A friend of mine is barren!
She’s married to a very loving and caring husband, she lives in a very beautiful house, has an expensive car, she travels the world with her husband during his businesses….
She has every thing one can dream of in life, yet she’s not happy, she wanted a baby from her womb who would call her ‘mom’.
Yes they have everything, but they are destined to be childless.
Why are we not happy?
Why are we not satisfied with what we have?
Why is our “life package” never complete?
Life Package
We all dream of having good life, being secured, loved by others, and all other means of comfort. We’re never at peace since we are constantly in search for those missing things in our life.
But life is organized among people as sets of packages. Each package has its own sets of morals, material possessions, health, wealth, beauty, feelings,… that differ in kind and level from one person to another.
Life is like a double face coin. We live its ease and hardships, comfort and suffering, happiness and sadness… It is sometimes paradise for us and other times hell.
With no exception, all of us live the ups and downs of life, which is the nature of life, as God created us to work hard, do our best and to be patient. God says: {We have certainly created man into hardship} (90:4)
Tests of Life
My friend’s test was hard for her. Whenever she meets me she complains about that one matter. Whenever she sees a baby, tears would flow down from her brown eyes. She strived for different means but all meet failure. Only patience and hope remain.
Tests are of different kinds and levels; the more a person is tested by God, the more he comes closer to Him. God puts us on trial to test our faith in Him, and He likes to hear our supplication, our need, our dependence and hope in His mercy, He wants to purify our souls… and the reward is complete ease for the patient and for the thankful. Not many of us realize the importance of this blessing.
I know of a wealthy businessman who travels to different parts of the world, and sometimes has breakfast in Paris and dinner in Montreal; he owns luxurious cars and deluxe houses, has millions of dollars in the bank, but has poor health; he was diagnosed with a chronic disease, he spends a thousand of dollars weekly for his treatment, plus being advised to avoid certain foods…
Illness makes him sleepless, his mind is fading and his body grows weaker… Maybe he would rather choose to be poor in wealth, but would prefer to have his kidney functions well, his heart beats normal, his stomach digests well… But once again, life is a package.
Is God Unjust?
A person may judge God with Him being unjust and unfair. He may question: ”Why did God make me disabled, with chronic disease, poor, infertile…? Where is God’s justice?
By His wisdom, God divides rizq for His creatures in heavens before they even exist. He destines ‘packages’ to people to fit their personality, morals and nature. If you try to experience a life of another person for example, you will certainly realize that your ‘package’ is the best.
Your package may consist of good health, wealth, a good job, but you lack peace at home with your wife. Another person’s package may consist of wealth, a good position in life, a good family, but has a chronic illness that troubles his life; while another may be healthy, has a humble house, an obedient wife and children, but he lacks wealth…
Gratitude of the Believers
How many times have we heard stories of famous people who have ‘all-inclusive’ package of life, yet they feel emptiness in their lives and end up suicidal?
This is not the case of the believers, who submit to God’s Will and believe in His justice in life. When the believers lack or are deprived of something in their ‘life package’, they refer it to the wisdom of God behind it.
They know that they are wayfarer in this temporary world and one day, in the final abode, they will be granted the best rewards from the Lord of the heavens and earth.
They trust in God and are certain that when He deprives them from something doesn’t mean that He hates them or lets them down:
{Your Lord has neither forsaken you, nor does He hate you} (93: 3)
As for sure He grants protection and ease for the ones who are guided to His Path:
{Surely We will try you with something of fear and hunger, and diminution of goods and lives; yet give good tidings to the patient; those who, when they are struck by an affliction, say, ‘Surely we belong to God, and to Him we will return’. Upon those rest blessings and mercy from their Lord, and those – they are the truly guided} (2: 155-57)
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) urged us to connect to God in times of ease and hardship as he used to be (peace be upon him).
A true believer is the one who has a correct understanding of life; its pleasure doesn’t affect him and deprivation doesn’t distress him. He is content with what he has and accepts his package as it comes, better or worse, with grace and forbearance because he knows that it is from God, and everything that comes from God is good for him.
May Allah grant us understanding and peace.
Ameen