Trials and tribulations are part of this earthly life, and no nation or individual can escape from them when Allah the Almighty tests by afflictions, whoever He wishes of His servants, with whatever He wishes, whenever He wishes, and however He wishes.
A person’s life in this world is never uniform; periods of happiness and dismay, strength and weakness, wealth and poverty, health and sickness, etc., fluctuate.
An immediate depressed (sad) mood is a normal reaction to disappointments or losses, as sons of Adam are born weak. Many of us think, “Why me?” as an individual, and “Why our land?” as a collective.
The destruction of cherry blossoms, Ramban’s sinking, and cloudbursts are reminders of nature’s power and the consequences of human actions—both environmental and moral.
Science explains the mechanisms, but scriptures provide a framework for understanding deeper spiritual lessons. The call is clear: stewardship, repentance, and resilience are essential in facing an uncertain future.
Alarm bells are ringing: So time to hold your soul to account, review your slate: zakat, sadaqas, prayers, fasting, mistakes, etc.
Syedna Umar Ibnul Khattab (RA) used to say, “Call your souls to account before you are called to account, and weigh your actions before you are weighed (on the Day of Judgment), for that will make the accountability easier for you tomorrow if you call yourselves to account today.”
When problems start afflicting any one of us, he is expected to “seek aid in patience and prayer”, and “those who are patient will be given their reward in full, beyond reckoning.” (Quran).
The ignorant person, due to lack of Imaan (faith), finds himself in misery, fear and grief, and helplessness.
He or she forgets Allah has decreed these matters to occur, and the decisions are His, and His alone.
One can never feel completely at ease unless he has firm belief that whatever has afflicted him was already preordained.
“No misfortune can happen on earth or in your souls but is recorded in the Book of Decree—before We bring it into existence” (Quran 57:22).
And Allah (S) says (which means): “Certainly, We shall test you with fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits; but give glad tidings to the patient—those who, when afflicted with calamity say, ‘Truly to Allah we belong, and truly to Him shall we return.’ It is those who will be awarded blessings and mercy from their Lord; and it is those who are the guided ones.” [Quran 2:155-157]
Praise be to Allah. Calamities and disasters are a test, and they are a sign of Allah’s love for a person, because they are like medicine: even though it is bitter, despite its bitterness you give it to the one whom you love—and for Allah is the highest.
In the authentic Hadith, it says: “The greatest reward comes with the greatest trial. When Allah loves a people, He tests them. Whoever accepts that wins His pleasure, but whoever is discontent with that earns His wrath.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (2396) and Ibn Maajah (4031).
Abu Hurayrah (RA) reported that the Prophet (SAW) said: “Whenever a Muslim is afflicted by harm from sickness or other matters, Allah will drop his sins because of that, like a tree drops its leaves.” [Bukhari/Muslim]
Abu Sa’eed al-Khudree (RA) reported that the Prophet (SAW) said: “A Muslim is not afflicted by hardship, sickness, sadness, worry, harm, or depression—even if pricked by a thorn—but Allah expiates his sins because of that.” [Bukhari/Muslim]
As believers, we have special responsibilities towards our brothers and sisters in Islam. All things of a Muslim are inviolable for his brother in faith: his blood, his wealth, and his honor.” (Muslim) The Prophet (pbuh) stressed upon the believers the importance of helping and easing the hardships of suffering Muslims.
“He who relieves a hardship of this Dunya (this earthly life) for a believer, Allah will relieve a hardship of the Day of Resurrection for him; he who makes it easy for an indebted person, Allah will make it easy for him in the Dunya and the Hereafter; he who covers a Muslim (his mistakes and shortcomings), Allah will cover him in the Dunya and the Hereafter; Allah will be in the slave’s need, as long as the slave is in his (believing) brother’s need…” [Muslim].
A big hang-up of our times—sometimes found even in those involved in socio-religious work—is the focus on doing something big. We want to be associated with big projects, big NGOs.
We want to serve the cause of society or religion in a big way. Big deeds, big name, big rewards, big success—here and in the life after.
Who can argue with that? It assumes that the reward for a good deed is based on its value as perceived by us. Islam is a way of life. It teaches its followers the meaning of brotherhood, community, and the responsibilities of the Muslim individual towards their community and to the society at large.
In this life, humankind suffers various types and forms of calamities, that which will cause sorrow and depression—especially when such hardships and trials befall and touch people’s health, property, offspring, or career.
When such difficulties befall a certain Muslim, his Muslim brethren are obliged to rush to his aid without waiting for his call and try to defuse this hardship. We can definitely do things to alleviate his stress and anxiety so that the feeling of suffering will subside, as much as can be.
The sayings of the Prophet (pbuh) also do not specify that the easing of the suffering be done only by money.
It means any type of help that a Muslim can provide to his Muslim brother in order to relieve him from his hardship—even kind, sympathetic words. Though none of these will make big headlines, all of them can make a big difference in our lives.
“Those who help others are truly much blessed,” as the Hadith says, “Best people are those who are useful to others.”
The Prophet said, “A Muslim is the brother of another Muslim”, and “A brother does not leave his brother helpless, nor does he lie to him, nor yet make false promises, nor treat him with cruelty.” (Tirmidhi) Helping a Muslim includes appropriate rebuttal of any wrong charges or insinuations levelled against another Muslim.
Abu Darda’ reported that our Holy Prophet has said, “One who defends the honor of his brother, Allah keeps the fire of Hell away from his face on the Day of Judgment.” (Tirmidhi)
Another Hadith runs as follows, “If a Muslim is being insulted and degraded and his honor besmirched somewhere, and another Muslim leaves him helpless, Allah would leave the latter helpless on occasions when he would need help. And if any Muslim helps him when he is insulted and degraded, Allah shall help him when he would need help.” (Abu Da’ud)
Believers neither rejoice when they see or hear their Muslim brothers commit mistakes, nor do they make such mistakes the subject of their conversations. Abdullah Ibn Umar (RA) related, “The Prophet (pbuh) once rose above the podium and then heralded with a loud voice, ‘O those who have embraced Islam only with their tongue, while Imaan has not yet entered their hearts, neither harm Muslims, nor mock them, nor try to expose their mistakes—for he who follows (or searches for) the errors of his brother (so that he exposes him), Allah the Almighty will follow his errors, and he whom Allah (ST) follows his errors, He will expose him even if he was in the middle of his home.'” [Saheeh Al-Jamee]
The authentic Hadiths are clear in that the rewards are recorded once affliction strikes a Muslim. As for patience and acceptance, they are virtues for which a person may get additional rewards over those for the affliction.
For who knows the true value of a small kindness or small virtue? The Muslim servant of Allah cannot be ignored, for serving/helping him is equal to serving/helping Allah.
“What disaster could be worse than the silence of humankind, which is duty-bound to support the brethren in the face of calamity? Helping a person, covering his mistakes, relieving his hardships—may be small acts in the minds of people—but all virtues, big and small, earn rewards.”
Trials and tribulations are part of this earthly life, and no nation or individual can escape from them when Allah the Almighty tests by afflictions, whoever He wishes of His servants, with whatever He wishes, whenever He wishes, and however He wishes.
A person’s life in this world is never uniform; periods of happiness and dismay, strength and weakness, wealth and poverty, health and sickness, etc., fluctuate.
An immediate depressed (sad) mood is a normal reaction to disappointments or losses, as sons of Adam are born weak. Many of us think, “Why me?” as an individual, and “Why our land?” as a collective.
The destruction of cherry blossoms, Ramban’s sinking, and cloudbursts are reminders of nature’s power and the consequences of human actions—both environmental and moral.
Science explains the mechanisms, but scriptures provide a framework for understanding deeper spiritual lessons. The call is clear: stewardship, repentance, and resilience are essential in facing an uncertain future.
Alarm bells are ringing: So time to hold your soul to account, review your slate: zakat, sadaqas, prayers, fasting, mistakes, etc.
Syedna Umar Ibnul Khattab (RA) used to say, “Call your souls to account before you are called to account, and weigh your actions before you are weighed (on the Day of Judgment), for that will make the accountability easier for you tomorrow if you call yourselves to account today.”
When problems start afflicting any one of us, he is expected to “seek aid in patience and prayer”, and “those who are patient will be given their reward in full, beyond reckoning.” (Quran).
The ignorant person, due to lack of Imaan (faith), finds himself in misery, fear and grief, and helplessness.
He or she forgets Allah has decreed these matters to occur, and the decisions are His, and His alone.
One can never feel completely at ease unless he has firm belief that whatever has afflicted him was already preordained.
“No misfortune can happen on earth or in your souls but is recorded in the Book of Decree—before We bring it into existence” (Quran 57:22).
And Allah (S) says (which means): “Certainly, We shall test you with fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits; but give glad tidings to the patient—those who, when afflicted with calamity say, ‘Truly to Allah we belong, and truly to Him shall we return.’ It is those who will be awarded blessings and mercy from their Lord; and it is those who are the guided ones.” [Quran 2:155-157]
Praise be to Allah. Calamities and disasters are a test, and they are a sign of Allah’s love for a person, because they are like medicine: even though it is bitter, despite its bitterness you give it to the one whom you love—and for Allah is the highest.
In the authentic Hadith, it says: “The greatest reward comes with the greatest trial. When Allah loves a people, He tests them. Whoever accepts that wins His pleasure, but whoever is discontent with that earns His wrath.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (2396) and Ibn Maajah (4031).
Abu Hurayrah (RA) reported that the Prophet (SAW) said: “Whenever a Muslim is afflicted by harm from sickness or other matters, Allah will drop his sins because of that, like a tree drops its leaves.” [Bukhari/Muslim]
Abu Sa’eed al-Khudree (RA) reported that the Prophet (SAW) said: “A Muslim is not afflicted by hardship, sickness, sadness, worry, harm, or depression—even if pricked by a thorn—but Allah expiates his sins because of that.” [Bukhari/Muslim]
As believers, we have special responsibilities towards our brothers and sisters in Islam. All things of a Muslim are inviolable for his brother in faith: his blood, his wealth, and his honor.” (Muslim) The Prophet (pbuh) stressed upon the believers the importance of helping and easing the hardships of suffering Muslims.
“He who relieves a hardship of this Dunya (this earthly life) for a believer, Allah will relieve a hardship of the Day of Resurrection for him; he who makes it easy for an indebted person, Allah will make it easy for him in the Dunya and the Hereafter; he who covers a Muslim (his mistakes and shortcomings), Allah will cover him in the Dunya and the Hereafter; Allah will be in the slave’s need, as long as the slave is in his (believing) brother’s need…” [Muslim].
A big hang-up of our times—sometimes found even in those involved in socio-religious work—is the focus on doing something big. We want to be associated with big projects, big NGOs.
We want to serve the cause of society or religion in a big way. Big deeds, big name, big rewards, big success—here and in the life after.
Who can argue with that? It assumes that the reward for a good deed is based on its value as perceived by us. Islam is a way of life. It teaches its followers the meaning of brotherhood, community, and the responsibilities of the Muslim individual towards their community and to the society at large.
In this life, humankind suffers various types and forms of calamities, that which will cause sorrow and depression—especially when such hardships and trials befall and touch people’s health, property, offspring, or career.
When such difficulties befall a certain Muslim, his Muslim brethren are obliged to rush to his aid without waiting for his call and try to defuse this hardship. We can definitely do things to alleviate his stress and anxiety so that the feeling of suffering will subside, as much as can be.
The sayings of the Prophet (pbuh) also do not specify that the easing of the suffering be done only by money.
It means any type of help that a Muslim can provide to his Muslim brother in order to relieve him from his hardship—even kind, sympathetic words. Though none of these will make big headlines, all of them can make a big difference in our lives.
“Those who help others are truly much blessed,” as the Hadith says, “Best people are those who are useful to others.”
The Prophet said, “A Muslim is the brother of another Muslim”, and “A brother does not leave his brother helpless, nor does he lie to him, nor yet make false promises, nor treat him with cruelty.” (Tirmidhi) Helping a Muslim includes appropriate rebuttal of any wrong charges or insinuations levelled against another Muslim.
Abu Darda’ reported that our Holy Prophet has said, “One who defends the honor of his brother, Allah keeps the fire of Hell away from his face on the Day of Judgment.” (Tirmidhi)
Another Hadith runs as follows, “If a Muslim is being insulted and degraded and his honor besmirched somewhere, and another Muslim leaves him helpless, Allah would leave the latter helpless on occasions when he would need help. And if any Muslim helps him when he is insulted and degraded, Allah shall help him when he would need help.” (Abu Da’ud)
Believers neither rejoice when they see or hear their Muslim brothers commit mistakes, nor do they make such mistakes the subject of their conversations. Abdullah Ibn Umar (RA) related, “The Prophet (pbuh) once rose above the podium and then heralded with a loud voice, ‘O those who have embraced Islam only with their tongue, while Imaan has not yet entered their hearts, neither harm Muslims, nor mock them, nor try to expose their mistakes—for he who follows (or searches for) the errors of his brother (so that he exposes him), Allah the Almighty will follow his errors, and he whom Allah (ST) follows his errors, He will expose him even if he was in the middle of his home.'” [Saheeh Al-Jamee]
The authentic Hadiths are clear in that the rewards are recorded once affliction strikes a Muslim. As for patience and acceptance, they are virtues for which a person may get additional rewards over those for the affliction.
For who knows the true value of a small kindness or small virtue? The Muslim servant of Allah cannot be ignored, for serving/helping him is equal to serving/helping Allah.