The eleventh one, the
purification that these calamities have towards their wrongs and their sins. Allah
said that anything that afflicts you is from what your own hands have wrought
and He pardons much of what you have done in other words what you are being
afflicted with is actually much less than what you deserve and in that, one of
the things that Imam Nasafi in his tafsir and his tafsir, it is a beautiful tafsir,
one of the things he says in that, he said if you reflect on the meaning of
that you will show gratitude for your calamities because you will realise that
it is a blessing that they are much less than what they are, that is the secret
of that ayah. That is why Allah followed that up, that you are afflicted with
your wrong actions, you can feel bad about that when you realise that He has
pardoned so much, it actually makes you feel grateful that Allah has overlooked
so much of your shortcomings.
That the believer is not
afflicted with any difficulty, exhaustion, fatigue, anxiety that concerns him
or even a thorn that punctures him except that Allah removes with it, that he
steps on a thorn that he steps on except that Allah removes with it his wrong
actions so those are all blessings. So no disease, no exhaustion, fatigue
anything like that at all comes as a removal of wrong actions, subhanAllah.
The twelfth blessing is
the compassion that Allah enables you to show to people that are in tribulation
and to help them. “Whoever relieves a quorba, one of the calamities of this world
for a believer, Allah will relieve a calamity for him on the yaum ul qiyammah”
so people in tribulation become an opportunity. One of the things that Imam
Muhammad al Hasan one of the things that he says in his commentary on the
Mudhara, he said there are two conditions that people have:
- Where you have the
afiyah, you have the wellbeing in yourself, in your family but you get
problems of other people
- You have these
problems
If you do not help people
who have problems then Allah will give you those problems. That is the nature
of the world it is to test you. So you are either tested in yourself or with
others but you have to respond appropriately so avoiding those things is a
danger and that is why the tribulations of others are actually a blessing if
they come to you for help or something, it is an opportunity to earn some
closeness to Allah.
In the Muwatta of Imam
Malik, Isa (sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) was
reported to have said “people are of two types, people of wellbeing and people
of tribulation so have compassion for the people of tribulation and show gratitude
for well being”. That is why if you are in good shape, do not complain, tell
somebody to punch you if you complain or something because you do not want, if
you complain and you do not have anything to complain about, Allah will give
you things to complain about and then you will think about how good things
were. Remember we used to complain about that, what were we thinking? There are
people that say that when real calamities hit them they think what was I
complaining about before? The truth is well stop complaining now because it
could get worse, that is the whole point. It could get worse and one of the
poets said
“The only people that
really feel sorry for people in passionate love are the people who have been in
passionate love”
So when you see people in
tribulation you should remember I have been there, I should remember what that
was like and show compassion to them.
The thirteenth one. Tribulations
give you the blessing of having true knowledge of the extent of blessing of
well being so when tribulations come you really appreciate what well being is.
So it is better to appreciate it when you have got it. The nature of blessings
is that nobody realises the extent of them until they have lost them. That is a
human being. He is just oppressive of himself and constantly denying the
blessings of Allah.
The fourteenth. What
Allah has prepared from the blessings of the reward of the akhirah based on
these varying ranks so this is also a blessing that Allah has prepared rewards
for the calamities that you bear patiently or with contentment based on
different ranks. There are people that are content that will have a higher
station in paradise than people that were simply patient and patience is the
lowest maqam in the maqamat of the tawbahs actually the first one.
The fifteenth: What is
hidden inside in the folds of these calamities are blessings. That is another
benefit. Maybe you dislike a thing and Allah will put in it much good. You
don’t know, there are things hidden in blessings so I will give you an example.
I missed a flight once and alhamdulillah I have never been upset about missing
a flight I guarantee you because I always think if the plane goes down I am
going to feel like such a fool for having run to catch the plane or something
like that. So I just relax, never want to be in a plane that you ran to catch
and then it goes down. What was I running for? So if you miss it, you miss it. But
I missed a plane, they ended up giving me $500 back because they had to
re-route the ticket and things like that and the difference was nothing in time
and things like that. There are always benefits that are hidden in what you
think is a trouble. The thing about the world is that if you enter into a state
with your experience of the world in which whenever these things happen you
just accept them you will always find the benefit, you will see them always, Allah
will show them, you will know there is a benefit. In every delay there is God’s
choice in it and that is part of what the mumin does, he submits to it.
The sixteenth one is that
tribulations prevent you from arrogance and from evil, pride, tyranny, doing
all these things like
The seventeenth one is
contentment, ridha because tribulations afflict the good and evil and whosoever
does not like it then it is just on him and he has lost the dunya and the
akhirah and whoever is pleased with it he is pleased because he knows that
paradise is better than anything in this world and if those are the
tribulations that it takes to get him into paradise then he is content with it.
So these are some of the
blessings I mean there are many blessings but these are the ones that Sultan al
Ulema Abdul Aziz Salaam enumerated and they are good to remember in these
times.
But I will end by saying
read history. These are not bad times. Muslims should not be so negative, there
has been much worse times I mean there are aspects that are bad about this time
and certainly one of the greatest calamities of the rime is that we do not have
a lot of people of knowledge any more and we do not have the levels of deen and
things like this but just in terms of outward dunya calamities, this period is
nothing if you read history, this period is nothing.
The real calamities of
this age are spiritual calamities, they are not worldly calamities so if we are
going to weep over the calamities of this age we should be weeping about the
lack of religion, about the lack of spirituality, we should not be weeping
about all this stuff we see out there because it is just not that bad. I am
sorry and if you think it is you have not read history. Things have been much
worse, read about earlier wars and how many people died and plagues that
afflicted people, a third of
There are too many blessings,
the blessings we have overwhelming. That is why inshaAllah we will ask Allah to
put us in a state of gratitude with Allah and make us from the shaakireen
really make us from the shaakirneen and just not complain. The thing about
complainers is that even complainers do not like complainers really. They want
to complain but they do not want to listen to anybody who complains. So
insha’Allah we will stop whining. It is the maqam of the tifil is to whine. It
is what I always tell my boys, nobody likes a whiner even a whiner and they
laugh because they know it is true. So whining is a maqam, it is the maqam of
the tifil, that is what a whiner is. The rijaal in haqiqah it does not mean
male, the rujul is male and female it is the one who has reached the maqam of
the adult, it is the mature one, that is what it means, the mature one. Rujula
is maturity.
So
insha’Allah Allah make us all mature.
Summary of the 17 Benefits of
Tribulation
1. You realise the power
of Lordship over you
2: You realise your
abject servanthood and your complete state of resignation and brokenness before
the will and power of Allah
3: Sincerity to Allah
4. You return to Allah
and are suddenly fervent in your desire of your Lord
5. It leads to a humbled
state before God
6. You are forbearing to
the One who has afflicted you.
7. You can actually
forgive them
8. To be patient during
the tribulation
9. To actually be happy,
glad about what is happening because of these benefits
10. To be grateful for it
because of what are contained in there of the benefits
11. The purification that
these calamities have towards your wrongs and your sins
12. Allah enables you to
show to people that are in tribulation and to help them
13. Tribulations give you
the blessing of having true knowledge of the extent of blessing
14.
What Allah has prepared from the blessings of the reward of
the akhirah based on these varying ranks
15.
What is hidden inside in the folds of these calamities are
blessings
16.
Tribulations prevent you from arrogance and from evil,
pride, tyranny
17. Contentment