Episode 9 - God Shows His Love to Us Through Trials
The Story of the Father and His Two Sons
Subscribe to the channel. The two young men said to him, "Father, may I have my allowance?" Ghassan and Rami would come every morning to their father's room and extend their hands, saying, "Allowance, please, Father." Routinely, their father would give them the allowance, they would thank him hastily, and then leave the house.
Ghassan's father 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 said to them in a tone filled with genuine love, "I love you, my son, I love you, my son." Ghassan's father wished that his eyes would meet his sons' eyes as he said these words, so he could read in their eyes the joy and pride in what he had said to them. He wanted any indication that his sons loved him for himself, not for the allowance they took from him.
The Sons' Reaction
However, the sons' response was disappointing. They shook their heads absently, saying, "We do too," meaning they loved him too. And they remained with their hands extended and their eyes fixed on their father's pocket, where the allowance was. The father was shocked, and his smile turned into a withered look. He took his hand out of his pocket without the wallet.
The boys noticed what happened and realized their lack of response to their father's tender words. They withdrew their hands and tried to rectify the situation. Rami said, "Father, 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 was saying 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.
Ghassan's Sincere Repentance
As for Ghassan, he actually loved his father, but his heart had been distracted from this love by his attachment to the allowance in recent times. The father's withered, gloomy features awakened Ghassan's feelings, and he realized how much he had been neglectful of 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 he said in a faltering voice, "I'm sorry, my dear father. I have neglected you a lot. Please forgive me. The whole world is not worth your smile." He said these words while turning his tearful eyes towards his father, searching for any sign of his father's frown easing, 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 in his hands, with tears streaming down his cheek, saying, "Forgive me, Father, please. I love you. You know I love you."
The Father Responds
The father was torn by conflicting feelings. He did not like seeing his son sad like this, but he was still shocked by his sons' indifference at first. He also wanted more assurances of Ghassan's love's sincerity. The father withdrew and returned to his room silently, closing the door behind him.
Ghassan felt lost, so he followed his father and said from behind the door, calling, "Father, please, I cannot live without your satisfaction. I cannot live and see you angry and sad. I have made a mistake, Father, but I love you. I love you, Father. Please forgive me. Please smile at me. Please include me in your heart." And Ghassan's crying voice rose like a frightened child left by his mother in a desert and abandoned.
At that moment, the barrier of indifference in the father's heart broke before Ghassan's tears. He opened the door and lifted his son, who was kneeling, and embraced him to his chest, wiping his tears and kissing his head. Ghassan said, "Let's forget about the allowance now. I want you, my dear father. As long as you are pleased with me, the whole world is insignificant."
God Woos Us Through Trials
And to God belongs the highest example. God Almighty may know from His servants dryness in their love for Him and attachment to the blessings of this world that He bestows upon them. He, the Almighty, woos His servants and loves that they reciprocate His affection with affection. If He sees from them indifference and heedlessness, He may cut off from them a blessing so that their being may be shaken and saved from their heedlessness, perhaps they may realize that the blessing has distracted them from the Blesser.
The Emotionally Poor and the Sensitive Soul
As for the emotionally poor like Rami, he does not understand these dimensions. He is still in his heedlessness. The allowance has dominated his thinking, so he seeks forgiveness from God and strives in acts of worship to restore the allowance. His mistake is not in God's rebuke of him, but his mistake is the cutting off of the allowance. Dullness in thinking, narrowness in vision, poverty in feelings, selfishness in dealing. He thinks only of what he takes and does not see it as his duty to give.
But the sensitive soul and the living heart like Ghassan, the cutting off of the allowance removes the veil from his eyes so that he may see the real calamity: that he has fallen short of his duty to God Almighty and has been heedless of Him. All that dominates his being is how to appease God Almighty and prove to Him that he reciprocates His affection with affection. As for the return of the allowance, it becomes a secondary issue, 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 God Almighty's companionship or felt that God Almighty does not love him.
Trials as a Message of Love
In the end, the allowance may return to both of them: "To these and to those We give from the provision of your Lord. And the provision of your Lord is not restricted" [Al-Isra: 20]. But the first, the emotionally poor, 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 hope and the pinnacle of ambitions. As for the second, the trial was the greatest blessing for him, and it is known that he is responsive to supplication, yet he does not supplicate to God Almighty for the removal of the trial.
He does not supplicate to God for the removal of the trial! You will say: these narrations are exaggerated. Perhaps yes, but if we understand the meanings mentioned in this episode, we do not rule out that this may happen. Perhaps this afflicted person understood the trial as a reminder from God Almighty that you have been heedless of your Creator, and your Lord wants you to reciprocate His affection with affection. This thought dominates the being of the believer and makes him reconsider his moments of heedlessness, activates the meanings of love, and excels in proving to his Lord the sincerity of his love for Him, may He be glorified and exalted.
Such thinking does not prevent the believer from supplicating for the removal of the trial, but he may see giving priority to supplicating for the removal of the trial as poor manners, for it indicates a lack of concern for the reason for which he was afflicted, the reminder to reciprocate affection with affection. As if he says to God, "My Lord, I have understood the lesson. I will reciprocate affection now. I will take care of that in the future, but remove this trial from me. Restore the blessings to me." This is not proper manners with God, Glorified and Exalted be He.
The believer may not give priority to supplicating for the removal of the trial because he knows that its continuation is more likely to return him to the circle of God's love, Glorified and Exalted be He. He is preoccupied with cultivating his heart with the meanings of love anew and entrusts the matter of the timing of the removal of the trial to God, Glorified and Exalted be He, and trusts in His wisdom and mercy in that.
Conclusion
Look at the trial positively, not as mere punishment, but as a form of wooing from God. So, do not be surprised by the title of this episode: "God Woos Us Through Trials." He saw from us heedlessness of Him and dryness in our affection towards Him, so He afflicted us so that we may return, feel shy, love, and reciprocate affection with God, the Lord of the worlds.
The conclusion of the episode: God woos us through trials, so do not be emotionally poor towards God, but understand the message and reciprocate God's affection. Peace be upon you and the mercy of God.
Translation: Nancy Qanqar.