Episode 3 - When you realize that Allah wants good for you!
O brothers, by Allah, I do not think there is a more beautiful feeling than this that you live with in your life! The feeling that Allah wants good for you, no matter what befalls you and happens to you.. all of it is for your benefit.. and you may not be certain of this feeling except through trials!
And you are in good health, not afflicted, living a nearly complete life.. Allah may bless you with all worldly blessings.. so you ask yourself: (Is this from Allah's immediate favor upon me, with what He has stored for me of blessings in the Hereafter? Or is it a temptation, will Allah settle my account in this world and punish me in the Hereafter for my shortcomings?) And this doubt may be troubling 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 of His rights, but He is the Forbearing.. He deals with me with His forbearance and generosity, not with what I deserve. He wants good for me not because I deserve all of that, but because He is the One who forgives, shows kindness, is forbearing, merciful, and generous). But the question that arises: How do I know if Allah wants good for me or not? Is it perhaps through perfect health, abundance of wealth, and safety from worldly calamities?
No.. never! None of this is evidence of Allah's honor for you or that He wants good for you. Allah says: {But as for man, when his Lord tries him and is generous to him and blesses him, he says, 'My Lord has honored me.' And as for man, when his Lord tries him and restricts his provision, he says, 'My Lord has humiliated me.'} [Al-Fajr: 16,15].. meaning many people consider that Allah giving them worldly blessings is evidence 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 a sign of Allah's humiliation of them and that Allah wants evil for them. So they consider giving and withholding worldly blessings as 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 Allah's response to this view was with the word: {No!} [Al-Fajr: 17].. meaning the giving and withholding of worldly blessings is not the measure.
And Allah says: {Whoever desires the immediate, We speed for him therein what We will to whom We please. Then We have made for him Hell, which he will [enter to] burn in, despised and driven away.} [Al-Isra: 18].. {All We give}.. believers and disbelievers, the righteous and the wicked.. all receive their share of your Lord's giving 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: ((And Allah gives the world to whom He loves and to whom He does not love, but He does not give faith except to whom He loves))..
Yes! So faith is the measure..
If you find that the trial has brought you closer to Allah, know that He, the Exalted, wanted good for you.. and if you find that the trial has distanced you from Him, the Exalted, then beware! Save yourself before you become of those who are veiled.
If you find yourself afflicted with what was not in your account, and yet Allah grants you tranquility.. then He wanted good for you. If Allah grants you the good opinion of Him and protects you from complaining about 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 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 power of the Almighty, the Irresistible, so you do not hope for good except from Him, the Exalted, and you do not fear except from Him, the Exalted.. then all of this is a sign that Allah, the Exalted, wanted good for you. If Allah grants you the opportunity 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, the Exalted, 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 under the Throne while your body is behind bars or weighed down by illness.. then He, the Exalted, 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, attachment of the heart to Him, not fearing or hoping except from Him, intimacy with Him, and serving His religion.. all of these are signs of faith.. He, the Exalted, does not give them except to whom He loves.. if He has given them to you, know that He wanted good for you. Is it conceivable that He afflicts you and pleases 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..
O brother, O 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 do not utter except 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 - become angry or complain about the decree or occupy yourself with sorrows and fears and suspicion of Allah's wisdom, may Allah protect us.. then you have chosen the wrong path. Ibn Al-Qayyim said: (If one of the workers wants to know his status with the sultan, let him look at what work he is assigned and what task he is given).
And you are the same.. look at what Allah occupies you with and in what work He employs you to know your status 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 are granted it, know that Allah has wanted good for you.
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How beautiful it is to live with the feeling that Allah loves you! When you make the decision of contentment, you will feel that Allah, the Exalted, loves you, for He, the Exalted, as in the hadith we mentioned: ((He does not give faith except to whom He loves)). So contentment is faith, if you attain it, then this is from the signs of Allah's love for you. Look then how you will look positively at what Allah, the Exalted, decrees for you.. for 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 contradiction.. and if He decrees the death of someone dear to you, then this decree also comes from the One who loves you as well.
But the believing servant must have fear along with hope.. so how can he be reassured that these trials are not signs of Allah's anger with him?
Indeed, your reaction to the trial is what determines: if you turn to Allah, the Exalted, and are content and patient, then you will continue this love that appeared to you its signs before and you will increase in confidence. And your eagerness to maintain it and the intimacy of its reassurance will be a support for you in this patience and contentment. But if you respond to it with anger, you will not attain except anger! So make your fear of losing the affection between you and Allah, and falling into loneliness.. make this fear a barrier for you from anger.
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In one of my sister's visits to me in prison, she told me that she felt in the previous visit from me a coldness and sadness. So she said to me, I want you to be strong as you used to be and not to weaken or fear. I replied to her with a poem titled (Who is the prisoner?!) in which I embodied some of the previous meanings:
My sister came to me in my prison She said, I have come to you with sincere advice Do not despair, my brother, from weariness May you increase in steadfastness and firmness To increase your resolve with determination And be patient and fill yourself with glad tidings You will not rise in the ranks of glory if you do not lick the bitter O sister, do not fear anything For your brother knows what he has chosen He who has carried the call must bear the hardships May Allah not leave us Until we distinguish ourselves as righteous And may He lead to the ranks of Hell those who have been hypocrites and pretended
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If I were in a life of ease, not fearing the calamities With a full purse and many friends Free, I travel as a wanderer And I was granted before prison with twin boys who were the most beautiful of appearances And here I do not see around me Except bars and walls And I walk with a chain in my legs to meet a ruling that is tyrannical And the accusation is that I have helped my fellow believers out of devotion If I sleep, I dream of my children If I were concerned with the world And I remembered my return and the abode I would meet my brother as a stranger
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But I hope from my patience And to drink a cup from camphor In the vicinity of the Merciful, a neighbor Or honey that flows like rivers And I fulfill what the Lord has commanded His servants: Be supporters Prisoners, but in my chest I read and write thoughts A garden that blooms with flowers And I perform the night prayer at dawn I ponder when I recite the Quran to discover the secrets And I compose in the causes of patience to please the people of the decrees And my soul soars, taking I stock up in my prison with piety From the love of the Merciful, a measure And my enemy carries burdens
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How many free people do I see But they have become weak They have abandoned religion for the sake of luxury If they are angry, it is not for the sake of Allah And they do not care about the Fire of Hell Instead of the earth's ball, they stand Like drunkards, they are not drunk In humiliation, and they live as outcasts And with greed, they worship the dinar But they have not profited, only losses But if they find the solar A ball for a team that competes So who is the prisoner, me or them If we exceed the matter, contemplation
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O sister, do not fear anything For your brother has not done shame Is it shameful that we defend if the honor of the nation is defiled and we fight back? When we whispered the refusal We did not give the youth our nation So they took the symbol of their bravery And we are afraid of tyranny and imprisonment Leaders who are filled with pride Who defied Allah like a tyrant Is it befitting for us, the followers of Muhammad, to imitate tyrants? Who worshipped Allah the Almighty He was not one who followed the tide Who sought honor from other than the Merciful, he will be given loss So they have resorted to the homes of spiders With destruction, they hope for construction
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Have you seen Tunisia when it fought Expelling every veiled woman He wishes he were below them And for the quarter of the century that follows them If they entered the hole of the hyena, enter A criminal has humiliated the Merciful, openly, for the sake of pleasing the Christians With the shoes of the disbelievers, dust He hopes for stability in judgment He licks humiliation and smallness
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_________________________________________________________ *I wrote the poem at the beginning of 2011 after the events of Tunisia and the escape of (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali) from it. O sister, do not fear anything And Allah defends us when For your brother has turned away from the tyrant He has promised the wicked with a barrier ***** Summary of this station: Be patient in your trials, And have a good opinion of your Lord and His wisdom and mercy.. If you succeed in that, know that Allah wanted good for you.