A Thousand Years Minus Fifty

Noah's Ark. Source: Wikipedia

And We certainly sent Noah to his people, and he remained among them a thousand years minus fifty years, and the flood seized them while they were wrongdoers.

29. Surat Al-`Ankabūt (The Spider; 14)

And construct the ship under Our observation and Our inspiration and do not address Me concerning those who have wronged; indeed, they are [to be] drowned."

11. Surat Hūd (Hud; 37)

And a sign for them is that We carried their forefathers in a laden ship.

36. Surat Yā-Sīn (Ya Sin; 41)

There are many doors to take on the way to prosperity. All containing different strategies. The truth is, any strategy will do. The often heard "spending less than earnings" (or earning more than you spend, if you prefer to spin it that way) is the foundation of all types of strategies. You can start change now, without having to go through 30 steps to financial literacy, as long as you know how to spend and accumulate wealth, you'd be perfectly fine.

The key is really in the commitment. Are you committed? If you say you will save 20% of every paycheck, are you committed to it? You will not spend more than X amount on groceries per month, are you committed?

If we go through stories of Prophets, their life requires much patience and commitment. Prophet Nuh (alayhi-salaam) goes through one of the most grueling task in building a ship that would have enough room for pairs of animals and his followers. How many hundreds of years did it took to build it, since he lived around 950 years?

Prophet Nuh (alayhi-salaam) probably prepared himself for something terrible that would occur, but he didn't know exactly when. Prophet Yusuf (alayhi-salaam) had it better with the dream interpretation of seven productive years then seven difficult. That's something you can plan. Even after the construction of the ship was finished, and all animals collected, there is probability that the flood did not occur immediately. Though, that story, any many stories of our Prophets are lessons of holding onto a commitment.

We must have the commitment to go through our plan for a prosper future, saving for a terrible unknown, because once it occurs, only our laden savings account will carry us through it.