Everybody has their tribulations and hardships! It very rare to have people that have a happy time and wonderful life… But Ibn Abbas said:
“The foundation of this dunya is tribulation.”
The best worship is waiting for the ease from Allah to come when you’re in hardship. So, if Muslims would just have this perspective, they would realize that, “if I’m just patient with all these hardships, I’m in worship!”
You can just be sitting in your house and if you’re muhtasib with Allah, it’s a kind of worship.
But if you’re there complaining, “why was me? And everything is horrible and it’s doom and gloom, and it’s all black and dark…” Allah will give you more real things to complain about. Because Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that if you complain about small calamities, Allah gives you great calamities!
3 Blessings in Hardships
That’s why Ibn Abbas said that in every tribulation, there are three blessings:
1- That it could be worse than it is.
2- That it is in worldly matters, not in deen: for example if you lose money, it is ok, but if you lose your faith, you lost everything.
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to make this dua:
Allahumma-qsim lana min khashyatika ma tahulu bihi bainana wa baina ma’sika, wa min ta’atika ma tuballighuna bihi jannataka, wa minal-yaqini ma tuhawwinu ‘alaina masa-‘ibad-dunya. Allahumma matti’na biasma’ina, wa absarina, wa quwwatina ma ahyaitana, waj’alhul-waritha minna, waj’al tharana ‘ala man zalamana, wansurna ‘ala man ‘adana, wa la taj’al musibatana fi dinina, wa la taj’alid-dunya akbara hammina, wa la mablagha ‘ilmina, wa la tusallit ‘alaina man-la yarhamuna.
(O Allah, apportion to us such fear as should serve as a barrier between us and acts of disobedience; and such obedience as will take us to Your Jannah; and such as will make easy for us to bear in the calamities of this world. O Allah! let us enjoy our hearing, our sight and our power as long as You keep us alive and make our heirs from our own offspring, and make our revenge restricted to those who oppress us, and support us against those who are hostile to us let no misfortune afflict our Deen; let not worldly affairs be our principal concern, or the ultimate limit of our knowledge, and let not those rule over us who do not show mercy to us). (At-Tirmidhi)
He (peace be upon him) didn’t say “don’t test us with calamities”, he said, “don’t give us tribulations in our deen.”
We’re going to get tribulations because it’s the nature of dunya. So ask Allah not to make your tribulation in deen.
You lost your business? Say Alhamdulillah, I didn’t miss my prayers, I didn’t lose my faith… Because jobs come and go, but faith when it goes, Allah knows if you’ll get it back.
3- That as long as the hardship is in this world, it’s a blessing, because the real misfortune is in the next world.
So, if you look at that and realize we’re in blessings.