Contentment with Divine Decree - Correcting Misconceptions

Dear brothers and sisters, we need to correct misconceptions regarding contentment with divine decree. Sometimes you face hardship, which is part of Allah's decree for you, but humans have a role in it. You are told: Be patient, be content... yet you find yourself neither content nor patient. Are you held accountable for that? Take heed, brothers... In the same decree, you are content with Allah, the Exalted, but you are displeased with the oppressors who brought this hardship upon you. - You have been afflicted with poverty, lost your job. And among the reasons is that there are corrupt people who steal the nation's wealth, spend it recklessly, and leave people to suffer the bitterness of poverty and the humiliation of need after the pride of self-sufficiency. - You or someone dear to you has fallen ill, but they did not receive proper treatment for the same reasons. Wealth is stolen by external enemies and internal oppressors, and people are left without adequate services. Who decreed that you live in this time and that this injustice befall you? The decree is Allah's. So, will you be patient with that or not? Will you be content or not? You are content with Allah and His decree, but at the same time, you are displeased with these oppressors, and you seek Allah's help against them to defend against their oppression and reclaim your rights through legal means. Take heed, brothers, those who do not understand this well may fall into one of two major deviations:

1. Either they confuse contentment with Allah with contentment with the oppressors and their oppression... and in this case, religion will be used to numb people from demanding their rights and striving to remove oppression from themselves. This is dangerous and clothes religion in the garb of humiliation and degradation, while it is innocent of that.

2. The second deviation is not to be content, but to be displeased and rebel, but against your Lord, the Exalted, and Allah's protection! Some people have experienced this... Be content with Allah's decree... I'm not content... and in his mind, contentment means silence, surrender, and acceptance of the status quo. - No, but you are content with Allah, and with His wisdom in testing you with these oppressors, (for if Allah willed, He would have made you victorious over them, but He tests some of you with others), (and We have made some of you a trial for others, will you be patient? And your Lord is ever Seeing). - But at the same time, never be content with the oppressor, but rather defend against this oppression and seek Allah's help in defending it: (And if Allah had not repelled some people by others, the earth would have been corrupted, but Allah is full of bounty to the worlds). - Defend against oppression through legal means... What are the details of these legal means? That is not the subject of my words, but I wanted, dear ones, to correct these misconceptions so that we do not fall into deadly deviations for our faith. - And Allah knows best, and peace and mercy be upon you.