A scholar was asked: How do you reconcile the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “Maintaining family ties increases lifespan,” with the saying of the Exalted:

The Shaykh : ... Our Shaykh ... the "poor" Shaykh was asked yesterday a question that actually relates to creed. He was asked: The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says: Maintaining family ties prolongs life, and the verse says: ; so how do you reconcile the two? He answered in this way, of course he gave a long answer, but to summarize it, he said that we can reconcile the two by saying that a person may have several appointed times; what does that mean? That his life, for example, might be fifty, or sixty, or seventy years. If he does this action, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) knows that if he does this action, he will be fifty, and if he does this action, he will be sixty; if he does good, he will be sixty, and if he does evil, he will be fifty; so what is the correctness of this statement? Is it ... like this, meaning he is speaking ...?

The Shaykh : ... There is no difference between long ... and short life on one hand, and happiness and misery on the other hand, but Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has made a cause for every thing. It is known that the cause of happiness is faith and righteous deeds, and the cause of misery is disbelief and evil deeds. So whoever brings the cause that is legally required for happiness is happy with Allah, and the opposite is exactly the opposite ... that Allah increases for people ... the matter ... in the knowledge of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), but regarding this matter as perceived in terms of its connection to causes among people who do not know the fate of each individual, whether he is happy or miserable, whether his life is long or short, we now understand and follow the causes which are the cause of happiness or misery, or the cause of long life or the cause of short life, but the end is as in the Preserved Tablet. So now: , and in the other beautiful hadith: , this is within the orbit of causes, so whoever takes this cause, his life is prolonged, and whoever does not take this cause, his life is not prolonged; we do not say: it is short; we say: his life is not prolonged; so there is no ... perhaps he is ... clearer in explanation or not clear, but he did not say for two reasons; because the appointed time with Allah is as in the mentioned verse, and although the verse in terms of its indication relates to nations and not to the individual, but nations are a collection of individuals ... this is without doubt.
Reflect now, on the occasion of this verse, that in some hadiths, as you all know, when the punishment comes, the entire nation is taken, both its righteous and its wicked, but these righteous ones are judged by their intentions and are resurrected by their intentions, as he (peace be upon him) said in some authentic hadiths. Just as the nation or this people that was taken; each of them was taken according to what they strived for, whether faith or disbelief, whether righteous or evil deeds. So perhaps ... here is a fitting recompense, and likewise on the Day of Resurrection they are resurrected by their intentions. Likewise regarding long life and short life; whoever takes the causes that prolong life, which are legal causes, his life is prolonged relative to one who does not take these causes ... the decree is thus cut off, they do not delay an hour nor advance, so why do we find this issue strange, when it relates to legal, spiritual causes, while we see now that material causes actually develop the life of the people from delay, from diseases, from many deaths to the exact opposite of that, this ... frequently; what is the cause? Because they treated them with health causes, so while they were, for example, presenting statistics that every year so many small children die; meaning: and then in the result after a few years they harvest and say: we find the rate of deaths from so much to so much, this is all ... but the research is about taking causes; and therefore there is no problem in what you quoted from the man's words.