Episode 8 - All praise is due to Allah that He did not give me what I wished for!

We mentioned that affliction helps you build your love for Allah on solid foundations, and we said that one of these foundations is contemplating Allah's Names and Attributes. Affliction helps you understand these Names and Attributes. - Let's start by talking about the Attribute of Wisdom.. Allah's Wisdom in affliction. - Glory be to Allah! Some people doubt Allah's Wisdom when afflicted, while the believer's affliction increases his certainty in Allah's Wisdom! Ibn Ata Allah al-Sakandari said: "When Allah opens for you the door of understanding in withholding, withholding becomes the eye of giving. When He gives you, He testifies to His favor, and when He withholds from you, He testifies to His overpowering. He is in all of that acquainted with you and approaching you with His kindness. It is the withholding that pains you due to your lack of understanding of it from Allah.". Therefore, you may be deprived of a blessing.. if Allah grants you the ability to reflect on His Wisdom when He withholds from you, this reflection will return to you with blessings far greater than what you were deprived of, and you will see that Allah reveals to you His Names and Attributes through this affliction. As for the one who sees affliction as pure evil, his affliction is due to his lack of reflection and understanding of Allah's Wisdom.

Ibn al-Qayyim said: (If the servant were to be fair to his Lord, and how could he be, he would know that His favor upon him in what He withheld from him of the world and its pleasures and comforts is greater than His favor upon him in what He gave him of that, for He withheld only to give him) (Al-Fawaid).

The key to reflection and understanding is to be certain that Allah has Wisdom in everything. Go beyond doubting the existence of Wisdom. Be certain of Allah's Wisdom, then reflect: What is this Wisdom? And great treasures will be opened to you at that time.

The other key is to be certain of your ignorance in comparison to Allah's Wisdom: {And it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you love a thing which is bad for you. And Allah knows while you do not know} [Al-Baqarah: 216].

I went through the affliction of having my freedom restricted.. at every stage of it, I wished that the affliction would stop at that point and I would return to my normal life. And at every stage, I thought that stopping the affliction at that point would be most beneficial for me. But at every stage, I discovered that continuing the affliction was more beneficial for me than stopping it! And now if I were asked: Do you wish that all of this that happened to you had not happened? My answer: No, by Allah! Rather, I am very happy that Allah did not fulfill for me what I wished for and prayed for, which was to return to my normal life, but rather He chose for me what is better than what I chose for myself. I thank Allah that this blessing of affliction continued for this entire period so that I may reap the great divine gifts from it.

Ibn al-Qayyim said: (Among the hidden general afflictions is that the servant is in a blessing that Allah has bestowed upon him and chose for him, but the servant dislikes it and seeks to move from it to what he claims - due to 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 poor choice for himself...) Then he said: (So if Allah wills good and guidance for His servant, He will witness to him that what he is in is a blessing from His blessings upon him, and He will be pleased with it and distribute His thanks upon him) (Al-Fawaid).

And praise be to Allah, I have reached this stage in the latter part of my afflictions: it is no longer just a matter of patience, but I have come to thank my Lord for what I am in from the blessing of affliction.

Before that experience, I sometimes wondered about the wisdom in the affliction of 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 one aspect of the wisdom theoretically, but through the experience of affliction, I understood it practically. If you are afflicted and Allah grants you understanding, you will see how the one who works for Islam has a missing link in his personality that is not completed except through sacrifice, when he pays the price of his call.

You will see how Allah opens for the prisoner in His path victories that would not have occurred to him outside of prison. You will understand every word of the following great words of Sayyid Qutb, may Allah have mercy on him: (So it is necessary to train the souls with affliction and to test 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 loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient} [Al-Baqarah: 155].. It is necessary for this affliction so that the believers may pay the costs of faith, so that it may be honored in their hearts in proportion to what they have paid for it. And the cheap faiths whose owners do not pay their costs are not honored when they abandon them at the first shock. The costs here are the precious price with which faith is honored in the hearts of its people before it is honored in the hearts of others, and the more they suffer for it and the more they strive for it, the more honored it is for them and the more precious it is to them. Similarly, others will not understand its value except when they see the affliction of its people and their patience with their afflictions. And affliction is also necessary so that the backbone of the people of faith may be strengthened. Hardships bring forth hidden strengths, and stored energy, and open in the hearts channels and paths that the believer would not have known except under the hammers of hardships. And values and measures and perceptions would not have been correct and precise and straight except in the atmosphere of trial that removes the haze from the eyes and the rust from the hearts. And more important than all of this, or the basis of all of this: resorting to Allah alone when all supports shake, and illusions - of all kinds - disappear, and the heart is left alone with Allah, finding no support except 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, no power but His power, no might but His might, no will but His will, no refuge but to Him.. Therefore, Allah has placed affliction so that the strivers may be revealed and distinguished, and their news becomes known, and there is no confusion in the ranks, and no room for the concealment of the hypocrites' affairs, nor the affairs of the weak and fearful) End of his speech, may Allah have mercy on him, from his book (In the Shade of the Quran - His Exegesis of Surah Al-Baqarah).

Therefore, this is from Allah's Wisdom in the affliction of callers. It is true that if they had remained completely free, they might have been able to interact with people, read references, and disseminate works more. But Allah wants to purify their intentions and bring life to their words.. as it is said: The deed of one man is more effective than the words of a thousand men.

- This does not mean that you will encompass all of Allah's Wisdom in affliction or that you should not have good thoughts until you understand it.. for Allah says: {And you are not given of knowledge except a little} [Al-Isra: 85]... - You will only understand a little of Allah's Wisdom. But He, in His mercy, has shown you some of His Wisdom to comfort your heart.

The summary of this station:

Have certainty in Allah's Wisdom in your affliction, and He will reveal great treasures to you.