī) or subject to change through *badāʾ* (ajal-e musamman). Although the Ahl al-Bayt (AS) had the potential to live long lives, they devoted all they had to God’s cause. This sacrifice was a sign of their perfection and merit, not of a short lifespan.
A person’s entire lifespan belongs to God; it cannot be divided, and no one shares in it. Only God can shorten or lengthen it, and then only when certain conditions are met.
So a person’s appointed term is either decreed and unalterable, or specified and subject to change through badāʾ; both are in God’s hands.
الأنعام : 2 هُوَ الَّذي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ طينٍ ثُمَّ قَضى أَجَلاً وَ أَجَلٌ مُسَمًّى عِنْدَهُ ثُمَّ أَنْتُمْ تَمْتَرُونَ
الرعد : 39 يَمْحُوا اللَّهُ ما يَشاءُ وَ يُثْبِتُ وَ عِنْدَهُ أُمُّ الْكِتابِ
عنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ)، قَالَ: «الْأَجَلُ الْمَقْضِيُّ: هُوَ الْمَحْتُومُ الَّذِي قَضَاهُ اللَّهُ وَ حَتَمَهُ، وَ الْمُسَمَّى: هُوَ الَّذِي فِيهِ الْبَدَاءُ، يُقَدِّمُ مَا يَشَاءُ، وَ يُؤَخِّرُ مَا يَشَاءُ، وَ الْمَحْتُومُ لَيْسَ فِيهِ تَقْدِيمٌ وَ لَا تَأْخِيرٌ».
Imam al-Ṣādiq (peace be upon him) said: “The decreed term—the firm and established one—is the inevitable term that God has made firm, established and certain. The ‘specified term’ is the one subject to badāʾ [change]: He brings forward whatever He wills and delays whatever He wills. But the inevitable term can be neither brought forward nor delayed.”
A lifespan can be increased just as wealth can. Anyone can give away all their wealth at once in the way of God; the same is true of one’s life and years. The revered figures could, by virtue of their particular merits, have lived longer. Their reserves of life were undoubtedly greater, but they sacrificed all of them in the way of God!