In Surat Al 'Imran, v.153, Allah said, {"Then He gave you one distress after another by way of requital to teach you not to be sad for what you missed or what befell you…"}

While this verse was revealed regarding the reversal suffered by the Muslims at Uhud, its implications in our lives today are clear, and it is a characteristic of each human being that the more he has, the more he wants, and the more he wants, the more distressed he will be at an inability to get more, as the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: "If the human being had a valley filled with gold, he would want another one like it, and nothing will stuff his mouth but dirt." So, Allah hits us with periods of deprivation of one luxury or another – food, money, freedom, family, health – to break that insatiable desire for comfort and attachment to this world. When we don't always have things the way we want, and instead are made to experience distress at times, this conditions us to adapt to all circumstances in the future. As the verse says, we will learn to not be sad when what we want misses us, or what we don't want befalls us, since we've been exposed already. That dependence on comfort & ease has been broken.

Another issue contained in the verse is the discouragement from sadness in general. Sadness over good that is missed or evil that is experienced is useless, and brings about no benefit, and will not change reality in the least. Rather, as Ibn al-Qayyim once wrote, sadness causes harm by weakening one's resolve, weakening one's heart, preventing him from doing what will benefit him, and blocking his vision from seeing things as they are. So, when you are feeling sad for one reason or another, immediately replace that sadness with praise of Allah, patience and satisfaction with His Decree, stronger faith in Him, and the phrase 'Qaddar Allah wa ma sha'a fa'al' (Allah Decreed and He does what He Wills). This is the result of a calamity seen through the lens of Tawhid.

Third, the dunya is not meant to be free of distress. Only Paradise is. For example, the Prophet was once asked what the most beloved thing to him in the world is, and he responded that it was 'A'ishah. Yet, even that most beloved worldly love to the Prophet was not free of blemish, as the story of the false accusation against her attached some level of distress to his love for her. And in this was a subtle message that the distresses we come across in the dunya are meant to detach our hearts from it and reorient them towards the journey to the Hereafter.

طارق مهنا
Tariq Mehanna
Plymouth Correctional Facility
Isolation Unit - Cell #108