Allah the Almighty tells us in Surat Al Mulk that he had created life and death to try us, to test us and see who performs best amongst us. So this life, we are living in, is merely a test. Allah the Almighty is trying us with the good and with the evil; with the nice things and with the bad things.
He, Subhanahu wa ta A’ala is testing us to see how we perform. And lots of the problems and calamities that we face, they are from Allah to erase our bad deeds and this is a blessing from Allah Azza wa Jall. The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam told us in an authentic Hadith that these calamities are to erase our bad deeds or to elevate our level in Paradise if we don’t have bad deeds {this is not imaginable, except in case of Prophets who don’t have bad deeds} But the likes of us have lots and lots of bad deeds. Our Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam tells us in an authentic Hadith that among the people, the most tried and tested are the messengers of Allah and then those who are below them in piety and virtue and then those who are below them.
Therefore these calamities are a clear sign of Allah’s love for us. The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam tells us that the amount of reward comes comparable to the amount of calamities bestowed on us and the more Allah Azza wa Jall loves a group of people, the more He will increase in testing them and trying them with calamities. And therefore amongst the most, whom Allah Azza wa Jall loves of his creations, are the Prophets and messengers of Allah.
If you look at the biography of the Prophets, you will see a clear manifestation of Allah’s love for them through the calamities that came over them. Look for instance at Adam, the first human being, the first Prophet of Allah, whom Allah had created with his own hands. Adam {peace be upon him} was struck by a severe blow, a severe calamity; he was tested by Allah Azza wa Jall and he failed in the test. He was told not to eat from the forbidden fruit or from the forbidden tree and Satan lured him, deceived him, he swore by Allah that he was giving him an authentic and sincere advice. Adam {peace be upon him} ate from the tree and Allah Azza wa Jall descended him and all his offspring to earth.
Look at Prophet Noah, Nuh {peace be upon him} this great messenger of Allah stayed for 950 years, over 9 centuries, calling his people to believe in the Oneness of Allah and they would mock him, they would make fun of him. All this work and devotion and look at the calamities of Allah: Noah’s beloved wife did not believe in him, not only that, his son also did not believe in him and he drowned with the non-believers. And if you go on and look at Moses {peace be upon him} the messenger of Allah, calamities caught up with him since the day he was born, when his mom put him in a cradle and threw him in the river, fearing that the Pharoah and his soldiers would come and enslave him and by Allah’s grace Moses was brought up in the palace of Pharoah himself.
Moses goes to town and finds one of his people, {the sons of Israel}, fighting with one of Pharoah’s men. He goes to his assistance, tries to assist his man from his own tribe and he just simply hits this Coptic, who dies and then it spreads in town that Moses killed one of us. So he flees his country and returns back only after 10 years. A foreigner for 10 years for something that was not a crime, he was just trying to help.
And if you go on: Prophet Jacob who was the father of Joseph, son of Isaac, the son of Abraham; so it’s a chain of Prophets {peace be upon them all} of Allah. Jacob loved his son Joseph very much and this did not go down well with his brothers. That’s why they plotted to throw and get rid of their brother Joseph. Jacob lost his beloved son for 20 years and after these 20 years he lost his second beloved son, the brother of Joseph, which caused his eyesight to go. He lost sight, he could not see.
Why?
He’s the Messenger of Allah; Prophet of Allah; he’s the closest to Allah among all humans? The answer is simple: It’s a calamity from Allah for those whom He loves. And if you go down to Joseph {peace be upon him} himself, look what his brothers did to him, yet he was patient, he accepted that. Look at what happened to him in the house of an Aziz {a minister}, look how they slandered him and tried to stain his reputation and he did not do anything. He was put in to jail for so many years and after all of that he was accused about his honor and dignity.
And if you go on and talk about Abraham {peace be upon him} the Messenger of Allah, 80 years old with no children, no one of his offspring. Praise to Allah the Almighty, Allah Azza wa Jall grants him a son Ishmael, a young, strong, handsome boy. And when you are 80 and you have a son at this age, I don’t have to elaborate how valuable this boy would be! When Ishmael was just 14 or 15 years old, a strong young man, Allah tells Abraham through a dream,” You have to sacrifice your son for me, slaughter him and kill him!” {La Ilaha Illa Allah} Who can bear something like this but Abraham did not go back to his lord and say,” Can I be exempted from this? Can I do something else?” He immediately went to his son and told him about the dream, about the revelation he had and Ishmael said,” Father do what you are told.”
If you look at all of this and if you look at the stories of the Prophets of Allah you will find that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. These calamities proved to have benefits and goodness for the whole mankind, because they were patient, they accepted the calamities and Allah’s tests and trials.
Whenever there is a tornado, a big storm, there usually follows calmness and peace. Allah Azza wa Jall gives us a glad tiding that,” Verily with the difficulty there is relief; verily with the difficulty there is relief.” If you notice these Ayahs Allah says that with each difficulty there are two reliefs, not one.
The companions of the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam reverted and accepted Islam and by doing so they lost their wealth, they lost their families and they lost their tribesmen. They lost everything they had ever lived and worked for. They became outcast, everybody started ignoring them and the pagans {the idol worshipers} kept on torturing them, kept on punishing them for believing that there is only One God and for following the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam.
One incident was that, after all these years of torture, the Pagans isolated the Muslims in what is known to be “Siege of Bani Hashim”. And they isolated them in this particular, small piece of land in a valley.
The Pagans forbade their people to talk to the Muslims and they forbade people to communicate, to sell, to trade, to give them any form of assistance; to the extent that for 3 years the Muslims were in complete poverty. Sad Ibn Abi Waqqas {may Allah be pleased with him} tells us about this, he says,” We were so hungry in these 3 years that we used to eat the leaves of trees.” He remembers: “Once I went to urinate and I heard a sound, when I looked down it was a dry piece of camel meat that I was urinating on and I was so hungry that I took it, washed it, burnt it and I ate it.
This made me strong for 5 or 6 days,” {La Ilaha illa Allah} Look at the calamities that took place with those who were the favored people on earth for Allah Azza wa Jall. After these difficulties, after these calamities Sad Ibn Abi Waqqas was transformed in to one of the wealthiest people of Madinah. So there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. Never despair.
Look at our Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam as a role model. He is indeed, without any comparison to any other, the best of Allah’s creation and is the most favorite and loved by Allah Azza wa Jall among all of His creations.
Nevertheless look at the calamities that befell him. His father died when he was 6 months old in his mother’s womb, his mother died when he was less than 6 years old. And his grandfather, who took care of him, died when he was 8 years old. His uncle, who took care of him like his own son also died later on.
He Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam was abused by his people though he was known to be “The Honest” and “The Trustworthy.” He was slandered, he was accused of being insane, a sorcerer, a poet and he was accused of being a mad person, a liar and so many other things. The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam faced these people with peace and tried to call them to Islam. And what did they do to him? They attacked him, they kicked him out of Mecca and they followed him to Madinah and they attacked him so many times. They killed his uncle, Hamza Ibn Abdul Muttalib.
And they also slandered his beloved wife {Ayesha} they accused her of adultery with one of his favorite companions, the closest companion to his heart!! {SUBHAN ALLAH} In spite of all these calamities from Allah, Muhammed Salla Allahu alahi wa sallam was satisfied, he was patient and he knew that there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
Our lives, brothers and sisters, cannot go on, on one single pace. We have to have our ups and downs and that is why when we get darkness all around us, we have to look for that light at the end of the tunnel. And to get that light as quick as possible, there are certain things, that, if we do them, Allah’s relief would be very close to us. Among these things is, to be on good terms with Allah when things are fine.
The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam says,” Get closer to Allah, know Allah when things are well and you are overwhelmed with Allah’s blessings because if you do this Allah Azza wa Jall will be there for you when calamities strike.” So this is a glad tiding.
The Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam tells us that 3 men were trapped in a cave with a big rock at its mouth. They tried to push it away but it would not budge. So each one of them started supplicating and praying to Allah Azza wa Jall with their good deeds. One of them said,” O Allah before this calamity came to us, I behaved well with my parents.” The second person said,” I was good to the worker who came to me after he had left without taking his wages.
And I invested all of his money and it transformed into billions and I gave it to him when he came to collect his wage that was just half a day of wage.” And the third one said,” I stopped from fornicating, I did not commit adultery, though I could have done it.” Then Allah Azza wa Jall showed them the light at the end of the tunnel by moving the rock and getting them out of that cave.
Therefore we should ask ourselves what good deeds do we have now to call Allah Azza wa Jall with, in cases of calamities. Do we have something to say,” O Allah I remember a year or two back I did this or that for your sake. Now I am in a calamity, please Allah, because of what I had done for your sake, let this calamity go away, lift your anger from me.” There are benefits of calamities, though we don’t like them but if you notice and analyze, once a calamity strikes, we get closer to Allah.
It’s very strange, when we are in the blessings of Allah, in our health and wealth and when there’s nothing wrong in our lives, we tend to drift away from Allah. We never say Alhamdullilah, we are never grateful to Allah. If something happens, if my kid catches a fever, I immediately go to Allah and say,” O Allah, cure my child’s illness. O Allah, repay the debt that I have on me.” And that is why we should always try our best to be on good terms with Allah when everything is running smooth and fine so that Allah Azza wa Jall will always be there for us when a calamity strikes.
Now once a calamity takes place we should not be impatient, we must not complain because this is from Allah. And if you complain about Allah’s decree upon you then you are not a true believer. Therefore always look for the light at the end of the tunnel. If Allah Azza wa Jall has tested you or tried you with an illness in your body; if Allah Azza wa Jall has tested you with debts that are burdening your shoulders and you are unable to pay them back; if Allah Azza wa Jall gave a crisis or a problem to you; if Allah Azza wa Jall is testing you with a wife that nags all the time and who uses extremely bad words; if Allah Azza wa Jall is testing you with an un-obedient son, who does not care for you, who does not obey your instructions, who does not satisfy your needs as a son should; if Allah Azza wa Jall is testing you with a daughter with whom you have lived all your life and at the end of the day she is not a good muslim, she uncovers and shows her beauty to those whom Allah Azza wa Jall told her not to do that; if Allah Azza wa Jall strikes you with different kinds of calamities, be aware and know that it is of your own doings.
Because Allah Azza wa Jall tells us that no calamity, no crisis, no problem that comes on earth or on us, except, it is a sign that it is from our own doing; this is a result of our own sins. We have to connect our hearts to Allah, we have to know that it is only Allah who can remove and lift such calamities. But on the other hand if Allah Azza wa Jall has blessed you with health and wealth, with beauty, with everything that you want, everything going smoothly like you want; yet you are sinful and you know that, then BEWARE because this is not a blessing of Allah; this is the tests and trials from Allah Azza wa Jall so that you would do more and more sins and would be held accountable for that on The Day Of Judgment.
You want Allah Azza wa Jall to be there for you when you need Him, be there where Allah wants you to be {being dutiful to Him} Know Allah in times of comfort and blessing and He will know you in times of calamities and difficulties. Maintain and preserve the 5 daily prayers on time and in the locations that Allah Azza wa Jall has instructed us to do so. If you do this then you are a good Muslim. Maintain your connections with your next of kin, your relatives, your uncle, your aunt, your cousins, your brothers. I once asked a friend of mine,” How’s your brother doing?” He said,” I don’t have a brother with this name!”
And I was shocked to know that he did not see his brother for years because they have a conflict between them and no one is trying to solve it. Know Allah Azza wa Jall and get closer to him through cleansing your tongue and whatever comes out of your mouth. Don’t slander, don’t swear, don’t say bad things and cleanse your heart from grudges, hatred and envy. If you do that you will be a servant of Allah Azza wa Jall and Allah will be there for you when you need Him.