Once a scholar said: “We are a people; whoever wrongs us, we see that God’s will for us is to be in patience, and whoever honors us, we see that God’s will for us is to be in gratitude.”
The Prophet (ﷺ) entered once upon Umm Al-Sa’ib once and said: “What is wrong with you, Umm Al-Sa’ib, that you are shivering?” She said: “Fever, may God not bless it.” He (ﷺ) said: “Do not curse fever, for it removes the sins of the children of Adam as the bellows remove the dross of iron.” In other words, he (ﷺ) was helping her see that even afflictions that God chose to test you with, are meant to be for a reason of goodness even if you do not see it now.
Faith in the Last Day reflects the ability to cope with tests and trials with patience as it promises rewards and a better life in the Hereafter. The prophet (ﷺ) said: “Among the people of Hell, a person who had led the most luxurious life in this world will be brought up on the Day of Resurrection and dipped in the Fire and will be asked: O son of Adam! Did you ever experience any comfort? Did you happen to get any luxury? He will reply: By Allah, no, my Lord. And then one of the people of Jannah who had experienced extreme misery in the life of this world will be dipped in Jannah. Then he will be asked: O son of Adam! Did you ever experience any misery? Did you ever encounter difficulty? He will say: By Allah, no, my Lord, I neither experienced misery nor passed through hardship.”
Imam Ibn Ata Sakandari said: “The prevention from things (you desire) only pains you because of your lack of understanding of God’s (wisdom).”
God manifests himself to His servants with the attributes of beauty and majesty. Ones who enslave themselves to their whims and desires are pleased if they are given what they desire and displeased if they are not given what they desire. Allah (ﷻ) said: {And as for man, when his Lord tries him and [thus] is generous to him and favors him, he says, My Lord has honored me, but when He tries him and restricts his provision, he says, my Lord has humiliated me} 89:17, meaning it is not based on your way of understanding what things are granted or deprived, it is All up to God’s wisdom.
Among his supplication and Dua, the prophet (ﷺ) used to say: “O Lord, grant me certainty (in You) that makes the calamities of this world easy for us.”
Imam Ali (RAA) said: “If I saw Paradise and Hell, I would not increase in certainty, because I saw them in the eyes of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) about whom his Lord said: {The sight never swerved}.” This level of certainty in faith would surely help a person cope with calamities and afflictions when they hit.
Sufyan al-Thawri said: “Certainty is when you do not accuse your Master of everything that befalls you.”
Belief in the unseen is one of the factors that helps a person cope with calamities in life. Allah (ﷻ) said: {And those who believe in what was revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what was revealed before you, and of the Hereafter they are certain.}
Optimism with steadfastness and certainty are necessary to deal with trials in this life. When Abu Bakr (RAA) was in the cave of Thawr hiding with the prophet (ﷺ) during migration to Medinah, he looked at the pagans who were trying to kill the prophet as they were standing right by the entrance of the cave and said: “If one of them looked at the place where he stepped, he would see us!” The prophet (ﷺ) replied as it was documented in a verse in the Quran: {Do not be sad for Allah is with us} 9:40.
And in the story of Moses with Pharaoh, when the children of Israel saw that they are stuck between the army and the sea, they all said: {We will surely be overtaken}, but at that moment Moses said: {He said: No, my Lord is with me; He will guide me}. Indeed, it is the faith and certainty in Allah (ﷻ) that brings the feeling of security and hope in such moments.
Ibn Taymiyyah, when he was in prison at the time of the Moguls would say to his students, “You shall be victorious.” And the students would reply, “Would you say insha Allah?” He would reply “I will say insha Allah in assurance not in assumption.” Meaning, like when you say I will meet someone tomorrow insha Allah, you do not have assurance that it will happen, as many factors can prevent it. But when you say, the sun will rise tomorrow insha Allah, you know for certain it will rise because this is the system that God set in this world. And on that understanding he was saying the truth will prevail because it is the system that God has set.
Stability is glory:
“By Allah, O my uncle, if they were to place the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left on the condition that I abandon this matter, I would not abandon it until Allah makes it prevail, or I perish for it.”
In such times when Muslims are facing tests and trials, we need certainty in God’s wisdom to have hope for the better days that will come insha Allah.
By Imam Kifah Mustapha