With the existence of the great number of those who deal in fraud, those who, when they have to receive by measure from men, they take exact full measure, but when they have to give by measure or weight to men, they give less than due; with the existence of the great number of people whose speech about this life may dazzle you, and they call Allah to witness about what is in their hearts; yet they are the most contentious of enemies…;
with the existence of those who but little do they hold Allah in remembrance, and if they stand up to pray, they stand without earnestness; with the existence of the type who serve Allah as it were on the verge, if good befalls them, they are well content; but if a trial comes to them, they turn on their faces…;
With the great number of the skeptics, the oscillating, those who lag behind rejoicing in their laziness, their inactivity and their falling behind…;
With the rarity of those who are sure that the Exalted Allah sent His Messenger with Guidance and the Religion of Truth, that he may proclaim it over all religion even though the Pagans may detest; with the rarity of those who are sure that Allah has decreed that "It is I and My messengers who must prevail";
In spite of all that, the believer finds himself turning to Allah, holding fast to the truths of the Qur'an, to the fundamentals of Islam, exerting his utmost efforts to follow our Master, Muhammad (PBUH). He finds himself in a critical time, for tribulations surround him from everywhere, perceptibly and meaningfully, thwarting and slackening him. In such circumstances, man needs an answer for the question: How can I traverse these adversities with steadfastness?
The Holy Qur'an is the words of the Truth, Exalted He is, transmitted by the truthful and trusted by Allah, our Master, Muhammad (PBUH). It draws our attention to the necessity of holding fast to some issues that help the believer in such circumstances; the issues that we all need to remember, apply, and verify so that we can traverse these adversities with steadfastness.
Today, people fight each other for the material. Due to that, they wage wars against one another, and annihilate one another: "That is as far as knowledge will reach them".
Mercy be upon Ash Shafi'i who said:
If you avoid it, you become peaceful to its people, and if you are attracted to it, its dogs will fight you.
Some of the causes that help the believer to traverse these adversities with steadfastness (the Holy Qur'an draws our attention to), are:
1-to realize that, during these adversities, we are in need for the Exalted Allah's support. However much we depend on causes, it is indispensible for us to remember always the fact of Allah's support. When the Exalted Allah helps His slave, the latter will be able to traverse adversities however grave they are.
Didn't the Messengers (PBUTH) pass through unimaginative adversities and were made steadfast by the support of the Exalted Allah?
Didn't their Imam, their Master, their Seal, Muhammad (PBUH), pass through unimaginative adversities and tribulations and was steadfast? That was also by the support of Allah.
Reminding His Beloved of this truth, the Exalted Allah said: "And their purpose was to tempt you away from that which we had revealed unto you, to substitute in our name something quite different: {in that case}, behold they would certainly have made you {their} friend, and had we not given you strength, you would nearly have inclined to them a little. In that case we should have made you taste an equal portion {of punishment} in this life, and an equal portion in death; and moreover you would have found none to help you against us" (Al Isra', 73-75).
"And their purpose was to tempt you away from that which we had revealed unto you", i.e., they made you suffer different types of adversities and difficulties that man could not usually bear so that you give up some fundamentals decreed by the Exalted Allah in His perfect Book to be revealed to mankind.
"to substitute in our name something quite different", i.e., so that you present other ideas derived from their whims as substitutes that are contradictory to the fundamentals.
"{in that case}, behold they would certainly have made you {their} friend". If you did what they desired by presenting substitutes for one of the fundamentals that the Exalted Allah wants, they would befriend you, make you a close mate to them.
"And had we not given you strength", i.e., if it were not for our support to you, "you would nearly have inclined to them a little".
"If it were not" is an expression that denotes abstinence, as linguistics said, i.e., the Prophet (PBUH) abstained from inclining to them due to the Exalted Allah's support to him.
If he had inclined to them, this would be prevented as is indicated in the Qur'anic text:
"In that case we should have made you taste an equal portion {of punishment} in this life": Religious scholars present many interpretation of the mentioned verse, one of them is that the Exalted Allah would have made the Prophet (PBUH) suffer double the torture of life.
I tend to believe that the interpretation of this verse is that when man is remote from the Exalted Allah, his life will be boring, and will be full of uselessness, roughness and cruelty.
Mercy be upon the one who said:
The life of the eagle among you lasts part of the day,
But the time of his deserting you is year after year.
When one is away from Allah, his life becomes so boring that he feels as if it had been doubled, even if it is short.
"and an equal portion in death": Consequently, his body dies, as well as his memory, so do his good deeds that remain after him to the others.
"When a man dies, his acts come to an end, but three, recurring charity, or knowledge (by which people) benefit, or a pious son, who prays for him (for the deceased)". Consequently, he dies twice, his body dies and well as his memory and traces.
In other words, if you incline a little bit to the people of the whims, and exchange the fundamentals of Islam for some views emanating from personal desires that oppose these fundamentals, your life will be boring, and history will never remember you, and thus you will be forgotten. Moreover, the Exalted Allah will not remember you, and consequently, you will be forgotten by Allah and by His creatures.
When the following Exalted Allah's statement was revealed: "And had we not given you strength, you would nearly have inclined to them a little", the Prophet (PBUH) continuously read the following invocation: "Oh Allah, do not leave me for even the duration of an eye blink rely on myself ". He (PBUH) disavowed his dependence on his own might and strength, and depended, instead on Allah, because his reliance on the self means dependence on the self-whims and on falsehood, and on what has no truth by itself.
Consequently, we cannot traverse adversities unless we have this truth present in our hearts, and when we disavow our might and strength and depend on the Exalted Allah's might and strength. The one who asks Allah's help will never fear anything, and the one who demands Allah's support will never fail.
2- We have to reiterate the meanings of monotheism in our hearts. The Exalted Allah said: "Allah will establish in strength those who believe, with the word that stands firm, in this world and in the Hereafter; but Allah will leave, to stray, those who do wrong; Allah does what he wills" (Ibrahim, 27).
Doing wrong, i.e., injustice, means polytheism, the Exalted Allah referred to it in another verse when He said: "for false worship is indeed the highest wrong doing" (Luqman, 13).
The firm statement is "There is no god but Allah', with all its meanings and truths. Man has to reiterate to his heart the truth of: There is no god but Allah…, there is no creator but Allah…, there is no sustainer but Allah…, there is no honorer but Allah…, there is no humiliator but Allah.
If you believe that other than Allah provides you with provision you are mistaken; if you believe that some can benefit you other than Allah, you are mistaken; if you believe that other than Allah can raise your status or debase you, honor or humiliate you, you are mistaken. In other words, people are mere tools and machines:
I feel as if I were an engine, and He runs me;
I were a pen and I my fingers were fate.
The Exalted Allah holds the reins of heavens and earth. It is He alone who moves them and calms them down. Hence, if we reiterate to our hearts the meanings of monotheism, our hearts will not be affected by adversities, for we shall realize that they are manifestations by the Exalted Allah: "He makes the others harm you so that you do not rely on them". Behind every adversity and tribulation, there is wisdom, and every tribulation is definitely followed by another tribulation. When man realizes that the Exalted Allah makes in everything great wisdom, he will be steadfast in tribulations.
3-Reiteration of remembrance of Allah, even if it is only by tongue, for soon its influence will spread to the heart. The Exalted Allah said: "O you who believe when you meet a force, be firm, and call Allah in remembrance much {and often}; that you may prosper" (Al Anfal, 45).
Be firm and support your effort to be steadfast by remembering Allah, for His remembrance leads the heart to glorify Him.
What is the blight of this Ummah of one billion and a half today?
Isn't it lack of glorifying the Exalted Allah in the heart?
If they glorified the Exalted Allah as the Prophet (PBUH) did, and if they were sure that the greatest of the great, and the most magnificent is Allah, no mankind or jinn could defeat them, but if they depend on the objects, the Exalted Allah will entrust them to the objects.
How far we are from that Bedouin who went to the Persian leader and trifled with all the latter's embellishment, splendor and grandeur. He said to him: We have come to you to make you get out of worshipping people into worshipping the lord of the people".
Today, people prostrate to people, and glorify one another as well as objects. But the glorification of Allah has weakened in the hearts because the one who belongs to Islam does not have remembrance of Allah in his heart. Definitely, continuous remembrance of Allah bequeaths glorification of the Mentioned, Exalted He is.
4-We have to make our hearts listen to the Exalted Allah`s address, that is the Holy Qur'an. One should have a regular spiritual recitation during which he reads the Book of Allah, and listens to His address.
The Exalted Allah said: "Say, the Holy spirit has brought the revelation from your Lord in truth, in order to strengthen those who believe, and as a guide and glad tidings to Muslims" (An Nahl, 102).
The Exalted Allah indicates that the means of making faith firm in the believer is the Holy Qur'an.
The Exalted Allah also said: "Those who reject Faith say: Why is not the Quran revealed to him all at once? Thus, it is revealed, that We may strengthen your heart thereby" (Al Furqan, 32). Consequently, the Exalted Allah decides that the greatest heart, that is the heart of our Master, Muhammad (PBUH) is in need for strengthening by the Qur'an.
Reciting the Holy Qur'an, and listening to it from the Exalted Allah, makes your heart steadfast. Consequently, you will be able to pass through all tribulations successfully, however great they are.
In order that no one should have the illusion that strengthening is specific to our Master, Muhammad (PBUH), the Exalted Allah said: "Allah will establish in strength those who believe". Accordingly, the Holy Qur'an is the cause of strengthening the heart of the Prophet (PBUH) as well as the hearts of the believers who are with him.
5 – We have to remember the conduct of the Apostles (PBUTH):
The biography of each Messenger has its own characteristics that are not found in the biography of another Messenger. The Holy Qur'an relates to us their biography, one by one, and orders us to believe in them.
"of them there are some whose story we have related to thee, and some whose story we have not related to you" (Ghafer, 78).
In their stories related to us, the Exalted Allah mentions all that we need in all adversities, and in all circumstances. For example, you find a Messenger in prison, another sick, another a captive; one was a king, another was working in industry, and another in trade, and so on.
The stories of the Messengers (PBUTH) are not related in the Holy Qur'an for entertainment. They are rather mentioned so that we have these samples ever present before our eyes, and so that if we happen to confront one of the circumstances they faced, we remember one of the Exalted Allah's slaves supported by Allah by being firm when we read his biography.
They are the examples for application for us and so that we comply with the order of the Exalted Allah who said to His Beloved, our Master, Muhammad (PBUH): " All that we relate to you of the stories of the messengers so that We make firm your heart" (Hud, 120).
Consequently, the stories of the Messengers strengthen the hearts. When we frequently read their stories, recompose them, and relate them again and again, this will establish an ever present sample that we may benefit from, and from which we can learn a lesson and wisdom that we quite understand and realize.
6 – True sincere fraternity:
By having a true friend close to you, you will not be alone, (the wolves eat only the remote sheep), but the insincere friendship may cause one to go to Fire. Genuine fraternity makes you find a steadfast friend beside you, so you become steadfast like him.
Read the following verse when the Exalted Allah addressed one of His Messengers who was Moses (PBUH). He said:
"We will certainly strengthen your arm through your brother" (Al Qasas, 35).
He also said to His Beloved, Muhammad ()BUH): "He it is that has strengthened you with His aid and with {the company of} the Believers" (Al Anfal, 62).
The People of Love said:
The one to whom I complain about love,
May help me bear it, for lovers are friends.
Lovers are of many types. Some are in love with their own instincts, others with their provision, others with the present life, but there are others who turn their hearts only to Allah, about whom the Exalted Allah said: "He loves them, and they love Him" (Al Ma'idah, 54).
Herein, appear the people of love who stand on a strong ground when their lover is Allah.
We find the lover of Allah support another lover of Allah, so does the true and the sincere one and so on… .
In conclusion, the following are six causes that I repeat and recount because of our need to them:
1-Dependence on Allah and reliance on Him, as we know for sure that it is in His Hands support exists.
2-Reiteration of the meanings of "There is no god but Allah".
3-Reiteration of remembering Allah as this bequeaths glorifying of Allah in the hearts.
4-Listening to the Exalted Allah's address in the Holy Qur'an.
5-Reading frequently the biography of the Messengers (PBUTH).
6-Having the support of Sincere true brotherhood.
If you adhere to these causes you will be able to traverse adversities with steadfastness, and be the beloved of Allah, as well.
The Companions of the Prophet (PBUH) pledged allegiance to him at times of liked and disliked circumstances:
In weal: at times of blessing.
In woe: at times of adversity.
In activating circumstances: when the souls feel active.
In the disliked circumstances: When the souls dislike activity.
They pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah in woe and weal, in activating circumstances or in disliked ones.
Oh Allah, make us steadfast on Your religion, and make us follow the footsteps of Your Beloved in speech, in deeds and in states.
Oh Allah, make us from those who listen to wisdom and follow the best of it.
I say my words and ask Allah's forgiveness.