Do you struggle with pains that life throws at you? Your fear and agony, your illness, your anxiety that eats at you, your business that you’ve lost… Don’t worry.
You should be grateful for your pains, especially pains that you don’t complain about and don’t even vent, pains that only Allah knows about.
Why?
Because something amazing happens!
Allah is saving for you a great place in Paradise; He wants to elevate your status to a higher level you deserve.
This is how believers handle their challenges in life. Their patience when calamities strike, and their trust in Allah’s plan and promise relieve their hearts and reduce the pains of this life.
A Life of Test
People who are tried and tested the most are the Prophets and the messengers, then people who are closer to them in faith.
A person will be tried and tested according to that level. If their faith is strong, then their trials will be strong; but if their faith is weak, their trials will be at the same level of intensity.
This is the story of this life. Allah never promised us that earth here to be Paradise; He never promised us to make us enjoy this life to the fullest. Allah says:
[He] who created death and life to test you [as to] which of you is best in deed. (Quran 67:2)
Allah promised that this life is life of test and He promised that He is not going to commit even an atom weight of injustice.
So why would we go through trials and hardships, when we don’t get what wish? When our plans are ruined? Why do we feel as if Allah is targeting us, or as if He abandoned us or doesn’t care about us, or doesn’t have mercy upon us?
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:
Allah gives this dunya to the one that He loves and the one that He doesn’t love. But He only gives the akhirah to those He loves.
If you’ve been going through hardship, if you’ve been going through a financial loss, emotional or physical struggle… Or any type of pain and suffering, and it’s been going on for a long time. You are not the only one. This is how life is meant to be. Not because Allah loves humans to suffer, but because:
Indeed with every hardship there is ease; with every hardship, there is ease. (Quran 94:5-6)
How Do We Deal With All These Hardships and Calamities?
Some people have been suffering for ten years, some people for twenty or fifty years. They’ve been calling upon Allah to remove some kind of hardship and Allah hasn’t removed it yet! Not because Allah doesn’t care, but maybe Allah wants to elevate them.
Prophet Muhammad said that:
Allah has a high place for one of you in Paradise, and the person doesn’t do enough to get it, but Allah sends hardships so that he can get it.
When this person responds with patience, Allah elevates him to that level.
Anywhere you go, any side you sleep on, any ceiling you’re under, you are well taken care of. There are no mistakes in your life; there is nothing random that even happened to you in your life. Everything was written before the creation of the heavens and the earth.
This is a source of relief because the one who wrote that down is the Most Merciful, the Most Wise, and the Most Just.