And He is the Best of the planners

First comes the ‘problems’.

We call them hardships.

Why?

But that is what Satan said,

Why me?

To this man created from clay!

Don’t fall for the whispers,

Of this firm enemy.

Then comes

O feet of patience carry me, for what remains is little

O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient.
[2:153]

“To be patient is difficult but to lose the reward for being patient is worse.”
[A saying attributed to Ali may Allah be pleased with him]

Holding the soul from worry
Thank Allah سبحانه و تعالى for his blessings that He bestowed upon you when Shaitan reminds you of your problems.

Smile : What I learnt from a former prisoner

Omar Khadr was released on bail. About a week ago. He emerged out of the court smiling broadly.

He was a 15 year old when he was imprisoned. Then tortured. Kept away from seeing his family. 13 years later, at 28, he is released.

What I find hard to imagine is how after passing through all of this he is able to smile so broadly. Imagine passing your teens and most of your twenty’s in a prison. Away from the outside world in a four sided room. What’s more is that there was always a smile on his face, on the photos that emerged during his imprisonment.

Is our life more hard? When we have the freedom

The Leper, the Bald Man and the Blind Man

Narrated Abu Huraira, that he heard the Prophet of Allah ﷺ saying:

Allah willed to test three who were a leper, a blind man and a bald-headed man.

So, he sent them an angel who came to the leper and said, “What thing do you like most?” He replied, “Good color and good skin, for the people have a strong aversion to me.” The angel touched him and his illness was cured, and he was given a good color and beautiful skin. The angel asked him, “What kind of property do you like best?” He replied, “Camels (or cows).” (The narrator is in doubt, for either the leper or the bald-headed man demanded camels and the other demanded cows.) So he (i.e. the leper) was given a pregnant she-camel, and the angel said (to him), “May Allah bless you in it.”

The angel then went to the bald-headed man and said, “What thing do you like most?” He said, “I like good hair and wish to be cured of this disease, for the people feel repulsion for me.” The angel touched him and 

“When nothing seems to be working, I go to a stone mason and watch him at his work hammering rock again and again at least 100 times without even as much as a dent in it. Yet at the 101 strike the stone split into two and I know it wasn’t that strike to split it but the ones that went before it !”

The Funeral

It was the evening of Saturday. Maghrib time. The Imam announced that there would be a funeral prayer after isha. A sister of age had passed away.

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Competition in [worldly] increase diverts you

Until you visit the graves (i.e. till you die).

No! You are going to know.

Again, Nay! You shall come to know!

No! If you only knew with knowledge of certainty…

{Surat At-Takāthur 102 : 1 – 5 }

Quarter to ten. These verses were recited during the isha prayer. The imam then sat down facing us. He mentioned to us a hadith.

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:
“Whoever attends the funeral until the prayer has been offered will have one qiraat (of reward) and whoever attends until the deceased has been buried will have two qiraats.” It was said, “What are the two qiraats?” He said: “Like two great mountains.”
[Bukhari and Muslim]

“ … each of which is like (Mount) Uhud. ”
[Bukhari]

He advised us to wait, to earn the reward. The wait was long. People began arriving at the mosque. Relatives and friends and strangers. The lights went out at 10.