The most important thing for me is health - you wake up in the

“The most important thing for me is health – you wake up in the morning, you can breathe, and you can walk.” Thus spoke Mohamed Al-Fayed, a man who had known both vast wealth and deep sorrow, and who understood that all the treasures of the earth fade beside the simple gift of being alive. His words, though spoken in the modern tongue, carry the wisdom of the ancients — that health is the foundation of all human joy, the quiet miracle upon which every dream, ambition, and blessing rests.

To say that health is the most important thing is not to scorn the value of wealth, power, or love, but to place them in their proper order. For what are gold and empire to one who cannot rise from his bed, or breathe without pain? The ancients knew this truth well. The philosopher Herophilus of Alexandria, one of the first healers of the Western world, wrote that “when health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.” Al-Fayed’s words echo that same ancient law — that the ability to wake, breathe, and walk is not mere routine, but a sacred grace.

His saying is born from a life of contrasts. Mohamed Al-Fayed rose from humble beginnings in Egypt to become a global magnate, owning empires of commerce and symbols of luxury such as Harrods in London. Yet even amidst splendor, he learned that fortune cannot shield the heart from loss — as seen in the tragic death of his beloved son, Dodi, alongside Princess Diana. From such grief and reflection came a deep awareness: that the true wealth of life lies not in possessions, but in presence — the simple act of waking each morning with breath in one’s lungs and strength in one’s limbs.

In this, his words carry not the tone of a businessman, but of a sage. They remind us that we are often blind to our blessings until they are threatened. A man may curse the dawn until illness steals his ability to see it; he may rush through his days until pain forces him to slow and listen to the rhythm of his own breath. Al-Fayed’s “you can breathe, and you can walk” is not casual speech — it is a call to reverence, an invitation to gratitude for the small, unglamorous miracles of being alive.

Consider the story of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who at the height of his political rise was struck by polio, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. The disease that robbed him of his legs gave him, paradoxically, the strength of spirit that would one day guide a nation through war and depression. Through his suffering, he learned that true power is not measured in physical might, but in the will to endure. Like Al-Fayed, he came to understand that the ability to stand and walk — so easily taken for granted — is among life’s most sacred privileges.

There is also a deeper wisdom in Al-Fayed’s humility. To value health above all else is to recognize one’s humanity — to accept that no wealth can purchase an extra breath once fate has spoken. The ancients worshiped gods of healing — Asclepius in Greece, Imhotep in Egypt — for they knew that health was divine favor itself. In the same way, Al-Fayed’s words call us to honor the body as the vessel of the spirit, not by indulgence, but by care: to nourish it with clean food, honest labor, rest, and gratitude.

Therefore, O seekers of wisdom, let this be your daily reflection: give thanks for breath, for movement, for life itself. Rise each morning as one reborn, for each dawn is a second chance to live rightly. Do not wait for illness to teach you the value of your health, nor for age to remind you of the strength you once ignored. Treat your body not as a servant to your ambitions, but as your oldest and truest companion.

For in the end, all crowns are dust, all fortunes fleeting, all honors forgotten — but health, when tended with love, allows the spirit to dwell in peace. As Mohamed Al-Fayed reminds us, to wake, to breathe, to walk — these are not mere acts of existence, but the quiet triumphs of life itself. Treasure them, and you will know what it truly means to be rich.