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…
