Trial Itself Is a Provision: Allah Is Subtle with His Servants

Occasion: Transcription of a khatira delivered on 2018-08-08 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

The Trial We Do Not Know the Content Of

Strange is the matter of the human being. A female relative told me, we ask Allah, glorified and exalted, for well-being for everyone, about something that had befallen her son, and she was complaining, so I said: Glory be to Allah, perhaps there is good in that. She was cheered, but in the course of the conversation she mentioned that the son of one of our brothers had opened a pressure cooker, and the steam came out in the boy's face and burned him, and we saw him in the hospital, and it was a frightening sight in truth. Anyway, the point of what is said is that we say: Praise be to Allah, perhaps this injury is lighter than what it could have been, for had the burns struck other parts, especially the sensitive places, we would have been facing a great problem that would make what he is in hard to bear.

And the wonder of the human being is that he does not know that in the trial there is mercy, and that it is lighter than others.

What Is Reported from 'Umar, May Allah Be Pleased with Him

Remember with me what is reported from our master 'Umar, may Allah the Most High be pleased with him, that he used to say that for every trial he has four kinds of gratitude^[1]. They would say to him: For what do you give thanks? He would say: The first is that it is in my worldly life and not in my religion. The second is that Allah, glorified and exalted, made it so, and had He willed He would have increased it, for our Lord sent only this measure while being able to send more. The third is that Allah inspired me to give thanks for it. As for the fourth, I do not recall it now.

In any case, this is what a person estimates for himself, apart from the estimations of Allah, glorified and exalted, Lord of the worlds, mighty and majestic, for He does not send a trial except that there is mercy in it.

Mercy Hidden in Trial

Listen to this: a young man is presented with temptation and is exposed to it with insistence and intensity, and he resists as much as he can, but every time he abstains from immorality he abstains because he has an illness with which Allah, glorified and exalted, has tried him, and had he done it he would have died. We used to weep over him when he was small because he was struck with this illness, and when he grew up we suddenly discovered that this trial, which had been there from the beginning, was the reason this young man was spared from committing all these immoralities, all these grave sins and all this evil. So what we saw as bad at the start of his matter turned into good at the end of his matter.

And when Allah gives a person a small amount of money rather than a great deal, we realize that this is a trial and a calamity, and we ask Allah, glorified and exalted, for help and patience in the trial of poverty. But we do not know that had we been given wealth, we would, through this wealth, have been people of arrogance, may Allah protect us, and people of wickedness. Imagine that this smallness of your wealth was made by Allah, the Most High, the reason for sparing your son from drugs! What is the connection between them? That your money is plentiful and you leave it anywhere, and the boy takes from it and buys a syringe today and a pill tomorrow, and turns into a drug addict through surplus money in your life. But Allah, the Most High, decreed for you scarcity of money to spare your son that. And in the other situation you see another man whom Allah, blessed and exalted, has given a great deal of money, why? Because his son would not have been patient with poverty and would have turned into a thief. So the story is a matter of things following one upon another.

Trial Itself Is a Provision

Then, in conclusion, we remember an important sentence that we make a motto in our lives, in which the Lord of the worlds, glorified and exalted, speaks about Himself addressing us, saying: ﴿اللَّهُ لَطِيفٌ بِعِبَادِهِ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَاءُ وَهُوَ الْقَوِيُّ الْعَزِيزُ﴾ (Allah is Subtle with His servants; He provides for whom He wills, and He is the Strong, the Mighty)^[2]. Listen: Allah is Subtle with His servants, and the rest of the verse: He provides for whom He wills. Although He is Strong, and although He is Mighty and does what He wills, glorified and exalted, He did not say "He tries" but rather said "He provides." So I understand from this that trial itself is a provision; trial itself is a provision.

So praise be to Allah for what is in our hands, and we ask Allah, the Most High, for good endurance of what we are tried with, and we ask Allah, the Most High, for well-being in all our affairs, and that Allah, the Most High, grant us souls that reach Paradise through their patience and are excellent in giving thanks to the Bestower, glorified, high in His majesty. May Allah bless you and bless you in what you have, and may Allah reward you well, and the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The speaker transmitted the saying from 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, from memory and did not recall the fourth kind; the editor has not verified that this report is established, so it is transmitted as the speaker said it. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat ash-Shūrā, verse 19.