They disliked the supplication, “May Allah prolong your life,” and when this supplication was made for them, they would say: This is something decreed, and they disliked it.

The questioner : They disliked the supplication, “May Allah prolong your life.” Have you looked into anything regarding this? When this supplication was made for them, they would say: This is something decreed, and they disliked it?

The Shaykh : I have not looked into this, and even if I had, I would not have adopted it; because it contradicts what is authentic from his saying (peace be upon him) . And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) supplicated for Anas ibn Malik for abundance of provision and length of life in some of the authentic narrations; therefore, I do not see any issue with supplicating for length of life, even though this is not practiced in most Arab countries except in this country. But the truth is that the Sunnah is with them. And when I hear the supplication of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) for length of life for his servant Anas, there is no doubt that he meant by that length of life accompanied by righteous deeds. He (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) said: . And the first hadith we mentioned: contains an encouragement to engage in the lawful means that are the cause of two things: the first is length of life, and the second is abundance of provision. So the interpretation by some scholars of this hadith that its apparent meaning is not intended is closer to the denial of some of the verses of attributes and the hadiths of attributes; because what drives them is their assumption that if we take the apparent meaning of this hadith, we would contradict what is certain among Muslims that both provision and length of life are limited in the Preserved Tablet and confirmed when the soul is breathed into the fetus in the womb of its mother. But that does not mean that there are no causes for these outcomes of length of life and abundance of provision, such as happiness and misery. Just as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) made a cause for both happiness and misery; the cause of happiness is faith in Allah, and the cause of misery is disbelief in Him (Blessed and Exalted is He), so He also made causes for length of life and abundance of provision. But this does not mean that it is not decreed. Everything is by decree, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
Therefore, just as it is obligatory for Muslims to take the paths that lead them to happiness and to avoid the paths that lead them to misery, so too must they take...