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This content has been automatically translated. View original in Arabic
Dr. Iyad Qunaybi
How can you turn a trial into a blessing? How can you enjoy the blessing of affliction? How can you live happily no matter the circumstances? How can you deal with matters - whatever they may be - positively and optimistically? How can you attach your heart to Allah - the Almighty - so that you fear none but Him and hope for none but Him? How can you possess an unbreakable will and an unconquerable spirit? How can you purify your heart from complaining about destiny, so that your heart becomes a sound heart that you would love to meet Allah with? How can you love your Lord - glorified and exalted be He - with an unconditional love that is not affected by circumstances?
The answers to these questions - and many others - you will find in this book...
Allah, the Exalted, is our Creator, Provider, and Beloved. His mercy encompasses all things. He created His servants to worship Him - to obey Him and love Him. He created them and showered them with gifts and blessings, for He is the Most Loving. He created them and covered them with His mercy, for He is the Most Merciful. He created them and was kind to them and forgave them despite their mistakes, for He is the Most Kind, the Most Forbearing. He loves to hear the voice of His believing servant in gratitude during ease and in supplication during hardship. If the servant neglects his Lord, He tests him to bring him back to Him, to hear his supplication, his prayer, and his tears. And He is, in His test, Merciful and Wise.
I went through difficult circumstances, but Allah granted me the ability to have good opinions of Him, His wisdom, and His mercy. So, Allah was with me in my opinion and turned the fire of affliction into coolness and peace. How could He not be, when He is the One who says in the sacred hadith: "I am as My servant thinks of Me" (narrated by Bukhari)..
And by Allah, when you think well of your Lord and act accordingly, you will see all good from Him.
If you are certain that Allah is able to cast happiness, contentment, and tranquility into your heart no matter the circumstances, then He will be with your opinion of Him. He alone is capable of making man happy and causing him grief, for He is the One who says, glorified and exalted be He: "And it is He who makes you laugh and makes you weep" [An-Najm: 43].
Yes, Allah has blessed me through affliction with many great blessings. I used to write down these blessings that I discovered on a piece of paper in the form of points. How much I enjoyed writing them down and then reviewing and contemplating them! And after Allah relieved me, I discovered even greater gifts.
So, I found it fitting, out of my knowledge and gratitude to my Lord, the Most Merciful, to share with my brothers and sisters some of these numerous blessings, so that we may learn together the art of having good opinions of Allah.
"And as for the favor of your Lord, then proclaim it" [Ad-Dhuha: 11]. And everything you will find in this book is an elaboration on a few points only from the numerous points that I have counted.
Brothers and sisters, look at the good opinion that the people of the cave had of their Lord when they said: "And when you withdrew from them and that which they worship except Allah, seek refuge in the cave" [Al-Kahf: 16]... The cave... a dark, desolate place with a difficult and rough path, filled with insects, perhaps scorpions and snakes... no water or greenery. But Allah's power turns it into something else: "Seek refuge in the cave, your Lord will spread for you from His mercy and prepare for you from your affair an ease" [Al-Kahf: 16]... Allah turned the cave, by His power and mercy, into a place of comfort, mercy, ease, and kindness.
Oh my brothers, by Allah, your Lord is generous... generous... So, let us get to know our Lord through His actions with His servants to see the greatness of the Lord whom we worship. Let us get to know Allah so that we may have good opinions of Him no matter what He decrees for us and does to us. "Perhaps you dislike something, and Allah makes therein much good" [An-Nisa: 19]...
Let us draw close to Allah and take refuge in His care, and let us enliven our hearts and perfume our gatherings with His remembrance.
I ask Allah, the Great Lord of the Noble Throne, to benefit me and you with this book and increase our love for Him, glorified and exalted be He.
Imagine with me: gifts have come to you, and you know they are great and valuable gifts. However, some of these gifts came in a beautiful and shiny wrapping, while others came in an ugly one. Does the shape of the wrappers matter much to you if you know that the gifts inside are precious, valuable, and great?
Similarly, if you know that everything that will happen in the future is within your power to make it for your benefit, then it will not matter much to you whether it comes in a trial or a blessing wrapping, for you are the one who decides what it will be.
Why do people usually fear and worry? Because the future is unknown to them. This fear spoils the happiness of the people of this world, no matter how much worldly bliss they have, because they fear that this bliss will vanish and circumstances will change.
A wealthy person may become poor... A healthy person may fall ill with a chronic disease... A free person may be imprisoned... A safe person may be frightened... Someone who loves another intensely may lose their beloved.
So, do you want to know how to overcome the fear of the unknown future? Simply: make a decision to be content with what Allah, the Most High, does to you, no matter what it is.
Note: Contentment comes after the event, and it is the result of things you do before the event, so contentment comes to you when you need it. Therefore, the question is often raised: "Contentment is one of the acts of the heart that a person cannot control, yet it is required of him. How?"
The answer is that what you can do is to accustom yourself to contentment and work in obedience to Allah so that He grants you contentment when you need it.
Every time the thought of fear of the unknown comes to you, renew the covenant and the promise that you will be content and grateful and patient... and trust in Allah's help for you. If you do that, you will not fear the future because it is no longer unknown, but has become an open page for you! How? Simply, you are now, after making this decision, certain that everything that happens is good for you. Did not the Prophet, peace be upon him, say:
"Wonderful is the affair of the believer, for his affair is all good, and that is for none but the believer. If he is touched by good, he is grateful, and that is good for him, and if he is touched by harm, he is patient, and that is good for him." (Narrated by Muslim).
So, after you make a decision of gratitude in times of ease and patience in times of hardship, do not say: "I do not know if the future brings me good or evil." According to the words of the Prophet, peace be upon him, the future brings you nothing but good in this case.
The beautiful thing here is that the matter is no longer about unknown quantities that may overwhelm you in valleys of loss... It no longer matters how things appear: poverty or wealth, health or sickness, the presence of loved ones or their absence... You! You are the one who will make all of this turn to your benefit and good, by the permission of Allah. All you have to do is make a decision of gratitude and patience.
Do not say, "Even if I make a decision of contentment and patience, Allah may decree that I will not be patient." But remember that Allah, the Most High, said: "No disaster strikes except by permission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah, He will guide his heart. And Allah is Knowing of all things" [At-Taghabun: 11]. This verse carries great meanings, including that whoever surrenders his affair to Allah, the Most High, truly believes in Him, then Allah, the Most High, will guide his heart and strengthen it and help him. So, contentment and patience are the results of the heart being filled with faith in Allah, the Most High, and surrendering to Him.
Also, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, treats this fear for you when he said: "And whoever is patient, Allah will make him patient." (Narrated by Muslim). So, hurry up and make the decision, and do not say that Allah may decree that I will not be patient afterwards. Verily, Allah is more gentle and more merciful than that. And He has made for patience several causes, one of which is that He will grant him patience, tranquility, and reassurance. So, with your action, you draw patience from Allah, and this is not beyond your power.
You may say: "I try to make the decision of contentment, but I feel insincerity in that because I fear that the trial may be severe and I may not be able to bear it." We will cooperate to get rid of this fear as well when we contemplate something of His wisdom and help in upcoming pages, by the permission of Allah.
You may say: "I can make the decision now because I love Allah, the Most High. But if He tests me with a great trial, I fear that this love will be affected." We will also cooperate, by the will of Allah, to rebuild our love for Allah, the Most High, on solid foundations so that we may be reassured of His care and help, no matter the circumstances.
What is required of you now is to trust, believe, and be certain of Allah's wisdom and mercy, so you make the decision of contentment. And by contentment, we mean complete and perfect contentment, without any tinge of dissatisfaction, which is contrary to being displeased with Allah, the Most High, and objecting to His wisdom and actions. And what is not meant here is not being affected by what befalls you of disliked things or loving those disliked things. For this is contrary to human nature. For whoever is afflicted with the death of a beloved, it is natural that he grieves and suffers, but he does not object to fate and object to his Lord, the Most High, with things like "Why did You afflict me?" and "What did I do to deserve this?" as a form of objection! But he praises his Lord, the Most High, and is patient, so he attains the reward and the blessing of contentment and tranquility. And among the supplications of the Prophet, peace be upon him, was: "And I ask You for contentment after decree" (Narrated by An-Nasa'i and authenticated by Al-Albani).
What is required of you when you put your head down to sleep and say the supplication that our Prophet taught us: "O Allah, I have surrendered myself to You and entrusted my affairs to You." Is to say it with absolute certainty and complete surrender, so that you are covered by the speech that the Most Merciful directed to His Prophet where He said: "And be patient for the decision of your Lord, for indeed, you are in Our sight" [At-Tur: 48]. That is, do not fear, you are in Our care and protection, surrounded by Our gentleness and kindness.
Make a decision to be content with your Lord in every matter, to be rid of the fear of the unknown forever, by the permission of Allah.
Oh brothers, by Allah, I do not think there is a better feeling than this that you can live with in your life! The feeling that Allah wants good for you, no matter what befalls you or happens to you.. all of it is for your benefit.. and you may not be certain of this feeling except through trials!
And while you are in good health, not afflicted, living a nearly complete life.. Allah may bless you with all the worldly blessings.. so you ask yourself: (Is this from Allah's immediate favor upon me, along with what He has reserved for me of blessings in the Hereafter? Or is it a temptation, where Allah settles my account in this world and punishes me in the Hereafter for my shortcoming?) And this doubt may be disturbing for you.
So if you are afflicted and see signs that Allah wanted good for you in this trial, joy fills you and you say to yourself: (I have fallen short in His right, but He is the Most Forbearing.. He deals with me with His forbearance and generosity, not with what I deserve. He wants good for me because I deserve all of that from Him, but because He is the One of forgiveness, kindness, forbearance, mercy, generosity).
But the question that arises: how do I know if Allah wants good for me or not? Is it perhaps through perfect health, abundant wealth, and security from worldly calamities?
No, never! All of this is not an indication of Allah's honor for you or that He wants good for you.
Allah the Exalted says: {But man, when his Lord tries him and [thus] is generous to him and favors him, says, "My Lord has honored me." But when He tries him and restricts his provision, he says, "My Lord has humiliated me." (Al-Fajr 15-16)}.. meaning many people consider Allah giving them worldly blessings as a sign of Allah's love for them and His pleasure with them, and that they have honor with Allah. Whereas if He afflicts them with poverty, they consider that an indication of Allah's humiliation of them and that Allah wants evil for them. So giving and withholding worldly blessings are considered a measure of Allah's pleasure and anger with the servant, His love and hatred for the servant.. His will of good or evil for the servant. So the response from Allah the Exalted to this view came with the word: {Nay!} (Al-Fajr 17) .. meaning the giving and withholding of the world is not the measure.
And Allah the Exalted says: {And if one desires the immediate, We hasten for him therein what We will for whom We intend. Then We have made for him Hell, which he will [enter to] burn, despised and banished.} (Al-Isra 18) .. believers and disbelievers, the righteous and the wicked.. all receive their share of your Lord's provision in this world.. {And the provision of your Lord is not restricted.} (Al-Isra 20).
So what is the measure to know if Allah wants good for you?
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: ((Verily, Allah gives the world to whom He loves and to whom He does not love, but He gives faith only to whom He loves.)) Ahmad Shakir said in Umdat al-Tafsir: Its chain is authentic.
Yes! So faith is the measure..
If you find that the trial has brought you closer to Allah, then know that He wanted good for you.. and if you find that the trial has distanced you from Him, then beware! Beware! Catch yourself before you become one of those who are veiled.
If you find yourself afflicted with something you did not expect, and yet Allah grants you tranquility.. then He wanted good for you. If Allah grants you the ability to think well of Him, and protects you from blaming His decrees.. then He wanted good for you. If moments pass in your trials where you live with the Quran in happiness despite everything and your eyes tear up from love of Allah and gratitude to Him.. then He wanted good for you. If the threats of creatures become small in your eyes and you know that they are enslaved, subdued under the dominion of the Almighty, the All-Powerful, so you do not hope for good except from Him and you do not fear except from Him.. then all of this is an indication that Allah wanted good for you. If Allah grants you the ability to utilize your time in trials in what benefits you in your religion and brings you closer to your Lord, while many people appear free and healthy, but they are imprisoned in their desires, illusions, lusts, doubts, and diseases!.. then He has not chosen you among them for the service of His religion except that He wanted good for you. If your soul soars in the kingdom of Allah and circles beneath the Throne while your body is behind bars or weighed down by illness.. then He has not left it to soar and be free except that He wanted good for you.
So tranquility, contentment, patience, gratitude to Allah, recognizing His favor, attaching the heart to Him, not fearing or hoping except from Him, finding comfort in Him, and serving His religion.. all of these are signs of faith.. He grants them to none except whom He loves.. if He has granted them to you, then know that He wanted good for you. Is it conceivable that He afflicts you and is pleased with you because He wants evil for you? No, by Allah! Rather, your patience and contentment with the decree is only because He wants good for you..
My brother, my sister.. you are the one who chooses for yourself: if when you are afflicted you occupy yourself with the obedience of Allah and your lips utter nothing but His praise and contentment with His decree, then Allah has wanted good for you.. and at that time you will achieve inner peace with yourself and peace with Allah the Exalted. And if you - Allah forbid - are displeased or blame the decree or occupy yourself with sorrows and fears, suspicion of the future, and doubting the wisdom of Allah, the refuge is with Allah.. then you have chosen the wrong path. Ibn Qayyim said: (If one of the workers wants to know his worth with the sultan, let him look at what work he is assigned and what task he is occupied with).
And you are the same.. look at what Allah occupies you with and what work He employs you in to know your worth with Him and if He has wanted good for you or not. If you see from yourself what does not please, then hasten to repent.. if you succeed in it, then know that Allah has wanted good for you.
How beautiful it is to live with the feeling that Allah loves you! When you make the decision to be content, you will feel that Allah the Exalted loves you, for He, as in the hadith we mentioned: ((He does not give faith except to whom He loves)). So contentment is faith, if you are afflicted with it, then this is one of the signs of Allah's love for you. Look then how you will look positively at what Allah the Exalted decrees for you.. the One who decrees these matters, their sweetness and bitterness, is your beloved who loves you: Allah the Exalted.
If He decrees illness for you, then this decree comes from the One who loves you, and there is no opposition.. and if He decrees the death of a beloved to you, then this decree comes from the One who loves you as well.
But the believing servant must have fear along with hope.. so how can he be assured that these trials are not signs of Allah's displeasure with him? Your reaction to the trial is what determines: if you turn to Allah and are content and patient, then you will continue this love that appeared to you its signs before and increase in confidence with it. And your eagerness to maintain it and find comfort in its tranquility will be a means for you to this patience and contentment. But if you respond with displeasure, you will not attain except displeasure! So make your fear of losing the affection between you and Allah, and then falling into loneliness.. make this fear a barrier for you from displeasure.
In one of the visits of my brother to prison, she told me that she felt in the previous visit from me a weakness and sadness. So she said to me, "I want you to be strong as we are used to and not to falter or fear." I replied to her with a poem titled (Who is imprisoned?!) in which I embodied some of the previous meanings:
My sister came to me in prison, adorned with steadfastness and dignity. She said, "I have come to you as an advisor to increase your determination." "Do not despair, be patient, and be filled with joy. You will not rise to the degrees of glory if you do not lick the thorn." My brother, do not fear anything, for your brother knows what he has chosen. It is inevitable that those who carry the call must bear hardships. God will not leave us until we become righteous, And He will lead to the gates of Hell those who are hypocrites and rebel.
If I were living in comfort, not fearing any misfortunes, With a full pocket, many friends, free, traveling around, And before prison, I was blessed with twin boys who amazed the eyes, But now, I see nothing around me but bars and walls. I walk in chains to meet a tyrannical judge. The accusation is that I supported my fellow believers out of preference. If I sleep, I dream of my children and remember my home. If my concern were for this world, you would find my brother mute.
But I hope that my patience will bring me close to the Merciful. And I will drink a cup of camphor or honey flowing like rivers. And I will fulfill what the Lord has commanded His servants: "Be supporters." Imprisoned, but in my chest is a garden blooming with flowers. I read and record thoughts, and I perform the night prayers. I contemplate as I recite the Quran to discover the secrets. And I compose on the causes of patience so that people may be pleased with destiny. And my soul circles, taking from the love of the Merciful a course. I stock up on piety in my prison, and my enemy carries his burdens.
How many free people have I seen as if they were drunk, but they are not drunk. But they have become accustomed to degrading themselves and living as beasts. Indeed, they have worshipped the dinar, abandoning religion out of negligence. If they are angry, it is not for the sake of God, but because they have not profited from the prices. And they do not care about the fire of Hell, but that they may find solar energy. Instead of the globe of the earth, they have become a ball for a team that competes. So, who is the prisoner, me or them, if we increase our insight?
My brother, do not fear anything, for your brother has not done anything shameful. Is it shameful to pay if the honor of the nation is defiled and we are attacked? When we kept silent about the injustice and feared oppression and imprisonment, We did not cover our youth with leaders who are filled with pride. So, take as a symbol of their bravery those who deny God as if they were brave. Is it fitting for us, the followers of Muhammad, to emulate those who deny God? He who worships God the Almighty does not follow the current. He who seeks honor from anyone other than the Merciful will meet with loss. But the homes of spiders have been destroyed, hoping for reconstruction.
Have you seen Tunisia when its criminal fought the Merciful openly? He pursues every veiled woman just to please the Christians. He wishes he were under the shoes of the infidels as dust. For a quarter of a century, he allies with them, hoping for stability in rule. If they enter the den of the hyena, they will flatter with humiliation and smallness. My brother, do not fear anything, for your brother has taken over the tyrant. And God will defend us, for He has promised the wicked punishment.
Be patient in your affliction, And think well of your Lord and His wisdom and mercy. If you succeed in that, know that God intended good for you.
What do you think of the following sect: It is a sect of Muslims called (the Habsharti sect).
What does this sect say about God -glory be to Him- in their dictionary? They say: "God -glory be to Him- is the One who imposed our existence in this worldly life, imposed duties upon us, forbade us from prohibitions, and in His hand is our happiness or misery. But our souls find some duties burdensome and are inclined towards some prohibitions. Therefore, we must deal with God in a balanced way, so that we perform the duties in a measure that ensures the continuation of God's blessings upon us with the least burden on our souls, and we also perform -to some extent- the prohibitions to fulfill our desires but without exposing ourselves to the cutting off of God's blessings or His punishment." Do you think the Habsharti sect's definition of the relationship between man and his Lord is a sound one? Is this how one should submit oneself and one's emotions to God, the Lord of the Worlds? Have you identified who the Habsharti sect is? In reality, they are many of the masses of the Islamic world. They do not say this with their tongues, but the tongue of action is more eloquent than the tongue of speech! Perhaps -as you read these words- you will find yourself implicitly belonging to this sect! There are traits in our souls whose danger becomes apparent when we diagnose and express them with words that are neither flattering nor conciliatory. We may denounce and be surprised by them, but the bitter truth is that they exist in our souls to varying degrees. Therefore, let us delve into analyzing the Habsharti psychology to see if it is hidden within us and to what extent.
The Habsharti boasts and conducts experiments in his dealings with his Lord, glory be to Him. He tries to reach a "balance point" where he satisfies his desires without cutting off worldly blessings. If he adds to his life and includes in his "acquisitions" a sin and something that God has forbidden, he waits: if God's blessings continue and punishment does not descend, he concludes that he is still within the balance point and considers this prohibition as one of his acquisitions! He satisfies his desire without cutting off the blessing. But if this sin leads to the cutting off of a blessing or the descent of punishment, he concludes that he has exceeded the balance point and returns to rid himself of the prohibition, declaring a state of extreme alert: supplication, weeping, pleading, striving, acts of worship... Why? Because he wants the return of blessings and the removal of afflictions.
"And when adversity touches man, he calls upon Us, whether lying on his side, or sitting, or standing; but when We remove his adversity from him, he passes on as if he had never called upon Us at the time of adversity" [Yunus: 12]... So: he calls upon Us lying on his side, or sitting, or standing... a supplication of one who wants the return of blessings... "And when We bless man with mercy from Us, he turns away and distances himself, and when adversity befalls him, he is of wide supplication" [Fussilat]... of wide supplication... a supplication of one who wants the return of blessings.
The tragedy is that the Habsharti psychology "becomes ingrained" over time with this "balance" so that it settles in his sense that the blessings he is in are his "right" and that he deserves them: "And if We give him a taste of mercy from Us after adversity has befallen him, he will say, 'This is for me'" [Fussilat: 50]... meaning, I deserve this mercy, I deserve these blessings. According to this "balance," the Habsharti loves God Almighty as long as it is possible to continue His blessings and remove His afflictions -in his view- with this "balance" and ebb and flow. Therefore, we have named him (the Habsharti), meaning that he loves God -glory be to Him- with a conditional love, conditional upon the continuation of blessings, conditional upon the continuation of worldly interests; for the Habsharti's psychology rarely remembers the Hereafter!
Imagine with me now what happens if the Habsharti commits a sin and God tests him with what he dislikes, so the Habsharti gets rid of this sin as usual and declares a state of extreme alert: pleading, supplication, seeking forgiveness, acts of worship... but God Almighty wills that the affliction continues and intensifies. A question will arise in the Habsharti's psychology: "I have done what I am supposed to do, so why has God not done what was expected of Him?" According to the habit of "balance" that has become ingrained in the Habsharti's psychology, it is his "right" when he gets rid of the sin and strives in acts of worship that the affliction is lifted and the "daily ration" he takes from God -glory be to Him- returns. If the opposite of what is expected happens, the Habsharti's conditional love for God -glory be to Him- will collapse! And it is no wonder that it collapses because it was built on the edge of a crumbling cliff and was based on a distorted understanding of the relationship between man and his Lord, glory be to Him.
Therefore, upon what should we build our love for God Almighty so that this love does not collapse at any moment of our lives? This is what we will know in the next station, God willing.
Look within yourself if you are a Habsharti. You condition your love for God upon the continuation of worldly blessings.
We mentioned in the previous session that conditional love (habsharti) conditions its love for Allah, the Almighty, on the continuity of worldly blessings.
So, he builds this house - meaning (love for Allah) - on foundations. These foundations are: wealth, health, freedom, family stability, social status.
But, notice with me: Are not all these worldly foundations subject to change? Is not this (habsharti love) threatened at any moment by: Poverty = loss of wealth Illness = loss of health Imprisonment = loss of freedom Problems = loss of stability What will happen then if he is afflicted with the loss of one of these foundations? The house will tilt, collapse, and crumble. The conditional love for Allah in the heart of this servant (habsharti) will collapse because he built it on foundations subject to change at any moment.
So, how do I know if my love for Allah, the Almighty, is threatened with change at any moment? How do I know if I have built it on worldly foundations? Indeed, trials help you with that greatly, and this is among the blessings of Allah upon you in trials. When you are afflicted and call upon Allah, the Almighty, and ask Him to remove the trial and restore His blessings, Allah may decree that your trial continues and intensifies. At that moment, you will know if your love for Allah is conditional upon these worldly interests.
I faced a tribulation in which I was suddenly deprived of: my freedom, my family, my children, my friends, my money, my job... suddenly! Then I called upon Allah, but He decreed that my trial would last longer than I had thought. This put me truly in front of the important question: Now, after being deprived of these things, do I still love Allah, the Almighty? This question helped me diagnose the extent of (conditional love) in myself; to rebuild my love for Allah on the correct, solid foundations.
I ask you by Allah: Are you ready to buy a house to live in if you knew that this house is built on weak foundations prone to collapse and change at any moment? So, what do you think about the love for Allah, the Almighty, for which we live, indeed for which we were created? Our Lord created us to worship Him, and worship is love, glorification, and obedience. Are you ready to gamble with the love for Allah, the Almighty, and build it on foundations that can change at any moment? Therefore, you must build your love for Allah in your heart on solid foundations.
Now, what are these foundations? Many, including:
We will talk, with Allah's permission, about some of these foundations in upcoming sessions.
So, these are fixed things that do not change: Allah's names and attributes, the anticipated Hereafter, the blessings of the past, the fact that you will remain submerged in Allah's blessings no matter what He takes from you... these are things that do not change, not threatened with change... build your love for Allah upon them, and you will be confident and assured.
As for what is newly bestowed upon you - in the present and future - of new blessings and the lifting of trials; these all increase your love for Allah, the Almighty, but they are not a condition for the existence of this love.
It may be said: But Allah, the Almighty, has legislated the winning of people's hearts by giving them some of the blessings of this world. It is known that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, used to give a large portion of the spoils to those whose hearts were to be reconciled, to polytheists whom the Messenger of Allah wanted to attract to Islam. Indeed, one of the categories of zakat is (those whose hearts are to be reconciled)?
True... but this winning of people's hearts with worldly blessings is temporary; until the psychological barrier between the heedless heart and Islam is removed, until the veil is lifted from his sight to see the truth of the religion, and the brightness of faith mingles with his heart, so he no longer cares - thereafter - whether he is given or deprived.
In the hadith narrated by Imam Muslim from Anas, he said: ((If a man embraces Islam desiring only the world, he will not embrace Islam until Islam becomes more beloved to him than the world and all that is in it)).
((If a man embraces Islam desiring only the world)): meaning pure conditional love! And Islam appears to his will for the sake of the world... ((He will not embrace Islam)): meaning he will not delay after his Islam but a little until his chest expands with the truth of faith and it prevails over his heart, so it becomes more beloved to him than the world. So, his love for Allah turns into a true love built on solid foundations. As for living one's entire life as a reconciler of hearts, this is a dangerous and unacceptable condition! Because his love for Allah is threatened with change at any moment. When the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, died and some people apostatized, what happened? The reconcilers of hearts from the people of Mecca whom the Messenger of Allah had reconciled, but after that, they built their love for Allah on solid foundations, they were the black banners of Islam who fought for him during the apostasy, and they spent in that their souls, blood, and wealth. While those who remained (habsharti) attached to the world apostatized when they were exposed to the trial of the Prophet's death and the rebellion of the leaders.
The establishment of this concept in our hearts - (unconditional love for Allah) - gives us a deeper understanding of many truths of our religion. For example: When we read the saying of the Prophet, peace be upon him: ((The most beloved of deeds to Allah is the most persistent, even if it is little)) This may be because: Persistent obedience is often a defense against a trial that has passed or a temporary joy at a new blessing, especially if it is followed by a severe slackening in obedience. As for persistence in action, even if it is little; it contains the meaning of continuity in the obedience, worship, and love of Allah, no matter the circumstances. Its possessor worships Allah because He is worthy of worship, not to change what Allah has decreed for him of trial or to increase the blessings of this world.
This is what the servant of the Lord aspires to: that his love for Allah - the Almighty - be steadfast and firm, not shaken by storms, nor collapse with the loss of any of the fleeting conditions of this world.
Build your love for Allah on solid foundations that do not change, So that your love for Him - the Almighty - is stronger than every trial.
As for continuous acts of worship, they are usually born of a love that is firmly established in the heart, not affected by joyful or sad events. So, my brother and sister: If you find in yourself this dangerous disease: (conditional love for Allah), you must acknowledge it and strive to cure it; for it is more dangerous than any worldly calamity; because it is a calamity in religion, and a defect in what we live for.
Get rid of the disease of (conditional love) and build your love for Allah on solid foundations that do not change with variables.
Abu Ghassan noticed a change in the feelings of his two sons towards him. Ghassan and Rami had started coming every morning to their father's room, extending their hands and saying, "Allowance, please, Dad" in a routine, monotonous manner. He would give them the allowance, they would hastily thank him, and then leave the house.
Abu Ghassan wanted to remind his sons that his relationship with them was not just about the allowance. So, when they came this time and extended their hands to receive the allowance, their father spoke to them in a tone filled with genuine love: "I love you, my sons." Abu Ghassan hoped that his eyes would meet his sons' eyes as he said these words, and he would see joy and pride in them for what he had said. He wanted any indication that his sons loved him for himself, not for the allowance they took from him.
However, the sons' response was disappointing! They shook their heads absently, saying, "We do too," meaning they also love him. They remained with their hands and gazes fixed on their father's pocket, where the allowance was!
The father was shocked, and his smile turned into a frown. He took his hand out of his pocket without the wallet. The boys noticed what had happened and realized their lack of response to their father's kind words. They withdrew their hands and lowered them, trying to salvage the situation.
Rami said, "Dad, I'm sorry... Of course, I love you. You are my father who raised me and spent on me, and I cannot do without you." Rami said these words with his mind on the allowance, expecting his father to put his hand in his pocket and give him the allowance. But the father did not do so and remained silent. So Rami said, "Dad, please, I need the allowance. I promise to be more polite, but don't deprive me of the allowance." The father did not respond, so Rami became annoyed and left the room angrily.
As for Ghassan, the situation shook him to his core! He truly loved his father, but his heart had been blinded to this love by his attachment to the allowance in recent times. The father's withered, frowning features awakened Ghassan's feelings. He realized how negligent he had been towards his father recently. He realized that he had been selfish, not thinking much about his father's feelings, nor striving to bring joy to his heart. Ghassan's eyes welled up with hot tears, and in a trembling voice, he said, "Forgive me, my beloved father... I have been very neglectful of you! Please forgive me... The whole world is not worth your smile." He said these words while turning his tearful eyes towards his father's face, searching for any sign of relief from his frown. But the father remained frowning and silent and left his room and sat on the sofa without speaking.
Ghassan followed him and moved around his father like a cat, sometimes kissing his hands, sometimes kissing his head, and sometimes holding his father's hand between his own, with tears streaming down his cheeks as he said, "Forgive me, Dad, please... I love you... You know that I love you."
The father was torn by conflicting emotions. He did not like seeing his son so distressed, but he was still shocked by his sons' initial indifference, and he wanted more assurance of Ghassan's sincerity in his love. The father withdrew and returned to his room in silence, closing the door behind him.
Ghassan felt lost, so he followed him and called from behind the door, "Dad, please... I cannot bear life without your approval. I cannot live seeing you angry and sad. I have made a mistake, Dad, but I love you. I love you, Dad. Please forgive me. Please smile at me. Please include me in your heart." Ghassan's crying voice rose like that of a frightened child left in the desert by his mother.
At that moment, the barrier of indifference in the father's heart broke before Ghassan's tears. He opened the door, lifted his son who was kneeling, and embraced him to his chest, wiping his tears and kissing his head. Ghassan's crying continued, but now it was a cry of joy and longing that was satisfied.
The father reached into his pocket to take out Ghassan's allowance, but Ghassan returned the wallet to his father's pocket and said to him while clinging to his chest, "Let's forget about the allowance now... I want you, my beloved father. As long as you are pleased with me, the whole world is insignificant."
And Allah has the highest example. Allah the Almighty may know from His servants dryness in their love for Him and attachment to the worldly comforts He grants them. He the Almighty expresses His love to His servants and wants them to reciprocate His love with love. So if He sees from them indifference and heedlessness, He may withhold a blessing from them to shake their being and awaken them from their heedlessness, so that they may realize the truth that the blessing has distracted them from the Giver of blessings.
As for the emotionally impoverished "Rami," he does not understand these dimensions. He is still in his heedlessness, where the "allowance" has taken over his thinking. He seeks forgiveness from Allah and strives in good deeds to restore the "allowance." His mistake is not in Allah's rebuke of him, but his mistake is the cutting off of the "allowance." Stupidity in thinking, shallowness in vision, and poverty in feelings! He only thinks about what he takes and does not see it as his duty to be grateful and reciprocate love with love.
As for the one with refined senses and a living heart like "Ghassan," the cutting off of the "allowance" removes the veil from his eyes to see the real calamity, that he has fallen short towards Allah the Almighty and has been heedless of Him. So all that occupies his being is how to please Allah the Almighty and prove to Him that he reciprocates His love with love. As for the return of the "allowance," it becomes a secondary matter, for he can live, even with difficulty, without the allowance, but he cannot bear a moment of the loss he would suffer if he lost Allah's companionship or felt that Allah does not love him.
In the end, the "allowance" may return to both: "We will surely give these and those from the provision of your Lord. And the provision of your Lord is not restricted." [Al-Isra: 20]. But the first, the emotionally impoverished one, will come out of the trial as he entered it, having gained nothing. As long as he sees the return of the "allowance" as the ultimate goal and the pinnacle of aspirations. As for the second, the trial was the greatest blessing for him, as it freed his soul from the shackles of heedlessness to revolve in the orbit of the love of Allah the Almighty. "Can they be equal in comparison?" [Hud: 24].
It is reported from the righteous that some of them were afflicted with illness or otherwise, and it was known about him that he was responsive to supplication. Yet, he did not supplicate to Allah the Almighty for the removal of the trial. You might say that these reports are exaggerated. Perhaps yes, but if we understand the meanings mentioned here, we do not rule out that this may happen. Perhaps this afflicted person understood the trial as a reminder from Allah the Almighty that you have been heedless of your Creator, and your Lord wants you to reciprocate His affection with affection. This thought may occupy the mind of the afflicted believer, and he may reconsider his accounts to discover areas of heedlessness, activate meanings of love in his heart, and excel in proving to his Lord the sincerity of his love for Him, glorified be He.
Such thinking is not far-fetched to preoccupy the believer from supplicating for the removal of the trial. Rather, he may see giving priority to supplicating for the removal of the trial as bad manners, as it indicates a lack of concern for the reason for which he was afflicted (the reminder to reciprocate affection with affection). And he knows that the continuation of the trial is more likely to bring him back to the circle of Allah's love. He is preoccupied with cultivating his heart with meanings of love anew and entrusts the matter of the timing of the removal of the trial to Allah, and he is certain of His wisdom and mercy in that.
Do you now see why "Allah expresses His love through trials"? Did you not see that our Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "And if Allah loves a people, He tests them." So look at the trial positively, not as pure punishment, but as a form of affection from Allah! He saw from us heedlessness of Him and dryness in our emotions towards Him, so He afflicted us to make us return to ourselves, so that we may feel shy, love, and express affection. To Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
How affectionate Allah is to us, while He is free of need of us! Is not one of His names (Al-Wadud)? Look at His saying: "O you who have believed, remember Allah with much remembrance * And exalt Him morning and afternoon. * It is He who confers blessing upon you, and His angels [ask Him to do so] that He may bring you out from darknesses into the light. And ever is He, to the believers, Merciful * Their greeting the Day they meet Him will be, "Peace." And He has prepared for them a noble reward" [Al-Ahzab: 41-44].
Allah is affectionate to the believers in these verses and stirs their emotions by reminding them that He guides them, has mercy upon them, and will meet them on the Day of Judgment with a noble reward that expresses His love for them. It is as if He is saying to them: Since I do all of this for you, do I not deserve your love so that you remember Me often, as a lover remembers their beloved?
Our relationship with Allah should not be limited to waiting for worldly or even hereafter bliss. We must seek Allah's pleasure in itself. We must love Allah and strive to be loved by Him, and we must not be able to live without this love.
Do you not see that Allah often ends His commands with a statement that He loves those who do such and such and does not love those who do such and such? What do we gain from these endings? If we are faithful to Allah and sincere in our love for Him, then this ending (Allah loves such and such) should be sufficient to encourage us to carry out the command, so that we may obtain this great prize: Allah's love for us. How often these endings are repeated in the Quran: {Indeed, Allah loves those who do good} [Al-Imran: 146], {And Allah loves the steadfast} [Al-Imran: 146], {Indeed, Allah loves the righteous} [Al-Tawbah: 4], {Indeed, Allah loves those who turn to Him in repentance} [Al-Baqarah: 222], {Say, "If you should love Allah, then follow me, [so] Allah will love you} [Al-Imran: 31], {Indeed, Allah loves those who fight in His cause in a row as though they are a [single] structure joined firmly} [As-Saff: 4], {Indeed, Allah loves those who rely [upon Him]} [Al-Imran: 159].
Have you not stopped at these endings before? Have you not felt immense happiness if you are among the people whom Allah loves? Does this love not mean a lot to you? Does it not deserve that the love of Allah be the highest of aspirations and the greatest meaning we live for?
If we have not stopped at these endings before, if we have not striven to be among those who deserve them, if the love of Allah is not enough for us to be among the righteous, the steadfast, the righteous, the pure, the followers of the trustworthy messenger, those who rely [upon Him], and those who fight in His cause... If the love of Allah is not enough for us to strive to embody these virtues... Does this not indicate that there is a dryness in our love for Allah and a lack of concern for His love for us?
On the other hand: Do you see that Allah has forbidden certain things and followed the prohibition with the statement that He does not love those who do such and such: {And Allah does not love the wrongdoers} [Al-Imran: 57], {Indeed, Allah does not love the transgressors} [Al-Baqarah: 190], {And indeed, He does not love the transgressors} [Al-A'raf: 55], {Indeed, Allah does not love the treacherous} [Al-Anfal: 58].
Brother, examine yourself: Whenever you read these verses, do you think in the following way: (If Allah does not love me, He will subject me to trials or deprive me of bliss)? Is this all that concerns you? That bliss continues and trials are averted? Have you not felt a sting and pain that Allah does not love you? Is this not something terrifying and a punishment in itself that Allah does not love us? Is this punishment not enough to make you strive to avoid injustice, aggression, excess, and treachery because Allah does not love those who possess these characteristics?.. To search in your words and deeds and hold yourself accountable for fear of losing Allah's love for you without realizing it?
Ask yourself these questions to know if you are closer to the character of Rami the dry or Ghassan who could not bear to see the frown on his father's face and could not imagine living while feeling the lack of his father's love for him, out of loyalty and nobility in himself.
Do you not see how a small child derives his self-confidence from his parents' love for him? He does not feel stability and tranquility unless his parents express their love for him. If his father says to him: I do not love you, this threatens his stability, destroys his self-confidence, and gives him a pessimistic view of life. Are we not the creation of Allah, His dependents, with no provider or refuge except Him? If Allah says to you: I do not love you.. Does this not frighten you? Does it not make you tremble? Does it not overshadow your life? Does it not threaten your stability and tranquility? Should you not hold yourself accountable for every word or deed that may make you one of those whom Allah mentions in His Book that He does not love?
When your heart absorbs this meaning, you will find a great impact and a new feeling with many verses and hadiths, such as His saying: {Their Lord gives them good tidings of His mercy and approval and of gardens for them wherein is enduring bliss} [At-Tawbah: 21].. Contemplate this verse word by word to see how Allah's love emanates from it.. And on the other hand, the verses and hadiths that mention types of people whom Allah does not speak to and does not look at.. Is it not enough of a punishment that your beloved does not speak to you or look at you if you are a person of a living heart..
Contemplate with me also the hadith narrated by Bukhari that Allah says to the people of Paradise: ((O people of Paradise)), they will say: At Your service, and all good is in Your Hand, He will say: ((Are you pleased?)) They will say: O our Lord, how can we not be pleased when You have given us what You have not given to any of Your creation? He will say: ((Shall I not give you better than that?)) They will say: O our Lord, what is better than that? He will say: ((I will bestow My pleasure upon you, so that I will never be angry with you after that)).
It is difficult for a dry person to understand why this is the greatest blessing! As long as the people of Paradise are under a shade, with abundant fruit and Houris, what does the pleasure of Allah add to them in his view?
But the sincere lover knows that the pleasure of the beloved is the highest of aspirations and the ultimate of ambitions: {Allah has promised the believers, men and women, gardens under which rivers flow, to abide therein, and pleasant dwellings in gardens of perpetual bliss. Pleasure from Allah is the greatest. That is the great attainment} [At-Tawbah: 72].. Yes! The pleasure of Allah is greater than all other blessings.. Greater than the gardens, the rivers, and the pleasant dwellings.. It is the pleasure of the greatest beloved, glorified and exalted be He.
Contemplate with me also His saying: {And remember Me; I will remember you} [Al-Baqarah: 152].. Our Lord is affectionate to us and asks us to remember Him and promises us a reward at that time.. What is this reward? That He remembers us. A person weak in emotion does not understand the merit of Allah remembering the servant. But the sincere lover is content that the greatest beloved remembers him: Allah, glorified and exalted be He.
Contemplate with me also the hadith that depicts Allah's joy at the repentance of His servant: ((Allah is more pleased with the repentance of His servant than one of you would be on finding his lost camel in the desert)) (Narrated by Muslim). The noble, believing human is content with the motivation to repent, knowing that it will please whom? It will please the greatest beloved.. Allah, glorified and exalted be He!
There is also another beautiful aspect: If someone you love gives you a gift, which would make you happier? The gift itself or its indication of the giver's love? You are happier that the one who gave it to you expresses his love through it. Therefore, the joy of the people of Paradise is doubled, for they are not only happy with what Allah has given them of His bounty, but also with the significance of this bounty as an indication of Allah's love for them and His pleasure with them.
So do not forget to feel this meaning whenever you read verses and hadiths of divine bounty.. {Their Lord gives them good tidings} [At-Tawbah: 21], {Allah has prepared for them} [Al-Ahzab: 44], {Allah has promised those who believe} [At-Tawbah: 111], {And Allah has given them} [Al-Anfal: 19].. Allah's pleasure, which this bounty indicates, is more important than the bounty itself.
Of course, what has been mentioned does not mean that the believer obeys Allah and worships Him out of love alone without awaiting reward or fearing punishment, for this is an excess that the texts of the Quran and the Sunnah reject, such as His saying: {They supplicate Him, fearing [Him] and hoping [in His mercy]} [As-Sajdah: 16].. And His saying: {And they hope for His mercy and fear His punishment} [Al-Isra: 57].. The intention is to draw attention to a meaning that is often overlooked and should be combined with fear and hope, which is obeying Allah out of love for Him and striving for His love and pleasure with us.
If you have turned away, do not be surprised when Allah the Most High tests you to remind you to reciprocate His affection with affection. Even if the trial is severe, it will not be more severe than the dryness of the soul and the barrenness of the heart, devoid of tasting Allah's affection towards us and reciprocating this affection.
If the trial drives you to this tasting, then you have gained everything and lost nothing, no matter how great your loss may appear outwardly.
We mentioned that trials help you build your love for God on solid foundations, and we said that one of these foundations is contemplating God's names and attributes. Trials help you understand these names and attributes.
One beautiful saying goes: "When -may God exalt Him- opens for you the door of understanding in prevention, prevention becomes the eye of giving. When He gives you, He testifies to His mercy, and when He prevents you, He testifies to His power. He is in all of that familiar to you and approaching with His kindness to you. It is only the prevention that hurts you due to your lack of understanding of God in it."
Therefore, you may be deprived of a blessing.. If God enables you to think about His wisdom when He deprives you, this thinking will return to you with gifts that are much greater than what you were deprived of, and you will see that God knows you by His names and attributes through this trial. As for the one who sees trials as pure evil, his misfortune is in the lack of contemplation and the lack of understanding of God's wisdom.
Ibn al-Qayyim said: "(If the servant were fair to his Lord, and how could he be, he would know that His favor upon him in what He prevented him from the world and its pleasures and comforts is greater than His favor upon him in what He gave him of that, He did not prevent him except to give him)" (Al-Fawa'id).
The key to contemplation and understanding is to be certain that God has wisdom in everything. Go beyond doubting the existence of wisdom. Be certain of God's wisdom, then contemplate: what is this wisdom? And then great treasures will be opened to you. The other key is to be certain of your ignorance in comparison to God's wisdom: "{And it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you, and it may be that you love a thing which is bad for you. And Allah knows while you know not}" [Al-Baqarah: 216].
I went through a trial of my freedom being restricted.. At every stage of it, I wished that the trial would stop at that point and I would return to my life as usual. And at every stage, I thought that stopping the trial at that point would be most beneficial for me. But at every stage, I discovered that the continuation of the trial was more beneficial for me than its stopping! And now if I were asked: Do you wish that all of this that happened to you did not happen? My answer: No, by God! Rather, I am very happy that God did not fulfill my wish and supplication to return to my normal life, but chose for me what is better than what I chose for myself. I thank God that this blessing of trial continued for this entire period so that I may reap the great divine gifts from it.
Ibn al-Qayyim said: "(Among the hidden afflictions is that the servant may be in a blessing that God has bestowed upon him and chose for him, but the servant dislikes it and seeks to move from it to what he claims -out of his ignorance- is better for him than it. And his Lord, out of His mercy, does not take him out of that blessing and excuses him for his ignorance and his bad choice for himself...). Then he said: (So if God wills good and guidance for His servant, He testifies to him that what he is in is a blessing from His blessings upon him and His pleasure with him, and He distributes His thanks upon him)" (Al-Fawa'id).
And praise be to God, I have reached this stage in the latter part of my trials: it is no longer a matter of patience, but I have come to thank my Lord for the blessing of the trial that I am in.
Before that experience, I sometimes wondered about the wisdom in the measure of trials upon scholars and callers who benefit people with their call, and they are free, like Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and ibn Taymiyyah and ibn al-Qayyim and Sayyid Qutb and others. I understood some of the wisdom behind that, but I wished that my heart would be more at ease. I understood a part of the wisdom theoretically, but through the experience of the trial, I understood it practically. If you are tried and God enables you to understand, you will see how the one who works for Islam remains in his personality a missing link that is not completed except by sacrifice, when he pays the price of his call. You will see how God opens for the prisoner in His path victories that he would not have thought of outside of prison. You will understand every word of the following great words of Sayyid Qutb, may God have mercy on him:
"(There must be training of souls through trials and testing of the determination for the battle of truth with fears and hardships and hunger and lack of money and souls and fruits. Allah says: "{And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient}" [Al-Baqarah: 155].. There must be this trial so that the believers may bear the costs of the creed so that it may be honored in their souls according to what they have borne for its sake, and the cheap creeds whose bearers do not bear their costs are not honored in their souls when they abandon them at the first shock. The costs here are the price by which the creed is honored in the souls of its people before it is honored in the souls of others, and the more they suffer for its sake and the more they strive for it, the more honored it is for them and the more precious it is to them. Likewise, others will not understand its value except when they see the trial of its people and their patience with their trials. And there must be trials so that the backs of the people of the creed may be strengthened and their resolve may be strengthened. Hardships bring forth hidden powers and stored energy, and they open in the hearts channels and paths that the believer would not have known except under the hammers of hardships. And values and balances and perceptions would not have been correct and precise and straight except in the atmosphere of the trial that removes the film from the eyes and the rust from the hearts. And more important than all of this, or the rule of all of this: resorting to Allah alone when all supports shake, and illusions -which are many- disappear, and the heart is alone with Allah alone, finding no support but His support. And in this moment, the veils may be lifted, and insight may be opened, and the horizon may be cleared for the extent of vision: there is nothing but Allah, there is no power but His power, there is no might but His might, there is no will but His will, there is no refuge but to Him.. Therefore, Allah has placed the trial so that the strivers may be revealed and distinguished, and their news may become known, and there may be no confusion in the ranks, and no room for the concealment of the hypocrites, and the affair of the weak and the cowards may not remain)" End of his speech, may God have mercy on him, from his book (In the Shade of the Quran - His Interpretation of Surah Al-Baqarah).
Therefore, these are among the wisdom of God in the trials of the callers. It is true that if they remained with all their freedom, perhaps they would have been able to interact with people and read references and spread more works. But God wants to purify their intentions and bring life to their words.. As it is said: The deed of one man in a thousand men is more effective than the words of a thousand men about one man.
Trust in God's wisdom in your trials, and He will reveal great treasures to you.
We are still talking about the wisdom of Allah, the Almighty, in trials, and here we add a new element, which is discussing: the wisdom of Allah, the Almighty, in choosing the duration of the trial. Sometimes, a thought would come to me during my trial, and I would say to myself: "Up to this point, I have benefited greatly from this experience for my religion, but I fear that if the trial prolongs, it might have the opposite effect!"
Then I said to myself: "What is your concern? You are a servant; leave your matter to Allah, the Almighty, the Wise, the All-Knowing. He knows best the duration of the trial, its intensity, its timing, and its type. He chooses what He wills, exalted is He. And He is Wise in His choice.
To understand this meaning, let us contemplate the story of the Battle of the Trench (Al-Ahzab): The trial occurred at its time and rose at its time. The crisis had continued until the complete distinction between the hypocrites, those in whose hearts was a disease, and the believers was achieved, and the truths of the men were revealed. So, from the wisdom and mercy of Allah, the trial continued until these matters were realized, so that the believers could beware of the hypocrites and not be affected afterward by their words and the poison they spew with deceit.
It is also from the wisdom and mercy of Allah that the trial did not continue and intensify further, lest a foot that had been steadfast should slip, and some believers should fall from their faith and certainty. "And when the believers saw the confederates, they said, 'This is what Allah and His Messenger had promised us, and Allah and His Messenger spoke the truth.' And it only increased them in faith and submission." (Al-Ahzab: 22) So, when the believers saw the confederates, they stood firm and were patient, and "patience is only at the first shock." Thus, Allah, the Almighty, saved them with their faith and made them speak words that preserved their religion. And their saying: "This is what Allah and His Messenger had promised us." The commentators said that they meant by this the saying of Allah, the Most High, in Surah Al-Baqarah: "Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such trials as came to those who passed before you did not come to you? They were afflicted with great harm and adversity, and they were shaken so that the Messenger and those who believed with him said, 'When will the help of Allah come?' Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near." (Ibn Ashur said that this verse was revealed a year before the Battle of the Trench).
However, the trial continued and intensified, and the siege lasted a month. In this month: hunger, cold, fear. The disbelievers tried to attack the Muslims from weak points in the trench. Matters reached their peak when the Muslims learned that the Jews of Banu Qurayzah had broken their covenant and allied with the disbelievers. And now, at any moment, the Jews of Banu Qurayzah could open their gates, and the disbelievers would rush into the city, spreading killing, torture, and violation of honor.
Allah, the Most High, said: "When they came upon you from above you and from below you, and when the eyes shifted and the hearts reached the throats and you thought thoughts about Allah." (Al-Ahzab: 10-11) In this moment, Allah saved the believers, and Allah sent the wind, which uprooted the tents of the disbelievers, overturned their pots, and scattered their crowds, and they withdrew defeated. Look -glory be to Allah, the Great!- at this appropriate timing.
Now, let us contemplate:
Now, the other question:
Allah has a wisdom in that, and Allah, the Most High, knows best His wisdom. Among His wisdom is that Allah, the Almighty, wanted to strengthen the resolve of the believers, for the more the trial intensified, the more their resolve strengthened and they ascended in ranks. And among His wisdom is that this earthquake that befell them broke them before Allah and made them feel their need for His mercy, exalted is He, and their weakness in comparison, so that they would not be amazed by themselves nor be deluded by them, nor ascribe the favor to themselves in patience and steadfastness, but ascribe all the favor to Allah, the Most High, who saved them at the critical moment.
Therefore:
So, look at the wisdom of Allah -glory be to Him- in the duration of the trial. Glory be to the Wise, the All-Knowing, who does not waste the work of His believing servants, and at the same time, He raises them and disciplines them.
Be certain of the wisdom of Allah in choosing the duration of the trial.
So if you see righteous people being tried with severe trials, and questions arise in your heart about the wisdom of Allah in their trials, say: (Upon myself. They have not complained to their Lord about anyone. If they are content with the decree of Allah, what is my concern? Allah is more merciful to them than I am).. while of course striving to help them and lift the trial from them if you can.
It is the wisdom of Allah the Almighty to grant the owners of severe trials indescribable tastes.
Your son.. you advise him not to eat too many sweets and to clean his mouth of them whenever he eats them. He does not respond to your advice.. he eats them in abundance, and his teeth become decayed, and he comes to you complaining: (Daddy, my teeth hurt me). So, off to the doctor.. (No, Daddy, please! I will feel pain). (It is necessary, my son, otherwise the decay will worsen and you will suffer greater pain). You go, he sits on the doctor's chair, the doctor begins to remove the decay.. your son screams in fear and pain: (Daddy, please, save me). You scold him: (Be quiet, Dad! Let the doctor treat you). The doctor returns to the treatment, your son is silent, then he screams: (Daddy, save me, enough). You scold him firmly: (The doctor knows best, let him complete his work). During this, does your child look at you with hatred?! Never of course, for he knows that you want his well-being. He does not want to feel pain, but he knows that the doctor's treatment will spare him greater pains later. You, as a father, feel pain as you see your son in pain, to the point that you may leave the room because you cannot bear to hear his groans. The treatment ends at the right time. Your son gets up from the chair, and you both leave.. on the way back, your son looks at you with love and respect: (Father wants my well-being in everything he does. The pain has now gone, and I now enjoy healthy teeth).
And Allah has the highest example.. Allah the Almighty forbids us from the "sweets" of sins and commands us to purify ourselves of them whenever we consume them.. we neglect, so sins and heart diseases befall us. Our Merciful Lord knows that these sins and diseases will worsen if left and harm us. So He puts us on the chair of trial to purify our hearts of them. We feel pain, we fear, we ask Him to relieve us from the chair of trial.. and our Lord, by His mercy, knows that the treatment is not yet over, and that there is still decay in our hearts.
Yes, you can ask Allah to relieve you from the trial and insist on this, but no matter how long the treatment is, you always look at Him with the eyes of that child who knows that his father wants his well-being, so you have good thoughts about your Lord the Almighty and be certain that His choice for you is better than your choice for yourself, and you cannot for a moment think ill of Him, but you remain asking Him and loving Him. It is very important that you know: Allah the Almighty does not like to see you in pain, but He likes to see you purified, because He knows the danger of sins and heart diseases to you.
If you are afflicted with a trial, know that Allah wanted to purify you.. ask Him to relieve you, but throughout your stay in the trial, have good thoughts about your Lord and increase in love for Him, for He is more merciful to you than you are to yourself.
Imagine you saw a stranger, smiled at him, and then forgot about the moment. But this person gave you a car and said, "I will never forget your smile. I felt your sincere love for me." He kept calling you and thanking you for your smile. You were in a dilemma, and he helped you, spending his time, effort, and money. You fell ill, and he visited you, feeding you with his own hands. You felt shy and told him that you did not deserve all this... but he said, "No, I will never forget your smile at me." He kept showing you sincere love that is not tainted by worldly interests.
What do you call a person like this? (Affectionate), right? Do you not feel extreme shyness from the affection of such a person? Especially if you cannot repay his kindness and goodness?
And Allah has the highest example! Allah, the Most High, is the Most Affectionate. He is pleased with His servant, loves him, and honors him for very simple actions that the servant does not even pay attention to... with one condition: that this action, word, or feeling is purely for the sake of Allah.
Look at the saying of the Prophet, peace be upon him: "Verily, one of you may speak a word that pleases Allah, and he does not think it to be of any significance, but Allah writes for him a reward for it until the Day he meets Him." (Sahih, narrated by At-Tirmidhi). A word that perhaps the servant forgot, and he did not think it would reach such a level with Allah, but He is pleased with it from the servant forever because He is the Most Affectionate.
In the hadith narrated by Imam Muslim: "I saw a man in Paradise because of a tree he cut from the middle of the road that was harming people." A very simple deed, but we are dealing with the Most Affectionate, Glorified be He.
Allah, the Most High, multiplies a good deed to ten times, to seven hundred times, to many times because He is the Most Affectionate.
Tears fall from you in a moment when you contemplate the kindness of Allah, the generosity of Allah, the greatness of Allah, and the forbearance of Allah... tears. May Allah shade you with them and prevent your eye from the Fire because He is the Most Affectionate. "And a man who remembered Allah in seclusion, so his eyes flowed with tears." (Agreed upon). "Two eyes will not touch the Fire, an eye that wept from the fear of Allah, and an eye that spent the night guarding in the way of Allah." (Narrated by Al-Bukhari).
In the hadith narrated by Al-Bukhari about the man who had mercy on a dog and gave it water... "So Allah thanked him and forgave him."
Simple deeds, but Allah thanks them because He is the Most Appreciative, and He becomes affectionate to us if we do them because He is the Most Affectionate. "And seek forgiveness of your Lord and repent to Him. Indeed, my Lord is Most Merciful, Most Affectionate." (Hud: 90).
He may erase mountains of sins for you and not care, but He does not erase a single good deed without a reason: "Indeed, Allah does not waste the reward of the good-doers." (At-Tawbah: 120) because He is the Most Affectionate.
In the hadith narrated by Muslim, Allah, the Most High, says: "Whoever comes with a good deed will have ten times its reward, and more. And whoever comes with an evil deed will be recompensed with the like thereof, or it will be forgiven. And whoever draws near to Me by a hand's span, I will draw near to him by a cubit. And whoever draws near to Me by a cubit, I will draw near to him by a fathom. And whoever comes to Me walking, I will come to him running. And whoever meets Me with an earth full of sins, not associating anything with Me, I will meet him with forgiveness like it." Yes, because He is the Most Affectionate.
What makes you feel shy before Allah, the Most High, with His generosity and affection, is that you cannot benefit Him in any way. You cannot repay His goodness... and above that, He is the One who enabled you to do good. The servant chooses, true, but your choice of good is only by the enabling of Allah. He enables you to do good, then He rewards you for the good that He enabled you to do!
Then, if Allah tests you and you are patient, He rewards you for the patience that He enabled you to have! He rewards you with an immediate reward in this world, at least with the comfort and tranquility of the heart, then He rewards you in the Hereafter... what is this generosity and affection? No wonder, for He is the Most Affectionate.
In the midst of trials, I saw from my Lord, Glorified and Exalted be He, kindness, mercy, compassion, tenderness, generosity, covering, and help more than I imagined! I searched in my past and present to see why Allah blesses me in this way! But I found nothing... so I cried out of shyness before my Lord, the Most High, and said to Him: "By Allah, my Lord, I do not deserve it, by Allah, my Lord, I do not deserve it." By Allah, I do not deserve it, but He is the Most Affectionate.
Is this not enough to love our Lord, the Most High, unconditionally? Is this not enough to love Him in the midst of suffering and tribulation, to find comfort in Him and be content with His closeness no matter the circumstances?
Brothers and sisters... let us love Allah because He is the Most Affectionate.
We are still building our love for Allah on solid foundations, the first of which is contemplating the names and attributes of Allah. We said that if you master dealing with affliction, you will understand the names and attributes of Allah more and more through affliction, and this will ultimately lead to turning affliction into a reason to increase love for Allah.
In the previous sessions, we contemplated Allah's wisdom in affliction and then His tenderness towards His servants through affliction. Today, we contemplate another attribute of Allah... what is this attribute?
Sometimes we suffer from a problem; we do not know how long it will last or to what extent it will worsen. Hope shines in our hearts for its removal. Our tongues utter supplications. But soon, fear overtakes us, and the specter of despair appears when we think that our affliction will prolong and intensify.
At that moment, we are afraid because we look into the aspects of ourselves and the depths of our souls and find nothing to rely on to endure if the affliction reaches the feared degree. We deal with the matter in a mathematical way: if the calamity is an illness that is feared to lead to blindness, for example, we form the following equation to imagine the future: I - sight = a miserable human being.
And if your son is in the intensive care unit between life and death, the equation is: life - my son = continuous grief. And so on.
In this equation of ours, we forget a very important element, which is that patience does not flow from the weak aspects of yourself when the calamity occurs or intensifies, but rather it descends from Allah! The helper of those who seek His help. Scholars have differed in considering the helper as one of the names of Allah, but it is undoubtedly one of His attributes.
Therefore, patience descends from our Lord, the helper, just as victory descends. Patience descends from Allah to help you in your battle against despair and sorrow. "And if Allah helps you, then there is no victor for you" [Al-Imran: 160].
Note: Just as Allah said: "And victory comes only from Allah" [Al-Imran: 126], He also said: "And be patient, and your patience is only through Allah" [An-Nahl: 127]. The composition of the two verses is similar.
This is a very important truth! Patience descends from Allah, as do safety and tranquility. There are many indications of this, such as His saying: "Then He sent down upon you, after distress, security" [Al-Imran: 154], and His saying: "Then He sent down tranquility upon them" [Al-Fath: 18], and His saying, narrating about the magicians who believed in Moses, peace be upon him, while they were about to have their hands and feet cut off from the opposite side and crucified: "Our Lord, pour upon us patience and take our souls as Muslims" [Al-A'raf: 126].
Imagine a bucket pouring out what is in it. They ask their Lord to pour patience upon them.
Patience descends like rain upon trembling, burning hearts, calming and cooling them. It is not the weak human self that is relied upon to create patience and wage the battle! It is Allah, the helper, who affirms: "Allah keeps firm those who believe" [Ibrahim: 27]. And since it is Allah who keeps firm, there is no affliction greater than the firmness of Allah, the helper.
He is Allah who binds the trembling hearts that were about to come out of the chest due to grief or fear of the unknown. "And We bound their hearts" [Al-Kahf: 14]. And at that moment, nothing is frightening if Allah is the helper.
The mother of Moses, peace be upon him, cast her son into the river, leaving behind an empty heart; the heart of a mother who lost the apple of her eye. Then, firmness descended from Allah: "And in the morning, the heart of Moses' mother became empty; she almost disclosed it had We not bound her heart so that she would be among the believers" [Al-Qasas: 10].
Therefore, patience descends from Allah, the helper. Consequently, the equation is no longer the stagnation we thought, but it has become: I - sight + patience from Allah = a contented human being. Life - my son + tranquility from Allah = contentment, reward, and a new beginning.
Brother! We are not like the atheists who believe only in material phenomena, but we believe that Allah is with us. Do we not read in our daily prayers at least 17 times: "It is You we worship, and it is You we ask for help" [Al-Fatihah: 5]? Has it occurred to you, while you are afflicted, to contemplate this verse when you recite it and imagine your strength as you seek help from Allah in the face of affliction?
Do not say, "I will not be patient!" But if you seek help from Allah, He will help you. Look at His saying: "Say, 'My Lord, judge with truth. Our Lord is the Most Merciful, the One whose help is sought against what you describe'" [Al-Anbiya: 112], and what He narrated about Jacob, peace be upon him, that he said: "And Allah is the One whose help is sought against what you describe" [Yusuf: 18]. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "And if you seek help, seek help from Allah."
Do not say, "I will not be patient!" There is no affliction greater than the help of the helper if you seek His help sincerely. Remember the people of the ditch, the magicians of Pharaoh, and the girl who ground grain. How great patience descended upon them in the face of their severe affliction as soon as faith mingled with their hearts and their souls became pleased with sacrifice for the sake of Allah, even though they had lived their lives before that as polytheists. The One who gave them patience is capable of giving you patience if you resort to Him.
Do not say, "I will not be patient!" All you have to do is seek help from your Lord, the Most Merciful, the One whose help is sought. Our Prophet, peace be upon him, said in the hadith narrated by Muslim: "And whoever is patient, Allah will make him patient."
Do not say, "I will not be patient!" But if you seek help from Allah, patience will descend upon you in the appropriate amount to calm your heart, no matter the size of the affliction. Allah said: "No calamity befalls except by the permission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah, He will guide his heart. And Allah is Knowing of all things" [At-Taghabun: 11]. That is, He guides his heart to good, patience, and contentment in the face of calamity.
Do not say, "I will not be patient!" But look at this great hadith that summarizes our station: The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said in the hadith authenticated by Al-Albani: "Indeed, help comes from Allah according to the provision, and patience comes from Allah according to the calamity." Notice the words of the hadith: "Indeed, help comes from Allah according to the provision." According to the task, "and patience comes from Allah according to the calamity." Patience comes from Allah, the helper.
May people remember him with good, and may Allah conceal him.
But look at Allah's continued concealment of His believing servants on the Day of Judgment. In the hadith narrated by Al-Bukhari, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: "Indeed, Allah brings the believer close (on the Day of Judgment), places His veil over him, and says: Do you know such and such sin? Do you know such and such sin? He says: Yes, my Lord. Until when He confirms him with his sins and he sees in himself that he is doomed, He says: I concealed them for you in the world, and I forgive them for you today, and he is given the book of his good deeds..."
Imagine! Sins that Allah concealed in the world, and only Allah and its owner and the recording angels knew about them, then Allah concealed them after the death of its owner, then concealed them on the Day of Judgment as if they never were, and Allah shows nothing but the virtues of its owner, so he is given the book of his good deeds and departs saying: "Here are my records" [Al-Haqqah: 19]. How, O servant, if Allah had not concealed them? Would you say to the worlds, here are my records?
But you may do a deed for Allah that He conceals so that hypocrisy does not enter your heart. Your Lord accepts it, then this deed appears through your enemies, increasing your love in the hearts of people and raising your status with them that you concealed it, and your enemy returns defeated and humiliated.
And if Allah wills to spread a virtue... He folds it, He allows it to be spoken of by an envious tongue Were it not for the fire that flared up beside it... The fragrance of the wood would not have been known
So thank Allah who did this with your good deeds and did not do it with your sins and evil deeds! And if the praisers praise you... And they praise your patience with your afflictions... Then remember immediately to thank Allah who concealed you, and imagine if the small and large sins had a smell or a sign that appears on your forehead, how would the situation be?
And remember the saying of Abu Muhammad Al-Andalusi Al-Qahatani addressing the Lord of Glory:
You are the one who depicted me and created me... and guided me to the laws of faith. You are the one who sheltered me and nurtured me... and guided me from the confusion of abandonment. And you planted affection among hearts... and kindness from you with mercy and tenderness. And you spread my virtues in the worlds... and concealed my disobedience from their sight. By Allah, if they knew the ugliness of my inner self... they would refuse to greet me when they meet me. And they would turn away from me and despise my company... and I would be humiliated after honor. But you concealed my flaws and my faults... and overlooked my mistakes and my tyranny. So all the praises and eulogies are for you... in my thoughts, my innermost being, and my tongue.
In conclusion, to acknowledge Allah the Most High for His favor in concealing (our faults), and so that His concealment may continue upon you... conceal (the faults of) Allah's servants. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "Whoever conceals a Muslim, Allah will conceal him in this world and the Hereafter" (narrated by Muslim). And he said: "Whoever washes a deceased person and conceals (his faults), Allah will forgive him forty times" (authenticated by Al-Albani, and Ibn Hajr said: Good, strange). Meaning, you may see something in the deceased that would displease him if he were alive, such as signs of a bad end, illness, tattoos before commitment, even in terms of neglecting the cleanliness of his clothes or body... may Allah conceal (your faults), so conceal (the faults of) Allah's servants. And whenever your soul inclines you to speak about the faults of people, remember Allah's concealment upon you.
Contemplate Allah's concealment of your afflictions and how if He revealed what He conceals, you would be shamed, and some who sympathize with you would distance themselves. If people praise you or your patience, direct the praise to your Lord, the Concealer.
Dear beloved,
Imagine a conversation between two friends: Ziyad and Ra'ed.
Ziyad: I heard, Ra'ed, that you are close to an important person. Ra'ed: True, he is wealthy and influential; no problem is too great for him. Ziyad: And what is your relationship with him? Ra'ed: He is my friend! He is ready to stand by me in any problem. He always tells me not to ask for help from anyone else.
Then, after days of this conversation:
Ra'ed: Aaaaaah, Ziyad.. I am anxious!
Brother.. Sister.. Is Ziyad not right? Is Ra'ed not contradictory in his claim? Before you blame Ra'ed.. beware.. I fear that we are like him!
Do we not declare that we believe in Allah and worship Him, so we read in our prayer in one day "Iyyaka na'budu" at least seventeen times and seek His help as we read "Wa iyyaka nasta'een" seventeen times, and believe that Allah is with us and we rely on Him as we say: "Bismillah, tawakkaltu alaa Allah," and often repeat: "Hasbiya Allah wa ni'mal wakeel," and declare that we are Muslims who have submitted our affairs to Allah as we repeat when we go to bed - as taught by the Messenger of Allah -: "Allahumma aslamtu nafsi ilayka wa wajjahtu wajhi ilayka wa fawwadtu amri ilayka wa aljaitu zahri ilayka" (narrated by Bukhari), and repeat morning and evening: "Radeet bi Allah rabban," meaning the Creator, Provider, and Manager of our affairs?
Do we mean what we say? Are we truly believers in Allah, submitting ourselves and our affairs to Him, worshipping Him, seeking His help, relying on Him, being pleased with Him, entrusting our affairs to Him, and seeking refuge in Him?
Therefore..
Allah says: "And Allah is the Protector of the believers" [Al-Imran: 68].. and He says: "So know that Allah is your Protector, the best of protectors and the best of helpers" [Al-Anfal: 40].. and He says: "And do not be weak and do not grieve, and you are superior if you are [true] believers" [Al-Imran: 139].. and He says: "Is not Allah sufficient for His servant?" [Az-Zumar: 36].. (a correct ten-letter reading) and He says: "And whoever relies upon Allah, then He is sufficient for him" [At-Talaq: 3].. and He says: "And Allah is with you and will never deprive you of your deeds" [Muhammad: 35].. and He says: "Indeed, Allah is with the patient" [Al-Baqarah: 153].
So how can any of us allow ourselves to feel extreme fear when faced with a problem? How can we allow ourselves to feel lost, anxious, lonely, and alone before the problem? How can we allow ourselves to express these feelings to people? Where is our faith in Allah and our submission of our affairs to Him, our seeking His help, our reliance on Him, and our feeling of His presence? Should we not be ashamed before Allah to complain of loneliness, loss, weakness, and anxiety about the future? Are we not then contradictory with ourselves?
There is only one explanation for this contradiction out of three:
So which explanation do you choose, O "the reliant" complainer? Beloved in Allah, let us know the greatness of the Lord whom we worship and seek help from:
So what is the benefit of our belief in the names and attributes of Allah if this belief does not calm our hearts and bind our hearts in afflictions and trials? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "He has tasted the sweetness of faith who is pleased with Allah as his Lord, with Islam as his religion, and with Muhammad as his Messenger" (narrated by Muslim). Whoever is pleased with Allah as his Lord who manages his affairs and cares for him will taste the sweetness of faith and its tranquility and reassurance. Whoever finds instead of that anxiety and fear has not tasted the sweetness of faith, and let him then look at the sincerity of his pleasure with Allah as his Lord!
He is Allah who does not let down those who rely on Him.. It is we who may not properly rely on Him.
O afflicted brother, do not complain to the creation about Allah! They are not more merciful to you than Allah.. do not complain to the creation about Allah! Lest the enemies rejoice over us and say: Where is the help of your Lord that you claimed. As their predecessors said in what Allah narrated about them: "These have lost their religion" [Al-Anfal: 49], so Allah replied to them: "And whoever relies upon Allah, then Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise" [Al-Anfal: 49]. Whenever you want to complain of loss, suspicion of the future, despair, hopelessness, and loss of patience, imagine that an atheist is sitting beside you listening to what you say! What will he say to you if he hears your complaints?: "Did you not advise me, O Muslim, to believe in the existence of a Lord who created us and provides for us and to worship Him and seek help from Him to feel tranquility and the good of this world and the hereafter? I do not see any of that! Rather, it seems to me that you say: My affair is in the hand of Allah, yet I am anxious!"
Within these meanings, a poem was composed during an affliction I went through titled: "With the Love of Allah, I Patience" which had an effect, by the permission of Allah, in stabilizing me and expanding my chest until Allah allowed the affliction to clear.. you will find it, brother/sister, in the following pages.. so contemplate it and absorb its meanings.. may Allah benefit us with it.
The trial has prolonged, his face is loud ... and hope is hidden, his despair is firm. And he says, "I am lost, untamed ... extremely anxious, my chest is dark. Drowning alone in worries, for I have no ... neighbor to help nor a friend to have mercy. A harsh desert, I cannot see its end ... so I walk, the sands burn me and slap me. If I strive for an oasis I see it ... then it's a mirage and assumptions deceive me. And I fear that trials will take my life ... so I live my life with a broken heart.
Then I asked him: Do you deny our Lord? ... He answered: No, I am a devoted Muslim. How strange is your condition, do you spend the night thirsty ... if you have a spring of Zamzam water? If your house is full of jewels ... do you say I am poor and destitute? Like a she-camel in the wilderness, killed by thirst ... and her back breaks from carrying water. What do you say to an atheist who hears ... your complaints and spreads what you suppress? He says: (Oh Muslims, have you forgotten ... what you claimed that your Lord is with you And that when you remember His promise ... you were content and patient. And that the love of Allah is a protection for you ... and if you rely on Him, He is sufficient for you. Until you claimed that tranquility is ... reserved for you and misery for others. Why do I see you then despairing ... complaining, full of sorrow and pessimism? You have been deceived by the followers of Ahmad regarding your religion ... and you thought he would protect you from trials. Where is the love you claimed its benefit ... and fear overwhelms and whispers attack? As for me, the love of Layla is my joy ... and her company is a balm for every wound. My heart is flourishing from her love, so ... nothing frightens me nor do worries crowd. I am then, from my joy in her love ... by comparison with you, more honored and blessed. Do not ask me to follow your religion ... I have been granted comfort and you have been deprived.)
It is as if I have been silenced by him from speaking ... so the noble one went away boasting and mocking. Oh, what a pity for the servants when they complain ... about the mercy of the One who does not have mercy! He tests you to accept, hoping and pleading ... then you, after being a master, become discontented?! He tests you to hear from you that you are guilty ... then you cry for the servants and suffer. Oh my Lord, how can you complain of loss ... your complaints are translated as bad assumptions. Do you think your Lord tests you in vain?! ... No, the Lord of the Throne is the most wise. Or if you raise your hand to ask for His favor ... does He withhold the gifts? My Lord is the most generous. Or if you truly say, "My Lord, be with me" ... did He leave you alone? No, my God is the most gentle. Or you said, "Sufficient for me is He upon whom I rely" ... did He not protect you from evil? My Lord is the greatest. So Allah knows best how He will reward a blessing ... in a trial, and the afflicted one does not know. But in man there is excessive haste ... and the Lord's command is to delay, which is more upright. Allah does not break His promises, but ... if we do not accept Him, we will be deprived. My Lord is near to the servants, some of them ... hasten to Him, and some are held back. How many tears in my trials have I shed ... I bear my wounds and my fire burns. Until I know who is pleased with me ... that love is a bond that does not break. Love is not just saying with the tongue ... I am truly passionate and in love. But it is the surrender of oneself to fate ... and if you are called to defend your religion, then it is the blood. How many smiles have I shown amidst enmity ... and the speeches bite and the trials hurt. And I see with my patience who wants to gloat ... that I - and Allah is my protector - do not lose. So be patient, they do not hope, and you hope ... for a reward when they are afflicted and you are afflicted. Either He will honor you, so you will not taste humiliation ... or if He humiliates you, it is not an honor for you. And remember a prophet afflicted with three things ... and also with his eyes, he said, understanding: "Glory be to my Lord, how He arranges His affairs! ... He is the Most Subtle in what He wills and the Most Wise. My Lord, I have scattered my arrows ... and taken up my pens to compose and arrange. To defend the pool of the Sharia from enmity ... and to prevent what the afflicted have intended. And to establish in the heart that touches my letters ... a fortress of love for Allah that does not collapse. So write for a servant who has loved you sincerely ... your vision, for you are the most honored and the most generous.
Do you not love to have a friend who makes you feel that he is yours, and that you are the most precious to him, and that he will not be distracted from you by others? Do you not feel the value of this friend in times of trouble? I think you have noticed that just sharing your worries with this understanding and caring friend brings you comfort and relief.
Once I said to my elder brother: Do you have a quarter of an hour to talk to me about a problem? He answered: (I am all yours)! These words overwhelmed me and comforted me.
This is how we are.. we love to have someone who understands us and lives with us our pains and hopes.. just his presence is a source of tranquility for us.. what if he is able to solve our problems?! How much our hearts will be at ease at that time..
On the other hand, you may feel lost when others compete with you for this friend.. you fear that they may distract him from you. You may know this feeling if you have many brothers competing with you for one father, if you have a sister competing with you for one husband, if you have colleagues competing with you for one teacher.. the father or the husband or the teacher is no longer yours or yours alone.. he or she may forget or forget you in the crowd of others.
So examine yourself! Has a feeling like this crept into you towards: Your Lord, Glorified and Exalted be He?!
I do not ask you about your intellectual convictions, for they refuse that and there is no doubt.. but man may store in the depths of his feelings anxieties that cause him concern without knowing their source, and this is one of them.. that you are lost before Allah in the crowd!
Here is a comforting and reassuring truth: Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, is aware of you, near to you, knows your distress, hears your supplication, rejoices at your repentance, and manages your affairs.. all this as if you were alone in this universe, with no one else sharing it with you! Have you not seen His saying, Glorified and Exalted be He: {He did not create you nor did He resurrect you except as one soul. Indeed, Allah is Hearing and Seeing} [Luqman: 28].. Ibn Kathir said: (Hearing their words, Seeing their deeds, as His Hearing and Seeing in relation to one soul).
Similarly, in the sacred hadith: (O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you, and your men and your jinn, were to stand in one place and ask Me, and I were to give each one what he asks for, it would not decrease what I have, any more than a needle decreases the sea when it is dipped into it).
Glory be to Him who is not distracted by a supplicant from another supplicant, nor by a distressed one from another distressed one.. {Whether one of you whispers the word or declares it openly or conceals it by night and goes forth by day} [Ar-Ra'd: 10].. so no one is lost in the crowd before Him.
You will not be lost in the crowd.. but you can imagine as if you are calling upon Allah alone and that He hears you alone.. and that the meanings of the Beautiful Names of Allah are manifested in His Lordship over you as if you were alone.. so His mercy, His nearness, His forgiveness, His gentleness, His kindness, His patience, His forgiveness, His response, His love, His guidance, His mercy, His provision, His sufficiency, His covering, His gentleness, His giving.. all this appears and will appear in you as if you were alone in this universe.. so do not be lost in the crowd.
Notice how Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, singled out the word (the supplicant) in His saying: {And when My servants ask you concerning Me, indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me} [Al-Baqarah: 186].. in this singling out, there is an indication of His attention to your supplication, which may not be in the plural (the supplicants if they call upon Me).. it is not a general response to the group of supplicants such that His response to most of them would suffice for the response to each of them individually.. but He responds to your supplication as if you were alone, even if He is called upon by you at the same moment by billions, nay, countless numbers of jinn and men and angels.
Similarly, His saying, Glorified and Exalted be He: {Is He who responds to the distressed one when he calls upon Him} [An-Naml: 62].. every distressed one as if he were alone.. {And your Lord does not forget} [Maryam: 64].. Glorified be He, for this is His nature: {And not an atom's weight in the earth or in the heaven escapes your Lord nor what is smaller than that or greater but that it is in a clear record} [Yunus: 61]...
So call upon Allah, ask Him, take comfort in Him, and contemplate in yourself the effects of His Names and Attributes, and invoke His companionship as if you were alone..
And always remember: You will not be lost in the crowd.
Umm Hitham was knitting a woolen sweater (kanza) by hand for her son, who told her in their last contact: "My beloved mother, I have a request for you: knit a woolen sweater by hand and ask my father to send it with my friend Imad, as his flight is on the Thursday after next. I know you will tire yourself out knitting it, but I want to remember you while wearing it... I will feel that you have knitted your affection and love into it, my dear. I will feel, while wearing it, that you are embracing me to your chest. In short, my dear: knit it... for Hitham."
Abu Hitham would comment - half-jokingly - as he saw his wife engrossed in knitting: "So, Mr. Hitham, because of the lack of sweaters! You can buy the best sweater for twenty dinars instead of tiring your mother and straining her eyes at night with this request of yours!"
As for Umm Hitham, she was never affected by what her husband said... Hitham's word: "For Hitham" echoed in her ears. From time to time, she would pause her knitting for a moment to stop her tears, tears of joy at fulfilling Hitham's request, or tears of longing for him.
Umm Hitham was indeed knitting the sweater with enjoyment, even though her vision and a bit of stiffness in her fingers did not help her... but she would gather her strength whenever she remembered Hitham's word "for Hitham," and she would say to her husband: "Nothing is too much for Hitham... as long as Hitham asked, I will be patient."
Difficult tasks become enjoyable when the one who asks us to do them is dear to our hearts... and the more we love them, the greater the pleasure of suffering for them. So how about if the one who asks us is: Allah, glorified and exalted be He! Allah asks you to be patient for His sake: "And those who are patient, seeking the countenance of their Lord" [Ar-Ra'd: 22]...
And Allah, the Most High, said to His Prophet, peace be upon him: "And for your Lord, then be patient" [Al-Mudaththir: 7]. The scholars said about its meaning: that is, make your patience for Allah and for His sake. Is there too much patience for Allah?
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: "If a man were to drag himself on his face from the day he is born until the day he dies, as a leper in the pleasure of Allah the Most High, he would be despised on the Day of Resurrection" (classified as good by Al-Albani).
Imagine! If from your birth until the day of your death at an old age, you spent these eighty or ninety years dragging yourself on your face for the sake of Allah the Most High, you would despise this work of yours on the Day of Resurrection and find it to be nothing when you learn of the greatness of the Lord for whose sake you were tested and see His honor for your patience for His sake!
Whenever you feel the length of the trial and the exhaustion of patience, say: "Since Allah the Most High has asked me to be patient, I will be patient... seeking the countenance of Allah. For Allah the Most High is the greatest beloved, and nothing is too much for Allah."
I used to wonder about the source of tranquility in this verse? What makes us feel at ease when we know that "nothing will befall us except what Allah has decreed for us" [At-Tawbah: 51]? Let us ponder the verse word by word, and imagine hypothetical situations that are not true and compare them with reality to find the answer:
Let us first stand with the word "Allah" in "has decreed for us": Imagine that you are imprisoned and awaiting a judgment from one of the judges of the earth in a session that will be held at a specific time soon, and this judgment is that you will either remain under the disposal of Allah the Most High or be transferred to the disposal of humans! Either you remain under the disposal of Allah with His attributes of wisdom, mercy, justice, kindness, compassion, and forbearance, or you are transferred to the disposal of one who does not share these attributes with Allah the Most High! At that point, it is right for you to be concerned and afraid. But when you are certain that everything that befalls you is from what Allah the Most High has decreed with His attributes, and that you are moving from the disposal of Allah to the disposal of Allah, and that the humans who appear to be in control of you are merely tools for His decrees, subdued to His ruling, glorified be He, then it is right for you to be at ease.
Let us stand with the word "has decreed": You have realized that what befalls you is from the disposal of Allah, but imagine that this disposal is not according to a prior measure! Imagine if the angels descend every day with a group of calamities and scatter them upon the people of the earth, and they befall whom they befall, and a group of blessings as well! At that point, it is right for you to be concerned and afraid. But when you are certain that Allah the Most High has decreed the measures of all things before He created the heavens and the earth by fifty thousand years (as in the authentic hadith), knowing what will result from them, not that His actions with His creation are reactions to events that were hidden from Him before, glorified be He above that, and that He has decreed them with wisdom and mercy, then it is right for you to be at ease.
Then let us stand with the word "for us": The use of the letter "lam" in "for us" indicates that these decrees are for our benefit, no matter how contrary it may seem: "Wonderful is the affair of the believer, for his affair is all good, and that is for none but the believer."
Let us continue with the verse: "Say, 'Nothing will befall us except what Allah has decreed for us'" [At-Tawbah: 51]: "He is our Lord": and the Lord does not hand over His ward to his enemies, and the Lord does not accept humiliation and degradation for his ward, as in the supplication of the Prophet, peace be upon him: "He does not humiliate those whom He takes as a friend."
The continuation of the verse: "And upon Allah let the believers put their trust": If we believe in all that has preceded, then it is right for us to put our trust in Allah, that is, to entrust Him with the management of our affairs with tranquility and certainty. And Allah the Most High knows best...
What if calamities and joys befall people without measure, but rather randomly, so that they may befall you and leave others, not for wisdom nor for prior knowledge? What if Allah has delegated the measure of decrees to angels whom we do not know about their mercy, wisdom, or justice? What if the trials are separated from the reward, so that you are tried and others are blessed, then you both become equal in reward and fate if your deeds are equal, and your patience with your trials is in vain?
Strange questions, aren't they? But I found in them an answer to an old question that I have long been asking myself, which is: What is the meaning of Allah making the owners of calamities patient that their calamities are measured from ancient times? As His saying, may He be glorified: "No calamity befalls on the earth or in yourselves except that it is in a record before We bring it into existence. Indeed, that for Allah is easy * That you may not grieve over what has passed you by or exult over what has come to you. And Allah does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful" [Al-Hadid: 22-23]...
Therefore, these calamities are not random, but measured before their occurrence, so there is no need for sorrow. And Allah has not entrusted anyone - of whom we know nothing - to measure them, but: "No calamity befalls except by the permission of Allah" [At-Taghabun: 11]... Allah, whom we know:
Therefore, when we hear the verses that speak about destiny, and the hadiths like "And know that what has befallen you was not to miss you, and what has missed you was not to befall you," let us know that they remind us of the truth that these decrees are only decreed by Allah, whom we know about His knowledge, wisdom, kindness, mercy, and justice, so let us submit ourselves to Him with tranquility.
We continue to ponder: How can we love Allah the Almighty unconditionally? How can we excel, so that not only does tribulation not affect our love for Allah, but we turn it into a reason to increase our love for Him? How can we build our love for Allah on solid foundations that do not shake or are affected by changes?
In the previous sessions, we focused on the first foundation of these foundations, which is contemplating the names and attributes of Allah. We contemplated some of them, and we leave it to you to contemplate the rest of His names, may He be glorified, and His attributes.
The second foundation that we will contemplate and try to acquire is contemplating the blessings of Allah that He has bestowed upon us in our past and present, so that we may feel that even if we are deprived of some blessings, we have enjoyed many blessings but have forgotten them, and we still have many blessings, but we do not feel them.
This great topic that touches the hearts: the blessings of Allah... We will review it in the following pages.
There are beautiful expressions that people say to each other: "I have been overwhelmed by your kindness. I will never forget your goodness as long as I live." "My love for you has reached the stage of no return! No matter what you do in the future, I will continue to love you, and I will not allow anything to shake my love for you." "I feel shy towards your sincere love for me and your concern for me! I do not deserve all this from you! I can only promise you to be loyal to you as long as I live."
These expressions resonate in our hearts, flow from our tongues, and are reflected on our faces... towards those who do good to us time after time, not out of worldly interests, but because their affection is sincere, their soul is noble, and their heart is great.
When we live these expressions and revolve them in our minds, we also love and respect ourselves! Because we are pleased to be loyal, affectionate, appreciative, tender-hearted, and sensitive.
I remember that once these expressions resonated within me towards my older brother, who has been kind to me all my life. When I fell into a difficult situation that distanced me from my family, my brother did not rest, nor did he taste peace, and he devoted himself and strove in every direction to lift the injustice from me. He excelled in filling the void for my children. He would come to visit me burdened with worries, but despite that, he would control himself, feign a smile, choose his words, and recall good news to keep my morale high.
After one of his visits to me while I was away from my family, he smiled a farewell smile and said to me, "Take care of yourself. If Allah wills, relief is near." I looked at him as he left and went away, and those expressions began to resonate in my chest towards my brother: "I love you, you have overwhelmed me with your kindness, I will never forget your goodness as long as I live, my love for you has reached the stage of no return! No matter what you do in the future, I will continue to love you, I do not deserve all this from you! I will be loyal to you as long as I live."
I felt happy and content with myself as I thought about these expressions... then suddenly... a question was cast into my mind: Who is first with such expressions? Who is first with such expressions?
Is it not He... Allah, the Most High? Has He not overwhelmed us with His goodness? Has He not proven His care for us and His honor for us by making us Muslims, speaking to us with His words, guiding us to Himself, making us aware of His attributes, enveloping us with His blessings at every moment, informing us of a Paradise He has prepared for us, guiding us to its path, and making us love Him with His words, blessings, forgiveness of our slips, and His joy at our repentance?
How many times have you asked Allah and He gave you? How many times have you fallen into distress and He saved you? How many years has He concealed your faults from people and shown them your virtues? To how many hearts has He made you beloved? How many times has He saved you from the gloating of your enemies... even tribulation... Does it not please you that Allah has accepted you to be near Him in His abode of honor, so He wanted to purify you to be worthy of this status, so instead of purification by fire, He tested you, made you good, and purified you?
Is all this not enough to remain loyal to Allah as long as we live? Does this care and honor not make us feel shy before Him, may He be glorified? Will we always be shaken from our love for Him whenever Allah tests our love for Him with worldly tribulation? Will we always fail the test?
When will you say: O Lord! You have overwhelmed me with Your kindness, I will never forget Your favor upon me as long as I live! O Lord! No matter what You decree for me, and no matter how You test me, I will continue to love You, rather, my love for You will increase, and I will not allow anything to disturb the purity of my love for You.
Brother, O you whom Allah has blessed with much in your past and present... but you will not remember the past and feel the present unless you are loyal and appreciative of the goodness... After this divine blessing, if your love for Allah has not reached the stage of no return, then when will it reach it? And what will bring it there?
It is beautiful to be loyal, appreciative, affectionate, and grateful for the goodness and gratitude towards people... but it is more beautiful, more appropriate, and more right to be thus with Allah the Most High, the Creator of humans, who has not done good to us except by His will, His kindness, His covering of our faults, and His making us beloved to His creation.
So be thus with Allah... Love without return.
Among the most important truths that will comfort you, make you patient, and increase your love for Allah is that you have no "rights" upon Allah in this world!
In the hadith narrated by Abu Dawood and authenticated by Al-Albani, from Ibn Dilmah, he said: I came to Abu bin Ka'b and said to him, "Something has occurred to me regarding predestination, so tell me something, perhaps Allah will remove it from my heart." He said, "If Allah were to punish the people of the heavens and the earth, He would not be unjust to them, and if He were to have mercy upon them, His mercy would be better for them than their deeds. If you were to spend like Mount Uhud in gold in the cause of Allah, Allah would not accept it from you until you believe in predestination and know that what has befallen you was not meant to miss you, and what has missed you was not meant to befall you. If you were to die upon other than this, you would enter the Hellfire." He said, then I came to Abdullah bin Mas'ud and he said the same, then I came to Hudhayfah bin al-Yaman and he said the same, then I came to Zayd bin Thabit, and he told me from the Prophet, peace be upon him, the same.
How much will you rest, my brother, and how much will you rest, my sister, when this concept settles in your heart and your heart is at ease with it: you have nothing upon Allah in this world as a right that you expect merely by your existence! Even if He were to deprive you of everything, He would not be unjust to you, glorified is He.
If the servant does not deserve Paradise and salvation from punishment by his deeds except by a mercy from Allah and a favor, then how can he deserve the comforts of this world merely by his existence in it? Allah has rights upon us that we cannot repay, no matter how much we worship and draw near to Him. The least of His blessings deserves more from us than what we offer in terms of acts of obedience and closeness.
And Allah has obligated upon Himself for His believing servants Paradise.. {Say, "Is that better or the Garden of Eternity which is promised to the righteous? It will be their recompense and destination. They will have therein whatever they desire, abiding eternally. [It is] a promise binding upon your Lord, to be answered.} [Al-Furqan: 15-16].
Yes, He obligated it upon Himself for His believing servants out of His favor and generosity, and made what man seeks in this world causes and means, by which if one takes hold, he will attain it. And He commanded His servants with commands, and promised them if they fulfill them with promises, such as provision for those who fear and victory for those who help their Lord, and empowerment for those who believe and do righteous deeds. Whoever does not attain any of this should know that the shortcoming is in his fulfilling the command of his Lord who promised him, or that it is in the law of trial that Allah has also promised: {And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient.}
As for assuming that you have a right upon Allah to give you merely because of your existence! This is only due to your not understanding the position of servitude before the Owner of the Kingdom, glorified is He!
When this settles in your heart, the starting point of your assumptions is nothing. If Allah blesses you with health and blesses you with wealth, family, and other things, then you taste the blessing of health and acknowledge Allah's favor.
But if the starting point is that it is your right upon Allah to give you everything, then you will only see the empty half of the cup, and your soul will go with regrets over every blessing you have lost, even if Allah has blessed you with everything else. And this is the plight of many: they see from their "rights" upon Allah that He should give them wealth, health, security, and... and... if they are deprived of any of this, they harbor in their hearts towards their Lord, glorified is He, what is not befitting!
When you remember that you have no rights upon Allah and that the original state of this world is that it is...
... a place of trials, then you will see the joys as comforting rather than seeing the trials as bitter.
For example, you may be in the midst of preparing for a happy celebration, and then an accident happens to one of your loved ones! If you assume perfection in your life, you will see this incident as bitter for your celebration, spoiling its joy. But if it settles in your heart that this incident is a trial among the expected trials of this world - for the original state of this life is trial - then you will see the joy of the celebration as comforting, distracting from some of the inevitable worries.
So proceed in your life, remembering well this truth: you have no rights upon Allah in this world.
It is human nature that the feeling of continuous blessings becomes dull and dull in one's perception. And if a person loses contentment, he thinks only of what he lacks in blessings until he feels that what he lacks is the most important component of human life, and that his life has no taste without what he lacks. Let us review some examples of this:
This poor man is healthy in body, married, and Allah has blessed him with children, but he does not see these blessings. He no longer thinks about what he has; he only thinks about what he lacks.
The patient says: What is the value of life without good health? What good are my possessions if medicine has failed to find a cure for my illness, which worsens with the passing years, casting a nightmare of being bedridden, unable to serve myself day after day... What is the taste of life with that?! I wish I could lose all my money and be blessed with health, for health is everything.
The unmarried woman who has not been blessed with a husband says: What is the value of life without emotional fulfillment? What good are my degrees, money, and health if I do not find someone to comfort and be comforted by? If I do not have a life partner to fill my life with meaning? I wish I could lose everything and be blessed with a husband who gives my life meaning.
The prisoner who has been imprisoned for a long time says: What is the value of life without freedom?! I am buried before my death! What good are my money, health, and education? Freedom is everything.
The barren man says: What is the value of life without children to fill the house with noise and joy? What good are my money and health if my wife and I find nothing in our house every night but silence and the deadly calm? What is the value of life if it will end with my death and no one to carry on my name? Who will I work for and gather money for?
The ugly man says: What is the value of life if people look down on me? What is its value if I hate seeing myself in the mirror every morning?! What good are my money, degrees, and health after that? I wish I could lose everything and be blessed with a handsome appearance.
And so it goes! Most people - except those whom Allah has mercy upon - despise the blessings of Allah upon them, and every afflicted person thinks that what he lacks is the most important thing or everything. Whose complaint is more justified? The poor man, the patient, the unmarried woman, the prisoner, the barren man, or the ugly man? Is money everything? Or health? Or marriage? Or offspring? Or beauty? Or freedom? Either one of these things is the most important thing or everything, or they are all false claims.
And the truth is that they are false claims! Their origin is a lack of contentment, which magnifies what a person lacks while making the great blessings he enjoys dull and insignificant to him. Therefore, Allah the Almighty said: "And do not wish for that by which Allah has made some of you exceed others" [An-Nisa: 32].
And the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: "Look to those who are below you and do not look to those who are above you, for that will make you appreciate the blessings of Allah upon you." It is indeed ungrateful to see the many blessings of Allah upon you as nothing while seeing what you are afflicted with as everything! "They know the favor of Allah, then they deny it" [An-Nahl: 83]. Therefore, you see many verses in the Quran that mention the blessing of Allah and urge gratitude for it... "But most people do not give thanks" [Yusuf: 38]. And the ugliest descriptions in the Quran are for those who do not appreciate blessings, the word of disbelief "So they disbelieved in the blessings of Allah" [An-Nahl: 112]. There are great blessings that we do not even notice their existence, and they do not receive the attention they deserve in lessons, admonitions, and sermons, even though they are not less important than the blessings mentioned above. An example of this is the blessing of "motivation."
Have you ever heard a lesson or a sermon or read in a book about the blessing of motivation? If you want to know its importance, look at a depressed patient, that disease that is often of unknown cause and requires expensive treatments whose effects may be delayed... and it is different from sadness that befalls any human being temporarily.
Ask a depressed patient how he lost the motivation for life, so there is no motivation for eating and drinking, nor for learning and working, nor for treating himself nor those for whom he is responsible, nor for comforting his wife and playing with his children... Life is all tasteless, colorless, and odorless! He does not desire or wish for anything except death!
O you who see money as everything, I wish you could have money and lose motivation? O you who wish to lose everything in exchange for living in marital bliss, will you be happy if you are blessed with a good husband but lose - I do not say everything - but lose motivation only?
Therefore, my brother and sister, we must beware of despising the blessings of Allah upon us. We must feel these blessings and renew our joy in them in our hearts while reciting verses like that of Allah the Almighty: "Do you not see that Allah has subjected to you whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth and has bestowed upon you His favors, apparent and hidden?" [Luqman: 20].
The important question remains: Is there a blessing other than what has been mentioned that can be considered everything in this life? Yes! It is the blessing of faith. With faith, you endure what you are afflicted with in the loss of some blessings, for your patience may be a greater blessing than what you have lost! In accordance with the saying of the Prophet, peace be upon him: "How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for his affairs are all good, and this is only for the believer. If he is afflicted with a calamity, he is patient, and that is good for him. If he is granted a blessing, he is grateful, and that is good for him" (Narrated by Muslim). While without faith, blessings become a trial, a temptation, and a reason for a longer reckoning and severe torment: "And let not those who disbelieve think that Our giving them respite is good for them. We only give them respite that they may increase in sin, and for them is a humiliating punishment" [Al-Imran: 178].
Allah saved Yusuf, peace be upon him, from the trial of faith, which was the attempt of the women to seduce him, and He tested him with imprisonment, which is a worldly trial. And Allah considered that a favor upon Yusuf and a response to his supplication: "So his Lord responded to him and averted from him their plot. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Knowing" [Yusuf: 34], even though He decreed for him a long imprisonment. Yes! If the faith is saved, then the trials of the world turn into a means for this world and the Hereafter, as happened with Yusuf, peace be upon him.
O Allah, grant us faith, contentment, and patience.
Peace be upon you.
The father fell ill with a disease that gradually weakens his abilities. The doctor informed the family that the disease is chronic and that treatments only slow down the deterioration. The children refused to accept this truth! They went to a second and third doctor, conducted advanced tests, asked their cousin in Canada to send new medication, tried natural treatments, experimented with herbs... but their father's condition worsened month after month.
They cried when their father stumbled for the first time, a warning of the beginning of a loss of balance. Tears welled up in their eyes when he failed for the first time to lift a morsel to his mouth. Their faces darkened with sorrow when he began to need help with his personal needs.
At all these stages, they would say: "This is not the father we knew... We want the father we knew! We want our strong, active father. He used to cover our mistakes. He was the one who pampered us and fed us with his own hand at the table. He was and he was... Our father has not aged yet. He is still in his fifties. Our uncles who are older than him are in good health. Perhaps this is a summer cloud that will clear. Perhaps all the doctors are wrong in their diagnosis. We want our father as he was."
The father read all this in his children's eyes and the expressions on their faces, so he became sad for their sadness. To console himself about his fate and not increase his worry, he began to avoid looking at their faces altogether! He could no longer bear to see the pity mixed with the false hope. Years have passed, and the children are still butting their heads against the reality, and the flower of their hearts withers as they see their father wither.
We tire ourselves when we refuse a new reality that will continue; when we refuse to live with this reality, when we insist that we do not want any "losses" in this worldly life!
The children of this sick man refused the fact that they had been afflicted with their beloved father's chronic illness. They took all material means, and this is commendable. But they began to make a mistake when it became clear that their father would not return to his former self according to the usual norms. They refused this truth because it was bitter, they did not live with it or accept it. So they tired themselves and tired their father with them!
When we are afflicted with a trial, there is no harm in striving in every direction permitted by Allah, knocking on every possible door, and in our hearts the hope of removing this trial.
However, this diligent effort should be temporary. If it becomes clear that this trial is a fixed, continuous fate that Allah has chosen for us, then it is wise to redirect our efforts from defending against this trial to living with it.
Many will reject this speech as a call to surrender to the trial. Come, beloved, let us discuss the matter carefully: which is better? That the children of this afflicted man say to their father: "Be patient, our father. Perhaps this illness of yours will be the cause of entering Paradise. What does it matter to you if you will forget all the toil of this world with a dip in Paradise! And we are your children, parts of you; we are your hands and feet and hearing and sight. All you have to do now is rest and command us as you wish to serve you with our eyes and earn a reward for your blessing. We ask Allah that your illness be a sign of Allah's love for you, for the reward is great with the greatness of the trial, and verily Allah, the Exalted, if He loves a people, He will test them."
Is this better, or should they flatter their father's emotions with words of hope for recovery, so that the poor man's morale is temporarily raised and his spirit is temporarily invigorated, only to discover over time that it is a false, illusory hope, so that optimism fades and despair grows and the spirit deteriorates?
Which is better? That the children focus their efforts on adapting their father's life according to the illness by scheduling their times to share in his service and providing the tools necessary for his daily personal needs according to his illness, and integrating him in activities that suit his illness and fill his time. Or that they leave everything as it is because their father "will return as he was" and take their father to the sixth and seventh doctor and hang his heart on inaccurate stories they heard about a man who was cured of the same disease by a herb with the so-called healer. And every time the poor man goes with them with a new hope and returns with a setback.
Someone will say: "Why not combine both: hope and living with the trial?" Reality testifies that one of these two choices must be the original and the other the exception, and that the soul cannot combine the peak of hope for the removal of the trial and living with it efficiently and patiently. One of them must occupy a larger space in thought and effort.
In our example, keeping the hope of recovery at its peak implicitly means that this is "not the situation we want for our father," and this preoccupation undermines patience, makes living difficult, and misses opportunities for the fruitful investment of time and effort.
We advise those who are afflicted with long-term trials to consider the new situation as the norm, and the return to what was before the trial as an exception. This is more likely to make the afflicted person turn to new joys in his life that distract him from the feeling of the loss of the blessing he has lost. He will start anew in life with what he has of means. If Allah's decree is contrary to the usual and this trial is revealed, it will be an increase and a good over good. But if the afflicted person assumes that the norm is the removal of this trial, he will always feel a lack and a void in his heart, and this feeling will preoccupy him from noticing the other joys in his life, and his speech and thought will be focused on the trial, revolving in a vicious circle of anxiety. This may lead him to despise Allah's blessing upon him!
But if you live with it, you will see joys in the very thing you were afflicted with. The children of the man we mentioned in the example will shift their focus from the distress of refusing the reality of the chronic illness to the joy of what they achieve in easing their father's burden and removing obstacles for him and earning a reward for all of that. And he will be pleased with what Allah has eased for him and replaced with good from these children who see their joy and the goodness of their hearts.
Someone will say: "But I know examples of people who have broken the norm! So-and-so was given up by the doctors for recovery and was cured. It may happen to me as it happened to him."
You have said it: "It may happen." And it may not happen! Prepare yourself, brother and sister, for what usually happens, and seek other joys in your life, the first and greatest of which is what you will not be deprived of if you ask for it sincerely: the mercy of Allah the Exalted. "Say, 'In the mercy of Allah, so rejoice therein. That is better than what they amass.'" [Yunus: 58]. At that moment, your heart will be filled with contentment with Allah the Exalted, acceptance of His decree, reliance upon Him, and good opinion of Him.
And with all of that... keep the candle of hope lit.
Years of our lives pass by, gathering for us many reasons to be happy. But if we ask ourselves: Are we happy? The answer may come from the depths of our hearts: I'm not sure!
There are ambitions and aspirations that occupy your mind that have not yet been realized. They become the focus of your attention. As for the reasons for happiness that have gathered for you, they have faded in your sense, and their colors have dimmed, becoming like the static background in a picture that lacks the focus of the lens, which is these ambitions that have not yet been realized.
Just as iron rusts, the tools for tasting blessings embedded in our hearts rust... Therefore, Allah the Almighty reminds us in many places of these blessings that have faded in our sense and no longer mean anything to us:
"Have you not seen that Allah has subjected to you whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth and has bestowed upon you His favors, apparent and hidden?" [Luqman: 20]...
"Allah is He who created the heavens and the earth and sent down from the sky water, then brought forth thereby of the fruits a provision for you, and subjected to you the ships to run upon the sea by His command, and subjected to you the rivers, * and subjected to you the sun and the moon, constant in their courses, and subjected to you the night and the day * and gave you from all you asked of Him. And if you count the favors of Allah, you could never enumerate them. Indeed, man is [prone to] ingratitude, disbelievers" [Ibrahim: 32-34], and many verses about hearing, sight, shelter, clothing, food, drink, fire, minerals, sleep, resurrection after it, spouses, children, and others.
Many verses, so that we do not neglect Allah's blessing and forget it. But even with this divine reminder, we may not enjoy these blessings. The talk here is not about thinking about the problems of Muslims and feeling their pain, for this is required to the extent that it drives you to work positively to help and support them. And the talk is not about making life miserable by the injustice of the oppressors who ruin our lives and seek corruption on earth, for this misery is inevitable, and it should drive us to reform our situation with diligent work, and the individual who is displeased with the oppressor in it and is pleased with Allah and seeks His help to defend against this oppression..
But the talk here is about losing the ability to taste blessings and feel Allah's favor upon us in them, and this is a disease that afflicts the soul regardless of concern for Muslims and the bitterness of the corruption of the oppressors.
This disease is part of psychological phenomena known to psychologists as (Cognitive Distortion), i.e., cognitive distortion, and they call this phenomenon in particular: (Mental Filter), i.e., mental filtering, which is the individual's inability to notice the positive aspects of his life due to his preoccupation with a relatively minor annoyance, like someone who sees only a simple flaw in a beautiful, useful garment. This, my brothers, is an unhealthy phenomenon that needs treatment, but in reality, it may be present in most of us.
If one of us fails to taste Allah's blessings upon him and appreciate them as they deserve, perhaps Allah the Almighty will test him with the loss of one of these blessings. And the happy one at that time is he who learns and is warned by the loss of this blessing that there are many things in his life that he still possesses, which warrant thanking Allah and deserve to be happy with. The trial comes to remove the rust from the tools of sensing blessings embedded in your nature and cleanse them, and restore luster to life and give it vibrant colors again, after it was a dull, monotonous background with no color! After the mental filter preoccupied you with it and diminished its value and marred its luster with the longing for what has not yet been realized of ambitions.. the trial comes to teach man the art of tasting blessings!
The blessings with you were abundant, but your ability to taste them was weak, so you did not care about them and be happy as you should. The blessings may decrease with the trial that deprives you of wealth or status or health or others, but if you are of those who are content and have good thoughts of Allah and contemplate His wisdom, then you will realize with the trial the much that remains with you and you will be ashamed before Allah that you did not appreciate His blessing upon you before, so you acquire the art of tasting blessings and be happy with them and be reassured.
We ask Allah to make us of His servants who are granted well-being and are thankful..
The trial, even if it deprives you of some blessings, you can turn it into a reason to taste the remaining blessings that have faded in your sense, and thank Allah for them.
Forty-four years of my life have passed.. during which I have experienced the blessings of Allah, the Almighty.. in His dream and generosity and covering and mercy.. what makes the tongue stumble.. there is no trial I have suffered except that the Merciful deals with me gently in it, and does not burden me with what I cannot bear, but rather makes me feel His closeness and companionship and makes for me in the folds of the trial a great good, in my religion and the comfort of my heart and my worldly life..
My eyes would sometimes water, while I was in the midst of my trials, and I would say: (What did I do to deserve this?!), (Why me, O Lord?!), (By Allah, O Lord, I do not deserve).. I mean: what did I do to deserve these subtleties of my Lord's mercy?! Why am I blessed by my Lord in this way?! I do not deserve this favor, by Allah, I do not deserve.
And the thoughts would haunt me that this favor might be a temptation, and that one day I would be "punished" for the accumulation of my shortcomings and be deprived of these blessings to return to my true size as a human being who does not deserve the generosity of his Lord, and lose the feeling of favor with Him, glorified and exalted be He.
But the day of the crushing punishment did not come, but rather a renewed tenderness and generosity and favor! And if a trial comes, it comes with patience and tenderness.
But I realized that my imbalanced fear that the favor might be a temptation was bad manners towards my Lord, the Almighty, for dealing with His guidance as if it were "poisoned" spoils the position of gratitude.. so I thank Him, the Almighty, that He did not deal with me with this bad assumption!
Fear of Allah is required, but with a love for Allah that fills the heart of the servant.. required, but to drive you to reform your situation, not to spoil His blessings upon you and prevent you from reaching the position of gratitude.
I have often wondered: (I do not deserve all this generosity from Allah!!), as if I hear the answer: (True, you do not deserve it.. but He is more generous than to limit you with His generosity).
Dear people.. We are still contemplating: how do we love Allah, the Almighty, unconditionally? How do we excel, so that we do not prevent the trial from affecting our love for Allah, but rather turn it into a reason to increase our love for Allah? How do we build our love for Allah on solid foundations that do not shake or are affected by changes?
In the previous stations, we focused on the first two foundations of these foundations, which are:
The third foundation that we will contemplate is: attaching the heart to the Hereafter, which is the subject of the following pages.
You will tire if you resist this truth, and no matter how much you try to overcome it, it will remain the truth... this world is not the abode of reward. If it were the abode of reward, then prophets like Zakariya and Yahya, peace be upon them, would not have been killed, nor would a number of the Prophet's companions, peace be upon him, have been tortured to death, such as Yasir and Sumayyah, without seeing the establishment of Islam. Nor would the people of the Ditch have suffered what they did.
Therefore, when you ponder the benefits of trials, do not limit your perspective to the worldly ones... for the soul always seeks an immediate fruit: "But they prefer the life of this world over the Hereafter" [al-A'la: 16, 17].
And if the expected relief does not come until death, then the story is not over: "And in the Hereafter is a severe punishment, and forgiveness from Allah and pleasure, and the life of this world is not but the enjoyment of delusion" [al-Hadid: 20].
And Allah has refuted the narrow-minded view that considers the bestowal of blessings in this world as an honor from Allah to man and trials as an insult: "But when his Lord tried him, He granted him honor and good provision, he says, 'My Lord has honored me.' And when He tried him and restricted his provision, he says, 'My Lord has humiliated me.' No!" [al-Fajr: 15-17]... for indeed, the reality of honor and humiliation is in the Hereafter, while this world is a place of trial.
In the story of Yusuf, peace be upon him, after Allah exalted him that He had enabled him in the land as a reward for his goodness, He said, "And the reward of the Hereafter is better for those who believe and fear Allah" [Yusuf: 57]... better than that which transferred him from the darkness of prison to the seat of rule. So even if you are granted good in this world, attach your heart to the greater reward of the Hereafter.
At the second Pledge of Aqaba, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, took from the Ansar a commitment to sacrifice everything... a commitment that would expose them to trials in their selves, wealth, and children... so what was the reward he promised them if they accepted? "(And for you is Paradise)." The reward is otherworldly. It is true that other texts promised a worldly reward as well (such as verse 55 of Surah an-Nur)... but this reward is on the level of the community of believers, whereas many of them died without enjoying it...
And there remains a type of bliss that Allah grants to every believer promptly in this world as an increase to help him on the path with its difficulties; it is the tranquility of the soul and the good news: "Indeed, the allies of Allah will not fear nor will they grieve. Those who believed and were fearing Allah. For them is good tidings in this world and in the Hereafter. There is no change in the words of Allah. That is what is the great attainment" [Yunus: 62-64].
If this concept does not settle in the heart of the Muslim: that (this world is not the abode of reward), then his suspicions will worsen when he compares his worldly condition with the conditions of those who do not believe in Allah... Therefore, Allah has forbidden us from making these worldly comparisons: "And do not extend your eyes toward what We have given for enjoyment to some of the polytheists, [for] thereby We may test them. And the provision of your Lord is better and more lasting" [Ta-Ha: 131]... so raise your head to the sky, O believer, and expose yourself to the breezes of Paradise, and do not lower your gaze to what is with them, for it is only a trial and enticement for them. He, peace be upon him, said: "(Those are a people to whom their good things have been made to seem attractive in this worldly life)" (al-Bukhari).
And it is reported from al-Hasan al-Basri, may Allah have mercy on him: "(He who does not find solace in the comfort of the Hereafter will be cut off from this world in regret)." Yes! He will regret every worldly provision he misses, especially if he compares himself to others... but the believer knows that what he misses in this world has been reserved for him in multiples in the Hereafter: "Say, 'The enjoyment of this world is little, and the Hereafter is better for he who fears Allah. And you will not be wronged, [even] as much as a thread" [al-Nisa': 77]... and that the payment of wages will only be on the Day of Judgment: "And you will not be wronged, [even] as much as a thread" [Al 'Imran: 185].
The imprisoned person's mind is dominated by words: (imprisonment) (release) (judgment) (the judge) (the accusation) (defense) (evidence) (acquittal) (mitigation) (punishment) (duration).
So you see him thinking about these words in his standing and sitting, waking and sleeping, eating and drinking, praying, and exercising. And if he picks up a newspaper, for example, or asks about the news, he is concerned with what relates to imprisonment and release and what serves his case and saves him from punishment. He does not expect to search for car models and the prices of residential villas.. for all of this does not concern him!
So let us remember that we are imprisoned in this world from our original homeland, which is Paradise, and that our sins are real charges with evidence against us, for which we deserve punishment, and that our main defense is that we are monotheists, for if it is found that this monotheism of ours is flawed, do not ask about the duration of the punishment! And let us remember that acquittal from these charges is by sincere repentance.. and that He who holds the judgment is the True Judge: Allah, the Exalted in Might.
At that time, we will strive to please the True Judge and work for what will transfer us from the prison of this world to the vastness of the Hereafter. And we will not be preoccupied with the trifles of this world and its distractions, for they do not concern us. And the matter of salvation from the punishment of Allah and attaining His reward and pleasure will dominate our minds, alive in our hearts, never neglecting it for a moment.
Ibn al-Qayyim said: So be alive in the gardens of Eden, for they are your first abode and in them is the camp But we are the captives of the enemy, so do you see us returning to our homelands and being safe?
When the trial is prolonged, the soul becomes bitter about what it causes in terms of "wasting" time and money, exhausting the nerves, spoiling the mood, and affecting health... but the believer remembers that nothing is lost with Allah, but all is calculated.
Allah, the Exalted, said: "And be patient, for indeed, Allah does not allow the reward of the doers of good to be lost" [Hud: 115], and the beloved Messenger, peace be upon him, said: "(No fatigue, nor disease, nor sorrow, nor sadness, nor hurt, nor distress befalls a Muslim, not even a thorn that pricks him, but Allah expiates some of his sins thereby)" (al-Bukhari).
So do not despair of anything, O afflicted one, for if you are patient, then patience is the best investment of time, money, and health... and do not think of what you spend of it as wasted, but it is a credit for you there on a day when there will be no dirham nor dinar, but only good and bad deeds.
During a trial I went through, it pained me that Allah the Most High would look into the hearts of people from the camp of falsehood and desires and see in them a readiness to sacrifice for the sake of this world and to support falsehood. And He would look into my heart and see me preoccupied with ambition and stingy with myself, preventing it from being harmed for the sake of Allah!
So, this poem was titled "When I Chose Myself":
My soul groans from the comfort it has turned to, I try to soothe it, but it refuses to be comforted. It is burdened by its load and feels constrained, And fears what the days may bring. It sighs from a calamity that has befallen us, Separating after the sweetness of life has united us. It distracts its sorrow with beautiful memories, Returning from intense longing, weary. And if I promise it relief that will come, It responds with good tidings and longs for it. Why do I see you, O possessor of a soul, at ease, Weary in seeking glory and sacrifice? O seek purity from hypocrisy, With deeds that confirm your words. It is fate that nullifies every claim, And sends a flood into the fields of assertion. From the seeds of truth, it sprouts branches, And the false word remains faded. In it, only the vile of resolve reaps, "Would that," "If only," and "Were it not for."
O do not look at the slaves of the world, Who have deceived in their pursuit, difficult and easy. Among them is one seeking praise and mention, Tasting for it, stabbing and killing. And he follows so that it is said of him, "Brave," A child is killed, and the mother is bereaved. And another, his ultimate goal is to reach, With a pearl or with honor or with Leila. He perishes so that his face may be honored by her, And he considers that she has granted him a favor! And how many seek wealth and kingdom, Abandoning for them a homeland and family. And the leader of the people prefers death with honor, To escape the humiliation of life, a disgrace.
If the one who strives for the world sees in his stinginess with himself a miser, Am I not worthy of the seekers of glory? Yes, O my soul, rather more worthy and more deserving. For the ultimate goal of my desire, O my soul, is higher, And my profit, if the sale is true, is more precious. For I am a seller of my soul to my Lord, To receive from Him a favor and a bounty. And I will be blessed in the gardens with a good life, Following the Chosen One, and Allah is my Protector. And I will spread light in the lands of injustice, And raise in the hearts of the young noble qualities. And I will repel the treachery of the wicked sinner, Who has transgressed in the land, causing corruption and ignorance. If you remember, O possessor of a soul, my deed, And my reward, you would not have despised the burden. And if you had seen the goodness of my Lord's reward, For the deeds of the servants, you would not have been ashamed. This is my resolve, and my spirit from me, Sees in weakness, betrayal, and disgrace. So venture into its paths, otherwise, Its remnants will ascend to Allah swiftly.
In the following pages are miscellaneous thoughts on patience and attachment to Allah the Most High.
"Ma lana illa Allah" (We have none but Allah); a phrase that has become, for many of us, synonymous with the phrase: "There is no power but in Allah" (Ma bil yadi hayla). A phrase: for those who did not find their happiness among humans, they had to choose Allah! It has become a phrase declaring bankruptcy!
This is despite the fact that the original meaning is that those who have none but Allah have lost nothing and need nothing: "Is not Allah sufficient for His servant?" [Az-Zumar: 36]... And that those who have everything except Allah have nothing but falsehood that neither nourishes nor satisfies hunger.
Isn't everything except Allah false?
What happens to us when tribulation befalls us is that we initially turn to Allah, but we soon realize that for this turning to be sincere and fruitful, it must have consequences. Among its consequences is that we search for every negligence we have committed beside Allah and correct it, and for every gap in our lives, we close it, and for every sin, we repent...
And among the consequences of this turning is that we examine our hearts, search for their diseases to treat them, and we will find that we have neglected our hearts for years, so they have become ruins, barren and heedless, where the meanings of loving Allah, sincerity in relying on Him, humility before Him, submission to Him, attachment to Him, and longing to meet Him have weakened!
We find that it is necessary to remove its thorns, turn its soil, sow the verses of Allah in it, and water it with the water of standing, fasting, and supplication.
Yes; we will discover that turning to Allah, fleeing to Him, and holding onto His rope all have consequences and a price.
But we want to get rid of the tribulation quickly! And the process of leaving sins, closing gaps, uprooting thorns, sowing seeds, watering them, and waiting for them to grow takes time, and time passes, not in our favor, so what is the solution?
The solution we usually choose is to seek worldly causes that seem to have a quicker result and a lighter burden than the process of sincere turning to Allah. We intend to walk in these causes alongside the process of turning to Allah and its consequences, and whichever precedes in lifting the tribulation, it is well and good. As for the consequences of turning to Allah, there is a lifetime to complete them!
Here begins the deviation; when we become lazy about bearing the consequences of turning to Allah, we seek an alternative! We deceive ourselves that this alternative is a cause, and that Allah has commanded us to take the causes. Yes, taking the causes is praiseworthy when our turning to Allah is sincere, and we are patient and persevere in reforming ourselves, so that there is no attachment in the heart except to Him, the Most High.
But when our seeking of causes is a result of our prolonging the path of turning to Allah and our laziness in bearing its consequences, then these causes become, in our perception, an alternative to Allah. These causes compete with turning to Allah in our hearts, occupy its space, and divert our time, effort, emotion, and thought. We become thinking about these material causes during our prayers, standing, recitation, and supplication. The appearances are with Allah, and the inner selves are with the causes and the ways of obtaining them, the fear of missing them, the obstacles to their effect, and their alternatives in case of failure, and their latest news!
And whenever we discover that these causes have ruined the process of turning to Allah, we numb ourselves with excuses. We say to ourselves: "These causes are timed, and if they are missed, they are missed. As for the door of repentance, it is open and does not close. If I am worried that I do not cry out of fear of Allah and I do not humble myself in my prayer, this is not new. I have lived with it for many years, and nothing comes all at once. I have improvement, even if it is slow, and Allah is Merciful, He sees my condition and the great matter that preoccupies me, so He will excuse me. Moreover, I will not be able to turn to my heart to correct it while I am preoccupied with the causes and my shortcomings in them, so I will focus now on the causes to find comfort in them until I am free to correct my heart!"
And thus, we make the causes "guarantees" with Allah, so that if we fall short in Allah's right and do not ensure relief from His side, the causes will help us!
Do you want to know if this disease has crept into your heart? When you put your head down to sleep... in this moment that summarizes the fluctuations of your being throughout a whole day, and you recite the familiar supplication, focus well. Do you mean what you say? Are you ready to bear the consequences of these words: "O Allah, I have submitted my soul to You, and I have entrusted my affair to You..."
If your heart is disturbed when you say it and you contemplate its meaning, know that the heart is disturbed and afraid when lying! Because you do not truly want to submit yourself completely to Allah, but you want guarantees with Allah!
You will not feel at ease if you submit yourself to Allah while it is tainted, and you have not yet intended to turn to Allah sincerely and fulfill His right. This is the danger, and here lies the mistake: when attachment to worldly causes is a substitute for completing the turning to Allah, whose consequences we have found burdensome. We then think that these causes are quicker in effect, or more certain in result, or more effective in appeasing our selves from sincere turning to Allah, the Most High.
You will continue to bring causes from the heart to replace causes, and you will continue to move from mirage to mirage, seeking water but finding none, and turning the mountains of causes into dust!
And you will not supplicate to Allah sincerely during this confusion. For turning to Allah is a noble station that does not allow competition or to be competed with, so it remains outside the heart, looking at these causes that have been emptied of Allah and have become falsehood, and turning to Allah refuses to gather with falsehood in one heart.
It is the moment when you learn the lesson, understand it, and realize that all your previous efforts were in vain... despair from all worldly causes... despair from yourself and your abilities, intelligence, and planning... tasting the bitterness of the weakness of your strength, the paucity of your means, and your humiliation among people... despair from your family, clan, friends, and lovers, and you learn that they - even if they want good for you - do not possess, by themselves, any benefit or harm for you... despair from all the earthly ropes stretched to you and be certain that there is no protector from Allah's decree except whom He has mercy upon... and despair from all your good deeds, and you are ashamed to seek Allah with them because you doubt their acceptance, and they have come from your heedless heart!
It is a moment of despair, hopelessness, drought, and exhaustion from everything... A moment of the heart being empty of everything... A moment of the collapse of hope in everything... everything! It is the appropriate moment for the feeling of turning to Allah to be cast into the heart!
This feeling of waiting... seeing causes come and go, and the ruin of the heart weaving the threads of the spider, until the heart is completely emptied of them and exhausts them all, then the turning to Allah is cast into it, filling it, reviving its hopes, causing its greenery to grow, and making it pulsate with strength anew. The rain does not delay to overflow onto the channels of the eyes, so they pour with tears again after a long drought, and the circle is completed with a tongue that stutters with supplications that flow onto it and tremble with the beats of the heart and the flows of tears.
It is a moment... you will know it is the one when you live it...
Like the moment of the three who were left until the earth became narrow for them despite its vastness, their selves became narrow for them, they despaired of everything, and they were certain that there is no refuge from Allah except to Him. Allah cast into their hearts and their whispers: "Repent, for I want to repent upon you."
It is a moment... you will know it is the one; a moment when a knocker knocks at your being, saying: "Now! O heart, your pulse, O eye, your tear, O tongue, your supplication... now: Allah wants to answer your supplication."
It is but a moment! You will say: If it is a moment, does it make sense that my heart has not been exposed throughout all my past tribulations to the breezes of that moment?
Yes; it is the devil. When he felt your laziness about the consequences of turning to Allah, he attacked you to divert you from Allah, saying: "Where are you going? The path you are about to take is long; here is a nearby fertile land, so graze." So, he handed you the reins of your heart, and he moved it between the pastures of barrenness. If you had disobeyed him at the beginning of the path, you would have reached!
It is the devil; he knocks on the door of true deliverance, but when he senses your boredom and weariness, he says to you, "Here is an easy exit, follow me." He leads you into the corridor of causes, where you waste your time and effort. And every time you try to return to the door of true deliverance, he says, "Slowly... you will see light at the end of this tunnel." But there is no light! He only diverts you from the path and claims to guide you. If you had disobeyed him from the beginning and insisted on knocking on the door, it would have been opened for you.
It is true that turning to Allah has consequences, and it is true that uprooting the thorns from the heart and sowing seeds there requires time and effort. However, this is far less than the time and effort we will waste in vain in the corridor of causes devoid of Allah. With Allah, you will find comfort and tranquility, and with these causes, you will find fear and disappointment. In the first case, you will reach your destination, and in the second, you will only increase your confusion!
So why then do we keep our hearts attached to worldly causes and creatures to save us from our troubles? And we pay the price of that in time, effort, torn hearts, scattered thoughts, grief, illusion, oppression, and dashed hopes in creatures?
Why do we not learn from others?
No harm, it is human nature; we learn from experience ourselves, until when it grinds us and we taste its bitterness, we become more resolute and stronger in our determination to resist the devil if he tries to divert us from the door of true deliverance, and we say to him, "Tempt others... tempt others..."
But the tragedy is if one of us does not learn from his own experiences and insists on entering the corridor - the corridor of causes cut off from Allah, the corridor of attachment to creatures - with every new trial. And it is not befitting for the believer to be bitten from the same hole twice!
So ask Allah to grant you this moment of despair and hope; despair of creatures, and hope in the Creator, glorified is He.
It is a moment... but how precious and rare it is! It is a moment... if the heart lives it, it will rise with the mountains of worries piled upon it, and my Lord will annihilate them. It is a moment... but it transports the heart from the valley of profound loss to attachment to the Throne. It is a moment... it takes you from the depths of failure to the peak of hope, and from the loneliness of despair to the joy of comfort. It is a moment... it rescues you from the fears that consume you from every side to the bosom of Allah where there is safety. It is a moment... you thought before it that you had lost everything, only to discover afterward that you had found everything. It is a moment... and it was as if it were a shout in the cemetery of the heart, reviving its dead.
It is the moment of attachment to Allah, to Allah alone, and by Allah, it is the moment of deliverance, deliverance for your heart by reviving it after its death, and deliverance from your distress in the way that Allah wills and with which you are pleased.
It is a moment like the moments of the prophets, peace be upon them. It is true that the lives of the prophets were all attachment to Allah, but this attachment was tested, purified, and stripped down to reach its peak in moments when deliverance came.
The moment of Noah when he called upon his Lord, "I am overwhelmed, so help me" [Quran 54:10], and Allah saved him and those with him in the ark. The moment of Abraham when he said, "Sufficient for me is Allah, and He is the best disposer of affairs" [Quran 12:138], and Allah made the fire cool and peaceful for him. The moment of Jonah when he said, "There is no god but You, glory be to You, indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers" [Quran 21:87], and Allah saved him from distress and from the belly of the whale. The moment of Moses when he said, "Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me" [Quran 26:62], and Allah saved him and his people from the sea before him and the enemy behind him. The moment of Job when he called upon his Lord, "Indeed, adversity has touched me, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful" [Quran 21:83], and Allah removed from him his adversity and gave him his family and their like with them. The moment of Joseph when he emptied his heart of attachment to the kingdom and the exit tainted with prison, and said, "Return to your Lord and ask Him" [Quran 12:50], and Allah saved him from prison and gave him kingship. The moment of Jacob when he said to his sons, "And do not despair of the spirit of Allah" [Quran 12:87], and Allah returned to him his sons and his sight. The moment of Muhammad, peace be upon him, when he said, "Do not grieve; indeed, Allah is with us" [Quran 9:40], and Allah saved him from the swords of the polytheists that were above his head in a desert where there was no kinship to drive them away from the Messenger of Allah nor followers.
It is a moment of despair of creatures, so there is nothing left but hope in the Creator, and deliverance comes quickly. "Until when the messengers despaired and thought that they were denied, Our help came to them, and whom We will, We deliver. And [Our] punishment cannot be repelled from the wicked people" [Quran 12:110].
Indeed, Allah's deliverance is near... very near; for nothing stands between us and it but this moment. It is we who distance ourselves from it by entering the corridors of causes devoid of Allah and moving between their pastures, when we find it difficult - with the weakness of our insight and lack of patience - the consequences of turning to Allah!
Therefore, the patience required in affliction is not just the patience of endurance in the face of worries; rather, more important than that is the patience in bearing the consequences of turning to Allah, glorified is He.
It is a moment of pure certainty in the truthfulness of Allah, and absolute trust in His ability to save us no matter how the causes are erased, and that whoever insists on knocking on the door is about to have it opened for him. A moment of certainty that even if the nation gathered to benefit you with something, they would not benefit you except with something that Allah has written for you.
A moment that rescues you from the corridor and puts you in front of the door of deliverance again.
Therefore, if we live this moment and realize that we have no one but Allah, then how happy, content, and at ease we will be! And it will not be a declaration of bankruptcy; rather, it will be a declaration of wealth and sufficiency. And we will not say it with weakness, sadness, and fear, but we will say it with steadfastness, pride, and glad tidings; for he who has no one but Allah, Allah is sufficient for him, and He is the best disposer of affairs, and He is the best Master and Helper. And at that time, when we put our heads down to sleep and say, "O Allah, I have submitted my soul to You, and I have entrusted my affair to You," our hearts will tremble; but this time, it will be the trembling of love for Allah and comfort with Him after long neglect of Him.
I have personally experienced this moment when I was absent from my family unjustly. During this absence, I was troubled by my fear for my parents that one of them might be harmed in my absence. The problem was that I had previously fallen short in dedicating enough time and effort to make them happy. Often, I was preoccupied with calling and other beneficial matters, but the failure to prioritize is in itself a mistake that a person must seek forgiveness for. Allah, the Almighty, has enjoined upon us kindness to parents and excellence in that; "And to parents do good" [Quran 17:23]. There is no excuse for you to be preoccupied with other matters that are beloved to Allah, the Almighty, instead of kindness to your parents. The devil may convince you to distract you with the lesser instead of the better. Therefore, during my absence, fears would haunt me that one of my parents or both of them might be harmed.
My heart was attached to worldly causes. It seemed as if there were many ropes stretched out that would save me from my affliction, but these ropes were suddenly cut, and the causes suddenly collapsed, and I found myself in a moment of despair from everything earthly, everything material. And in this moment, my heart was truly attached to Allah, the Almighty.
During my absence, I wrote a poem that expresses this moment.
My heart is clear, but my exile is long, and grief chokes me and narrows my chest. I long to see my children, to play with them, and to embrace them to my chest. And I have parents who have reached old age, afflicted by diseases that have worn them down. This is my father, exhausted and bedridden, his body diminished by the autumn of age. And my mother endures what I endure, she is about to melt from grief and oppression. And my wife, because of my absence, is heartbroken, and tears flow. My little ones ask her about my absence, and her heart boils like a burning coal. And I have become a hostage to people who have tried to throw me into a pit. As if I were dead before reaching my appointed time, they have buried me - and there is still life - in my grave.
And I did not follow the way of my Lord, and I thought it was free from all evil. And I did not think it was surrounded by roses and spread with rubies and pearls. And I am not ignorant of the laws of affliction, nor do I complain that it is my turn. And I do not fear the loss of status, nor do I fear to be afflicted with poverty. But I fear the fate that may befall my parents if it suddenly strikes them. And I have fallen short with them in their right, and I will never be excused. If they die and I have not embraced them, then woe to my regret and the loss of my affair! Their memory will remain a deep wound and a broken heart without healing. And I was a loving father to my children, but I was preoccupied with achieving pride. So I did not shower them with my affection, but I greeted them with much reprimand.
I turn my gaze and ponder, seeking help to lift oppression. I turned to people for rescue, but found no support. Except for brothers who tried their best, but couldn't free me from my chains. Regretful and ashamed, my sight returned, but it didn't bring what I desired.
When they closed the doors on me and despair nearly crushed all hope, I anchored at your door, my Lord, seeking a remedy for my broken state. I searched within myself, hoping I had stored something for such hardship. With sincere deeds that please you, my Lord, may they intercede for me in revealing a remedy. I saw nothing but a barren desert, and I came to you with nothing but my misery! Truly, I am remorseful, my Lord, and I intend to repent for the rest of my life. I had promised you before, so show me kindness and expose my betrayal.
But I love you, my God, and I have composed poetry with my longing for you. I did not extend my hand to you, my God, but it returned empty from your gifts. I thought your forgiveness, my Lord, was goodness, for I was not born except with goodness. So have mercy on your weak servant, my God, and make him happy with ease after hardship. And return me to my aging parents, so they may see my goodness and righteousness. Answer me if you know the sincerity of my words, for you are aware of my secret and open declarations. By the Most Merciful, I swear all my efforts, and I know He will reward with goodness. Remove the sorrow from me and my brothers, and dispel our darkness with the dawn.
I have personally experienced this moment, but how much the Islamic world needs to live it! How much the Islamic world needs today to cut off hope in everything; to cut off hope in creatures... How much these peoples need, when they raise the slogans: "We have no one but Allah," to understand the meaning of this slogan; for by Allah, if they truly believe in it and act upon its consequences and attach their hearts to Allah alone, then by Allah, Allah will make for them a relief and an exit.
O Muslims... O Muslims... Put your trust in your Lord, attach your hearts to His mercy, do not attach your hearts to creatures, do not seek help from anyone other than your Lord, glorified and exalted be He, be sincere in seeking help from Allah, cast yourselves at His threshold, glorified and exalted be He.
"If Allah helps you, none can overcome you; and if He forsakes you, then who is there after Him that can help you?" (Qur'an 3:160).
And Allah, the Most High, knows best and judges best. And may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his companions.
When we go through a difficult time or wish for something unlikely to obtain, there is a thought that makes our hope for achieving what we pray for weak, so we pray to Allah with lethargy. This thought is: "Many others have gone through a similar situation, and I see them better off than me. They prayed to Allah, but He did not respond to them. So, it is not expected that He will respond to me any better."
Brothers, let me share with you the answer I gave myself to this question, which had a great impact on my relationship with Allah the Almighty, and I believe it is one of the great reasons for the acceptance of supplication.
The answer: "Look at your relationship with Allah the Almighty as a special one that is not affected by what happens to others." Many others may have fallen into a similar or even worse calamity, and it was not lifted from them, even though they prayed to Allah a lot, and even though they were better than you in worship and more pious. It has nothing to do with you. Pray with certainty and hope in the generosity of Allah, and do not compare yourself to others.
What are the evidences for this?
Ibn Ashur said in his interpretation (Al-Tahrir wa Al-Tanwir): "The calculation in His saying: 'without account' means enumeration, for calculation implies enumerating the counted thing so that it does not increase or decrease. The meaning is that Allah provides for whom He wills with an amount whose measure is not known because it is entrusted to the grace of Allah."
The point of evidence is that Allah does not wrong anyone, but He gives every doer of good more than he deserves. However, He may choose people for additional favor. Notice that His name is (Favor) and not an obligatory right upon Him, glory be to Him. So, the Muslim should hope to be among those whom Allah has singled out for additional favor.
Dear people:
One of the purposes of the religion is to reassure the servant in the mercy of Allah and to form a great hope in His giving. The mentioned comparison with the response to others contradicts this noble purpose.
If the mentioned comparison is correct, then what is the point of supplication? You will look at others and compare, and the answer will be ready: "They did not achieve what they prayed for, so He will not achieve it for me," and thus the servitude of supplication will be paralyzed in many cases.
Look at the calamity of others to be patient as they are patient as long as you are in your calamity. But it is not right to make the relief of your calamity dependent on the relief of theirs.
But do you know what happens? Sometimes we wait for the relief of others because we feel that in that there is "proof of the mercy of Allah" and His response to supplication! While the evidences of mercy and response are continuous, without limit, were it not for forgetfulness and lack of contemplation.
Those whom you see better than you may not achieve what they asked for, such as the lifting of calamity, because they are better than you! He may keep their supplication for the erasure of sins and the raising of degrees, for He knows that their faith can bear it, and He provides them with contentment with His decree and comfort for their hearts, and thus He has responded to their supplication with what is more beneficial to them than what they asked for in reality. While He may know that there is weakness in you (your branch is tender), so He has mercy on your weakness and makes the response to your supplication by lifting the calamity.
For all of the above, pray to Allah with certainty, make your relationship with Him special, and hope to be among those who are close to Him, as if you say: "O Lord, I have nothing to do with so-and-so and so-and-so whose calamity was not lifted. You are more merciful to them and know what is best for them. What I know is that I am a servant of a Generous Lord with no limit to His giving, and there is no lord for me but Him. I ask Him, He provides for whom He wills without account, so respond, O Generous One."
You will see them in a more beautiful sight, by the permission of Allah!
I wrote this reflection in the year 1431 AH, 2010 AD:
My current trial of being away from my family began when my twin daughters (Layn and Lijn) were five months old. There is still an image of one of them stuck in my mind; I would put her on her back on the ground, and she would turn over onto her stomach and then lift her chest with her hands. If our eyes met, she would smile a smile of victory, and her head would shake with its weight on her small body!
As much as this sight was joyful at the time, it has become painful to me now as I am away from my children. I wish I could see the little ones growing day by day, to see the development of their movements stage by stage: they crawl, then they love, then they walk while holding onto the edges of the furniture, then they walk short distances with quick steps, delighted by the encouragement of the onlookers. This stage is passing now while I am away from them, losing a pleasure that will not return!
This thought was a painful sting to my senses... until I said to myself: "Do not be sad, you will see them in a more beautiful sight, by the permission of Allah!" "Perhaps our Lord will give us in exchange for it that which is better. Indeed, we are to our Lord returning" [Al-Qalam 68:32].
I said to myself: What do you gain if you witness the development of the movements of your two daughters until they grow up and approach the age of accountability, then suddenly they surprise you with rejecting the hijab, for example? What beautiful memory will remain at that time if your daughters from your own flesh reject the rituals of a religion for which you sacrifice yourself?
I ask Allah the Almighty, whom I was tested for His sake, to compensate you not only in the Hereafter but also in this world, by seeing your two daughters one day wearing the hijab of their own accord, ready to go out with you on a journey, and their eyes filled with joy at what they have done, and a smile of satisfaction drawn on their innocent faces. At that time, it will be a more beautiful, purer, more radiant sight, and more joyful to your soul than any sight you have lost by being away from them. "Indeed, Allah knows what is within your hearts, so let those who persist in what is right receive good consequences and increase in goodness. And Allah is Forgiving and Appreciative" [Al-Anfal 8:70].
Often we lament the blessings we lose or the stages of our lives we do not live as we wish because we believe they cannot be compensated. Think well of your Lord, O brother, and ask Him to compensate you with good for what you have lost. And remember at the same time that this world is too trivial to strive to enjoy all its permissible pleasures. The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: "The bow's length or the length of a whip in Paradise for one of you is better than this world and all that is in it!"
So, our lamentation for the loss of worldly enjoyment is more than the loss of great opportunities to win Paradise. Indeed, this lamentation is a sign of our heedlessness, of which we must be ashamed and strive to rectify.
It is expected of you, O believer, not to strive to enjoy every moment of the moments of this world, but of those who do not believe in the Hereafter. He laments what is missed from it because in his view it is everything.
So, attach your heart, O brother, to the blessings of the Hereafter, and do not whisper to yourself that there is enjoyment in this world that you miss without having a compensation of its kind in the Hereafter. Are you not, if you enter Paradise, able to ask for the return of what was missed from you of the enjoyment of this world? Yes, "For them whatever they wish will be with their Lord" [Az-Zumar 39:34]. But I do not think that the great blessing, which is described as great, "Indeed, with Allah is a great reward" [At-Tawbah 9:22], will distract you from the enjoyment that has passed in a world that does not weigh with Allah the wing of a mosquito!
So, discipline yourself with sacrifice for the sake of Allah.
Note: The years passed, and my other sister Sarah wore the hijab on her own as a child, then she died with a good end, praise be to Allah.
Indeed, the beginning of the solution to your problem and the way out of your crisis is to know that it only befell you due to a sin of yours: "(And whatever misfortune befalls you, it is because of what your hands have earned. And He pardons much)" [Ash-Shura: 30], "(And whatever adversity befalls you, it is from yourselves)" [An-Nisa: 79], "(And when a disaster befalls you, you say, 'We belong to Allah, and to Him we shall return.' But here you are, that very moment, trying to win His favor by killing yourselves!)" [Al-Imran: 165].
Therefore, Allah the Almighty loves for you at that time to hasten to correct your situation and to return to Him: "(So We seized them with punishment, that perhaps they might return)" [Al-An'am: 42].
Most people do not interact with affliction as Allah the Almighty loves. Hence, you see that the Quran describes in many places the poor interaction of people with affliction:
Some do not interact nor benefit: "(But when Our punishment came to them, they did not seek supplication. But their hearts were hardened, and Satan made what they were doing seem fair to them)" [Al-An'am: 43], "(And indeed, We seized them with punishment, but they did not humble themselves to their Lord, nor did they supplicate)" [Al-Mu'minun: 76], "(Do they not see that they are tested once or twice every year? But they do not repent nor do they remember)" [At-Tawbah: 126].
Some despair and lose hope: "(The human being does not tire of supplicating for good, but when evil touches him, he despairs and loses hope)" [Fussilat: 49], "(And if an affliction befalls them for what their hands have sent forth, they despair)" [Ar-Rum: 36], "(And when evil befalls him, he is despairing)" [Al-Isra: 83].
Indeed, some even increase in disbelief!: "(And if an affliction befalls them for what their hands have sent forth, then indeed, the human is ungrateful)" [Ash-Shura: 48], "(And if We send a wind and they see it turn yellow, they persist in disbelief after it)" [Ar-Rum: 51].
Amazing is your condition, O human! This Quranic focus on the phenomenon of poor interaction calls for us to pause and reflect.
We spend our time complaining about affliction, wishing it had not befallen us, imagining our happiness if it had not happened, catching the news, and panting after any sign of relief. We knock on earthly doors and exaggerate in taking material causes to rid ourselves of affliction, to the point where thinking about affliction becomes a waking nightmare, a dream, and an obsession that never leaves our minds. But all of this only makes us spin in a vicious cycle, and a new affliction will be born within us: that we did not benefit from the affliction and did not interact with it as Allah the Almighty loves, by correcting our situations and returning to Him, glorified and exalted be He.
Perhaps the affliction is an injustice that has befallen you, so you spend your time angry at the oppressor. But it is wise to realize that this was only sent to you due to a sin of yours; it is but a tool of Allah's decree. "(And if you endure patiently and have taqwa, their cunning will not harm you in any way)" [Al-Imran: 120]. Therefore, it is befitting for you, while defending against this injustice and striving to obtain your right through every means Allah has legislated, to also strive to rid yourself of your sin, hoping that Allah will remove the harm from you.
If an affliction befalls you, hasten to write a list of your mistakes that need correction, and begin to rid yourself of them, having set in your mind that you will do so to glorify Allah's right first, then so that He may look upon you with a gaze of mercy and remove the affliction from you. And note in determining your mistakes that the affliction may be of the same kind as the sin, for whoever seeks a pleasure that Allah does not approve of may be deprived of the lawful pleasure:
If you are afflicted, for example, with problems with your wife, think: Perhaps you wanted to sweeten your life by being lenient in dealing with women who are not your mahrams, by joking with them or speaking to them outside the bounds of necessity and lowering your gaze, thus depriving yourself of the pure, lawful pleasure of marital harmony.
If you are afflicted with the loss of some of your wealth or a lack of blessing in it, remember: Did you neglect to introduce dubious money into your wealth? Did you fall short in maintaining the ties of kinship with your mother by giving her money that would please her and expand her means?
If you are afflicted with imprisonment, remember: Do you have a sick father confined to his bed who cannot move? Did you not facilitate his movement in his house and outside of it? Did you not comfort him with conversation to alleviate his loneliness? So you were afflicted with loneliness like his loneliness!
If you are afflicted with the loss of your job, remember: Perhaps you were not humble in your prayer, but rather you would pass it while thinking about your job and its problems and pleasing the manager while you are in the presence of Allah the Almighty!
Perhaps you, O afflicted wife, whose husband does not consider your right... Perhaps you saw him falling short in the right of Allah, so you did not advise him nor help him to please his Lord, so Allah did not guide him to fulfill his right upon you!
O afflicted one! Face the truth, even if it is bitter! There must be a sin that brought the affliction upon you, so determine it and rid yourself of it quickly. Thus, you will succeed, by the permission of Allah, in turning the trial in your worldly life into a blessing in your religion, and the words of the Prophet, peace be upon him, will apply to you: "Amazing is the affair of the believer, for indeed all of his affairs are good, and this is only for the believer." And it is hoped for you at that time that relief will come to you, for you have avoided evil, and Allah the Almighty says: "(And whoever fears Allah, He will make for him a way out. And will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah, then He is sufficient for him)" [At-Talaq: 2-3].
But if you are slow and weak in correcting your situation, then remember at that time that the teacher, if he sees slowness in the student in learning the lesson, may increase the number of sessions. And to Allah belongs the highest example.
Relief may come to you with the removal of what harmed and preoccupied you, and relief may come to you with the affliction remaining, but you see the company of Allah with you in it, and the comfort of your heart after loneliness, and steadfastness after shaking, and a good face in your religion and worldly life, better for you than the removal of the affliction.
Therefore, remember as you determine your mistakes and begin to treat them that you want to rid yourself of them for life, regardless of whether your distress is relieved or not. Otherwise, you were not sincere in your intention to repent to Allah the Almighty. You may have cut off your brother and been afflicted with poverty, so you draw near to Allah the Almighty and reconcile with your brother again. And yet, Allah may afflict you with continuous poverty and its intensity. Will you then return to the cutoff for the slightest new problem between you? And is this an indication that your repentance was sincere and pure for the sake of Allah the Almighty?
And how amazing is the one who does not neglect repentance during affliction, but rather increases in committing prohibitions to solve his problem! Like a merchant who is exposed to a loss and borrows a riba-based loan to revive his trade, and perhaps he justifies that to himself by saying: "My Lord has forced me to resort to this path!"
These are the conditions of people with affliction: some make it a station of purification and a new launch in their life, some do not repent nor remember, and some seek refuge from the embers with fire. Choose for yourself. "(And for all, degrees [of reward] for what they did. And your Lord, ever is He, of what they do, unaware)" [Al-An'am: 132].
O beloved ones...
There is a concept that answers many questions that occur to us:
The answer to all these questions is in two words: disavowal and seeking help. What do they mean? This is what we will answer with the permission of Allah in these pages.
This is a saying by Ibn Al-Qayyim with some modifications to emphasize the idea. May Allah have mercy on him, he said the meaning of which is: "The knowledgeable people agree that success is in Allah not leaving you to yourself, and failure is in Allah leaving you to yourself. And a servant may have both failure and success, so he compares them and realizes that the One who holds the sky of his success and guidance from falling on the earth of his failure and misguidance is the One who holds the sky from falling on the earth except by His permission. And the servant realizes at that moment his need to say in every prostration: 'It is You we worship and it is You we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path' [Al-Fatihah: 5-6]... And the servant realizes at that moment the intensity of his need for success in every breath and every moment."
So, my brothers, success is in Allah not leaving you to yourself. What does this mean? Imagine life and its tests as a group of pits. You may admire your abilities and intelligence because you were able to overcome some of these pits. You feel that you have "self-capabilities" that qualify you to succeed in any experience, and you say:
And this view is reinforced by people's praise for you:
And such expressions of praise for different aspects of your personality. So you feel unconsciously something of "independence" from Allah's mercy and success: "Nay, verily man transgresses because he sees himself as self-sufficient" [Al-'Alaq: 6-7].
So Allah presents you with a pit, and He lets you rely on your abilities (let them benefit you!), so you fall into the pit terribly, because you were left to yourself. So you learn that there is no salvation nor success for you except by clinging to the rope of Allah, the rope of His mercy and success.
So renounce your abilities and seek success from Allah. And this is the meaning of renunciation and seeking. And completely avoid saying: "I am of the type" and "I am not of the type."
But realize that we are all without exception "of the type" that is not worth the skin of an onion if Allah leaves us to ourselves! How many are proud of their steadfastness in the face of desires, who one day fall into what they never imagined they would fall into, what they thought they could overcome! And how many are proud of their intelligence, who are deceived by what does not deceive the simple people...
Therefore, we call morning and evening with the constant supplication of our Prophet peace be upon him: "O Living, O Eternal, by Your mercy I seek help, rectify all my affairs, and do not leave me to myself for the blink of an eye."
One of us may ask: "Do I not dispense with Allah's success for the blink of an eye?" Meaning, for the duration of a blink? Yes.. Look, my brothers, at actions that may not take more than the blink of an eye, in which Allah leaves us to ourselves, and actions come out of us that leave a deep wound throughout our lives!
And many others.
Actions that you would be surprised to do, as if they are signs from Allah: Look what you would be if Allah left you to yourself and you neglected the necessity of your need for your Lord's mercy in every blink of an eye.
Remember that to call with urgency and eagerness, not routine supplication: "So do not leave me to myself for the blink of an eye."
One of us may memorize the Quran and the hadiths related to patience, contentment, positivity, stories of the righteous, poems, sayings, derivations, and beautiful meanings... And yet, there are times when none of these benefit him! He feels weak in faith, empty heart, low morale, and lack of patience!
As if it is a reminder from Allah that even these verses, hadiths, and meanings do not have an automatic effect, but if Allah wills, He removes their effect from you and brings down the sky of your patience and joy on the earth of your weakness and fear. And if Allah wills, He makes a verse have a new effect on you and a great impact as if you are hearing it for the first time, even though you have read it before hundreds or thousands of times. These are tremors that make you feel the approach of your sky's collapse, so you increase your resorting to Allah.
And I see that this helps in understanding the Prophet's saying peace be upon him: "Indeed, my heart is covered, and I seek forgiveness from Allah a hundred times a day" (Muslim). Covered meaning what covers the heart, as if it is afflictions that befall the Prophet (tremors) to remember that his steadfastness and strength are not self-sufficient, but a manifestation of mercy and companionship from Allah, so his insight into his need for his Lord is renewed in every blink of an eye.
And so were the companions of the Prophet peace be upon him, whom Allah described in the Battle of the Confederates with His saying: "There the believers were tried and shaken with a mighty shaking" [Al-Ahzab: 11].. A shaking that reveals to them that they - although they are the best of people, the strongest and most steadfast - their souls are weak if left to themselves.
Therefore, for those who ask: "What do I do when I am weak?" The answer: Admit your weakness and renounce your surroundings and your strength, and seek forgiveness from Allah for every moment you were pleased with yourself and said as Qarun said: "This has been given to me only because of knowledge I possess!" And seek determination and strength from your Lord, the Mighty and Sublime.
If you were about to furnish a house and a rich man said to you: "Buy what you want and do not ask about the price, I will settle the account," you would buy without worry.
Often, I used to wonder: "How does a prisoner who is imprisoned for long years endure?" And I fear that I may be tested like them, because I look within myself and do not find in me what makes me endure like them.
Then I realized that these are people whom Allah has tested with difficult moments! Their foundations were shaken and all their energy was extracted, but they did not find it sufficient, so they renounced their strength and sought help from Allah, meaning they knew the key, and at that moment they were like the one who plunges into any depth with an "open check" from a rich man, and the highest example is Allah's.
Calm your worry with this realization, because my ceiling used to be my self, and my self is limited and its patience is limited. As for the help from Allah, it has no limit nor end, but it is upon us to seek it well: "And be patient, and your patience is not but by Allah" [An-Nahl: 127], "And seek help in Allah and do not be weak" (Narrated by Muslim).
Look at the steadfastness of the steadfast and the success of the successful as manifestations of Allah's mercy and power, and do not be preoccupied with them by admiring their personalities and praising them, for their praise may deceive them and gradually make them forget the truth that what is in them is merely success from Allah.
Instead of saying: "How steadfast is so-and-so," train yourself to say: "How great is Allah's mercy that He made so-and-so steadfast."
And therefore, the righteous and pious feared being praised in their faces, fearing that they would appear as those who confirm the people's attribution of merit to themselves, so Allah leaves them to themselves and they fall.
A man from the companions of the Prophet peace be upon him used to say when he was praised: "O Allah, do not hold me accountable for what they say, and forgive me for what they do not know" (Narrated by Al-Bukhari in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad and Al-Albani said its chain is authentic).
All good that befalls the servants, Allah always attributes the favor to Himself. As He says, may He be glorified:
Is this only to make the servants aware of His right, may He be glorified? I think that He also educates us with this, for Allah is free of need of the worlds, but He gives us the keys to success and guides us to what benefits us so that we may seek help from Him at all times and not be arrogant with ourselves and our abilities. If we rely solely on them, we would go astray, lose, and our souls would not be purified.
Ibn Al-Qayyim said: "If the servant stands firm in truth with others and with himself first, and his standing is with Allah and for Allah, nothing will stand in his way. Even if the heavens, the earth, and the mountains were to rise against him, Allah would suffice him their burden and make for him a way out" (I'lam Al-Muwaqqi'in). Look at his saying: "And his standing is with Allah," meaning relying solely on Him, may He be glorified.
On the contrary, Ibn Taymiyyah said about some sects of innovators: "If you look at them with the eye of destiny, confusion overtakes them, and the devil takes hold of them, they are given intelligence but not purity (i.e., purity and blessing), and they are given fervor but not knowledge..."
If there is no help from Allah for the youth, the first thing his effort will lead to is his downfall.
So remember: Disassociate from your surroundings and your strength, And seek help from the One whose power has no limit, may He be glorified and exalted.
I was blessed with a nephew who had Down syndrome. He and his family dealt with him in a way filled with lessons and experiences. Then, by Allah's will, the child passed away at the age of three years and three months. I was far from them, restricted in my freedom. So, I wrote the following message to my brother and his family, which I ask Allah to benefit from everyone who is blessed with a special needs child, indeed every afflicted person:
My beloved sister Nadia, my beloved brother Iyad, Fadi, Yazid, Braa, Omar...
Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings,
And may Allah increase your reward in our beloved Humooda. I learned of the news yesterday, and many feelings surged in my chest that I wanted to share with you. At the end, I will give you good news regarding Humooda.
Iyad and Nadia, you have taught me a profound lesson that I could never learn from books: a lesson in contentment and love for Allah's decree.
I still remember, Nadia, that moment three years and three months ago when I visited you in the hospital to gradually inform you of the fact that your new baby was born with Down syndrome. I still remember your composure and calmness as you were tired from the effects of the operation when you understood the matter and said, "It is good, if Allah wills," then you changed the subject, and your inner self was saying, "O Lord, if You have accepted him for me, then I have accepted him for You."
I still remember, Iyad, when you asked me, "Is this considered a trial, and do we have a reward if we are patient?" As if you meant that your child is a blessing, even if it is an incomplete blessing, and you cannot deal with the matter otherwise. So I answered you, "Yes, his illness is a trial, and you have a reward for being patient with him, by Allah's permission." You shook your head silently and you also made the decision to be patient.
But what appeared from you both after that, my beloved brother and sister, was not ordinary patience, but it was more complete and higher... it was contentment and beautiful patience, beautiful in the true sense of the word.
It was possible that you could have been patient reluctantly and provided Humooda with the minimum necessary care and wished in your hearts that "the suffering would end" with his death. If this had been your condition, you would not have been sinful as long as there was no panic, no objection, and no neglect in the basic care. But you both loved your new baby with true love.
When Allah knew from you - as I suppose - your contentment with His decree, He placed in your hearts a special affection and mercy for this child, in accordance with His saying, "No disaster strikes except by permission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah, He will guide his heart. And Allah is Knowing of all things" [At-Taghabun: 11], and the Prophet's saying, peace be upon him, "And whoever is patient, Allah will make him patient." You loved Humooda and wished that he would live.
Nadia, I still remember the scene when you were cooing at Humooda's movements as if I could hear your voice laughing at him from the depths of your heart and saying, "(Humooda.. Oh my life!)" You bought him the most beautiful clothes, made sure he was (the most distinguished one) on every holiday, I never saw him throughout the three years except cleaner and with a better smell than all the children of his generation, you posted his pictures proudly on Facebook, you designed the most beautiful video for him. All this while you were actually confined with Humooda, so you could not go out of the house for visits, lessons, and trips to take care of Humooda and breathe. And many days you hesitated between doctors and hospitals with Humooda, and you followed speech teaching sessions and improving Humooda's movement.
Humooda became your life, and you sought Allah's help to make it a beautiful life.
Iyad, you did not coo much at the children's movements at this age, but you filled Humooda more than others. You spent on him generously without hesitation: heart surgery, then battery surgery, then treatment and rehabilitation expenses. All this with a good heart.
And in all of this, you both wanted Humooda to live, to grow up, to be as close as possible to a normal human being, and to remain among us.
In the calculations of the materialists, "a lot" of time, money, and effort was "wasted" on Humooda. But in the calculations of the people of faith, time, money, and emotion are blessings from Allah, and Humooda is a trust that Allah has entrusted to you, so you have used Allah's blessing in taking care of Allah's trust with you, so you have a reward for everything you have done, by Allah's permission.
Your children succeeded with you when they dealt with Humooda warmly and with interest, especially Braa, the close friend of the people's beloved.
When you loved Humooda sincerely, we all loved him sincerely. When you looked at him as an important human being, we all looked at him that way. Then when you mourned his loss, we all mourned. Because we learned from you a practical lesson that you were a role model for us all. The greatest lesson is much more than dealing well with special needs children. It is a lesson in turning painful destinies into an aspect of contentment and submission and a farm of good deeds, and this is a lesson that every afflicted person needs. Humooda has departed, but his lesson will remain.
Humooda's condolences could have been brief and you could have been relieved that your suffering with Humooda was over, but that was not the case.
How I was proud of you, Nadia, when Murad told me that you cried deeply at Humooda's death, and yet you had no words but (Praise be to Allah, praise be to Allah) to be patient with.
I was proud of you both, Iyad and Nadia, when I learned from my mother that Humooda's condolences lasted for days, more than any child is condoled, and that his condolences were witnessed by many people. As if you both opened a school of condolences for people to learn practically contentment, respect for human beings, and appreciation for Allah's blessing.
I am sad for Humooda, and I long for him, "the people's beloved," but I am very happy for you both, and I want you to be happy because you both, as I suppose and Allah is your reckoner, have succeeded in the test of Humooda. So I hope that while the doctor was writing his death certificate, the angels were recording your success, indeed your excellence, in the test of Humooda, then this paper was folded and raised to Allah with the soul of Humooda. And this paper will be presented to you on the Day of Judgment. I ask Allah to whiten your faces with it and to weigh your scales.
So thank Allah greatly that He has enabled you in this experience and ask Him to accept it from you.
Dear Iyad and Nadia, finally, to you the good news:
We hope that you will meet Humooda in Paradise, by Allah's permission, for he is a human soul, and souls live on the Day of Judgment and remain immortal, and he is one of the children of the Muslims. Therefore, yes, we hope that you will meet him in Paradise, by Allah's permission. But he will not be afflicted with Down syndrome there, but he will be complete and beautiful with the beauty of your contentment with Allah's decree when He blessed you with him. Therefore, strive for good deeds and to attain Allah's pleasure so that He may join you with him by His mercy.
Finally:
Humooda.. He departed from this world before he learned to speak, but his inner self says:
"(Daddy and Mommy, I came into your life on a mission: To extract from you the worship of contentment and to draw with you a beautiful story of patience.. And I would like to tell you: that you have succeeded in the test.. Therefore, my mission is over, and I will depart now.. But we will meet, by Allah's permission.. in Paradise.. Your lover: Humooda)."
Iyad and Nadia, I am proud of you, and I love you in Allah for this great lesson that I am ashamed of myself before it, and I ask Allah the Great to gather us and our loved ones in Paradise with the beloved of all, Humooda.
Your lover: Iyad