Live as though you will live forever?

 

"Strive to work for your worldly affairs as if you are going to live forever,

And work for your Hereafter as if you will die tomorrow"

When I first heard of this quote*, I didn't quite understand the first portion. We hear the advice about death: that it can come at any moment, and hence the Prophet ﷺ said, "be in this world as you are a traveler or a wayfarer" (Al-Bukhari, Muslim) 

But to "work as if you live forever?" 

Think about it this way: what if a person was going to resign and leave the country in 1 week. How would he treat his job, knowing he's going to leave anyway? 

Compare that one who aspires to stay with the company until retirement: there's a higher tendency that the person would have big ambitions, a strong sense of ownership to drive the company to greater heights. To be more mindful on relationships, knowing they would be collaborating long run.

Likewise, when we live our lives in this world in this mindset, knowing that we are here to stay and have the space to shape our collective future, the beauty is that we have more motivation for higher ambitions to improve ourselves and make the world a better place, knowing that we - and our children - will be reaping what we sow in the future. 

Also, we tend to take more responsibility of our actions, more mindful of the consequences of our relationships and decisions, considering how it affects others, since we will be around to feel the impact later down the road. 

But there is a flipside to it. If we think like we are going to "live a long time", we may start taking things for granted, lacking in a sense of urgency and procrastinate from taking action. 

And hence the second part of the advice: from the spiritual side of things - your religious obligations - live as if you will die tomorrow. Act immediately, don't delay, because there may not come another chance. 

In summary: aim high, make the best out of this life, and take action with pace!

*some say this is a Hadith, and others attribute it to companions like Umar ibn Al-Khattab or Abdullah bin Amr in Al-Aas. However, there are no authentic narrations that prove this.