Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem, Assalmu Alaikum,

“Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity. It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned.” (2:286)

This verse tells us that the Hardship Allah decrees for you is separate from the Hardship you have earned for yourself, what your own hands have wrought, so why does Allah decree specific hardships for people on top of what they have earned?

There are two main reasons, the first is that Allah wishes to wipe away what sins you have so you can continue progressing spiritually, this occurs when you reach an impasse in your life, or it has stalled, or is no longer progressing. The other is Allah wants to elevate you spiritually so He takes advantage of fitnah’s that already exist in the world to help you, Allah is not the author of Fitnah but He uses it to help people by some evil others created, the prophet (saws) said “All good is from Allah and evil is from us,” therefore you will find Allah works within this reality.

So what are examples of Allah using the fitnah people create to help others? to answer this first we have to understand how Allah acts towards our actions in life:

The Prophet (saws) said “Allah has written down the good deeds and the bad ones. Then He explained it [by saying that] he who has intended a good deed and has not done it, Allah writes it down with Himself as a full good deed, but if he has intended it and has done it, Allah writes it down with Himself as from ten good deeds to seven hundred times, or many times over. But if he has intended a bad deed and has not done it, Allah writes it down with Himself as a full good deed, but if he has intended it and has done it, Allah writes it down as one bad deed” (Bukhari and Muslim).

The main point relating to this subject is that Allah writes down what you intend to do as if you completed it even if you do not do it, and if you complete it He multiplies it, so how does fitnah benefit a person in this reality?

Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud, who said: “Hasten to Jumu‘ah (Friday prayer), for verily Allah will appear to the people of Paradise every Friday when they gather at a sand hill of camphor, and their closeness to Him will be commensurate with the degree to which they hastened to Jumu‘ah in this world.”

Because of this hadith a worshiper may come to love Friday prayers and for years he is among the first people in the Masjid, but one day a cult takes over the local Masjid and every other Masjid in the region, they then cause trouble for anyone not from their own group, the worshiper continues to go to Friday prayer under these conditions but he then realises this cult uses sihr, so he decides it is no longer safe for him to continue going, but as a result he can no longer pray the Friday prayer and is at risk of losing what he intended, to be among the people of the Hadith.

Allah decreed that the worshiper should face this hardship and because it has stopped him from going to Friday prayers, Allah writes for him this deed as if it was completed in a perfect manner every Friday for the rest of his life and places its “work” on the heads of the evil cult, which they will struggle with in this life and the next, while Allah’s worshiper will receive its reward, the worshiper may sit at home depressed but he has not yet realised what Allah did for him.

One day the worshiper decides He wants to go on Hajj so he saves his money but at the last moment he sees the cult has taken over every hajj group in the country, so he is unable to go, Allah decreed that he should also face this hardship so He can now write down for this worshiper that He loves a complete and perfect hajj on the heads of the cult, when Allah writes down a good deed for you “Allah writes it down with Himself as a full good deed” as if done perfectly, this is the advantage of this and why Allah uses it.

The worshiper decides to stay at home and focuses on increasing his Islamic knowledge, so he buys some books from the local book store, but unknown to Him the cult has also taken over every bookstore in his country, so after reading the classical texts he purchased he begins to face hardship in his life, he then traces the problems to the books he bought and realises the cult did sihr on them to dominate the local Islamic community and recruit people into its circle.

So now the worshiper is cut off from the knowledge of His heritage because of this fitnah and the evil cult think they have won everything because they control everything, but Allah instead says to Himself “I will teach my worshiper myself” and raises him to wilaya on the back of the evil of this cult so he can Understand the reasons behind why things occur in life, because Allah said in the Quran;

“And (as for) those who strive hard for Us, We will most certainly guide them in Our ways; and Allah is most surely with the people of Ihsan.” (29:69)

If the hardship in your life is not from what your own hands of earned then it is because of this, Allah is raising you closer to Him, the Prophets and Awliyah are the closest to Allah because they carry the most responsibility and see the most hardships because Allah is writing down for them everything they could not accomplish in life but intended as a perfect deed, so Allah turns them from one Hardship to another in order to write down for them the most of all His creation and He elevates them to positions with Him not man can imagine.

Shaykh Rami Al Rifai.

“O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you.” (4:59)