Episode 27 - What You Lack Is Not the Most Important Thing

It is human nature that the feeling of continuous blessings weakens in a person, making them indifferent and dull in perception. If a person loses contentment, they only think about what they lack in blessings until they feel that what they lack is the most important element of human life, and that their life has no flavor without it. Let us review some examples of this:

- The poor person says: What is the value of life without money?! If I cannot afford new clothes for my children on Eid, my little daughter's hopes are shattered and her gaze becomes bewildered when she sees her cousins wearing new, luxurious clothes and carrying Eid bags in their hands, while she is in old clothes and an old bag... Money is everything.

This poor person is healthy, married, and blessed with children, but he no longer sees these blessings. He only thinks about what he lacks.

- The sick person 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 disease, which worsens with the passing years, casting a nightmare of disability upon my life, making me unable to serve myself day after day... What is the taste of life with that?! I wish I lost all my money and enjoyed good 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 qualifications, money, and health if I do not find someone to comfort me and whom I can comfort? If I do not have a life partner to fill my life with meaning and whom I can fill with meaning? I wish I lost everything and was blessed with a husband who gives my life meaning.

- The long-term prisoner 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 person says: What is the value of life without children filling the house with noise and joy? What good are my money and health if my wife and I find nothing in our home 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 my name? For whom do I work and gather money? For whom do I tire myself?

- The ugly person 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, qualifications, and health after that? I wish I lost everything and was blessed with a beautiful appearance.

And so on?! Most people - except those whom Allah has mercy upon - underestimate the blessings Allah has bestowed upon them, and every afflicted person thinks that what they lack is the most important thing or everything. Who among them has the most valid complaint? The poor, the sick, the unmarried woman, the prisoner, the barren, or the ugly? 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 they enjoy seem insignificant and dull to them. Therefore, Allah the Almighty said: {And do not wish for that by which Allah has made some of you exceed others.}[An-Nisa: 22], and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: ((Look to those below you and do not look to those above you, for it is more fitting that you do not belittle the blessings of Allah upon you))... It is an ingratitude to see the many blessings of Allah upon you as nothing while seeing what you lack as everything! {They recognize the favor of Allah, then they deny it}[An-Nahl: 83]. Therefore, you see many verses in the Quran that mention Allah's blessings and urge gratitude for them... {But most of the people do not give thanks}[Yusuf: 38]. And the ugliest description in the Quran for those who do not appreciate blessings is the word disbelief {So they disbelieved in the blessings of Allah}[An-Nahl: 112]... There are great blessings that we do not even notice their existence, nor do they receive emphasis on their importance in lessons, admonitions, and sermons, even though they are no less important than the blessings mentioned above. An example of this is the blessing of "motivation". Who among us has heard a lesson, 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 which is often of unknown cause and requires expensive treatments whose effects may be delayed... and it is different from the sadness that befalls any person temporarily.

Ask a depressed patient how they lost the motivation for life, so there is no motivation for eating and drinking, for learning and working, for treating themselves or those for whom they are responsible, for comforting their wife or playing with their children... Life is all tasteless, colorless, and odorless! They do not desire or wish for anything except death!

O you who see money as everything, do you wish to be given money and lose motivation? O you who wish to lose everything to live 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 belittling the blessings of Allah upon us. We must feel these blessings and renew our joy in them in our hearts as we recite verses like His saying: {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... By faith, you endure the loss of some blessings, for your patience may be a greater blessing than what you have lost! As an example of the Prophet's (peace be upon him) saying: (How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for all his affairs are good, and that is only for the believer. If good befalls him, he is grateful, and that is good for him. If harm befalls him, he is patient, and that is good for him) (Narrated by Muslim)... While without faith, blessings become a trial, a temptation, and a reason for prolonged reckoning and severe punishment: {And let not those who disbelieve think that Our granting them respite is good for them. We only grant 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 tempt 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 faith is preserved, the trials of this world turn into blessings for this world and the Hereafter, as happened with Yusuf (peace be upon him).

O Allah, grant us faith, contentment, and patience.