The Salaf would be happy and optimistic when something of this world became difficult for them. I never quite understood this statement. Were they happy and optimistic because a difficulty meant eventual ease, as is Allāh’s promise? Was it out of anticipation of a fulfilment of a worldly need? Or was there something more to it? Then it occurred to me after many years of returning to this statement that a man who sets out to find work and finds…
❝Know that Allah does not do to His slaves except what is good for them; be it something they love or something they loath (a hardship). And Allāh does not remove a decree of hardship from a person until he is pleased with it. When the person becomes pleased with it, Allāh removes it, and it is perhaps for this reason that a period of hardship might extend [because a person is not pleased with Allāh’s Decree]. Thus, whoever wants…
A man reviled Ibn ʿAbbās, so he replied, “You revile me even though I have three traits: When I learn something about an āyah from the Book of Allāh, I wish that everyone would know it too; when I hear about a ruler from the rulers of Muslims who governs justly I become happy, even though I may never have to go to him for a ruling; and when I hear about a rainfall in a land from the lands…
❝The īmān that doesn’t drive a person to the worship of Allāh and His obedience holds no value, just like the ‘īmān’ of iblīs, which did not drive him to the obedience of Allāh but instead he disbelieved and was arrogant and disobedient of his Lord, as Allāh says, And [mention] when We said to the angels, “Prostrate before Ādam”; so they prostrated, except for Iblīs. He refused and was arrogant and became of the disbelievers.❞ -— Sh. Moḥammed at-Tuwaijirī,…
