Adversities of this world

 

The concerns of this world can never end.  One problem is not yet solved that another one crops up and everybody is busy in this rat race.  To wait for them to end is not correct.  Whatever is to happen, will happen.  You cultivate your relationship with Allah and become His.  This is the only thing that does not make difficulties unbearable.  Don’t the saints get difficulties in life?  They do.  But their relationship with Allah is so strong that the difficulties don’t seem difficulties to them.  The lovers of Allah think that this is also a gesture of the Beloved.  That’s why they derive great pleasure from them.  If we are steadfast, then no difficulty will remain forever.

 

Humans, and especially Muslims, should make sure that they should not allow even the minutest complaint and resentment to enter their hearts about the Lord and Ultimate Beloved because of the difficulties.  A Lord has all authority over that which He owns.  Who are we to interfere in this?  Sometimes He dismantles and then He is the One who remolds, i.e. He expresses His lordship, but even that is not bereft of wisdom and foresight.

 

When a slave transgresses, Allah overlooks his/her sins.  He is very lenient and thus magnanimous.  When He sees that further leniency is bad for the slave, He admonishes Him a little, so that the slave is jolted awake and refrains from disobeying the Lord Almighty and turns to the Lord with the regard due by a slave to his/her lord and master.  Fortunate are those people who consider these difficulties to be the tests of the Beloved or playful teasing by the Beloved and love Him all the more.  They sacrifice all their desires for His will and are content with what He decrees.

 

Thus, they wander here and there and come back to the door of the Beloved.  How much ever He urges them to, they never leave Hs door.  How much ever He pushes them away, they still cling to Him and they keep saying:  Lord!  You do whatever you want to, but keep us in your presence.  Don’t make us wander heedlessly.  These are the people who have pure lives.  They are content with Allah and Allah is pleased with them.

 

It is necessary that difficulties come on the good and the pious.  Their spiritual advancement is through them.  This shows the love of Allah for those who are in difficulties.  Thus it is necessary that one is content with the will of Allah and expresses happiness in the will of the Beloved.  This world is nothing but a swarm of concerns and various difficulties.  In this treacherous world, everyone, regardless of being rich or poor, is embroiled in difficulties.  Just take heart and be patient.  The way the happiness of the world is short-lived, similarly the troubles of this world are also temporary.  Today, there are concerns and anxiety now, tomorrow, if Allah wills, it will be quietude once again.  Whatever happens, happens with the will and design of Allah Most High and whatever the Lord does is full of foresight.  This world is a place of means and methods.  Use them to whatever extent possible.  Don’t put your trust in these means, but in the Lord Almighty.  Whatever is acceptable to Him will definitely come to be.

 

Son!  Difficulties are what give the world its name, or else it would’ve been declared as paradise.  There is great prudence in this as well, which is based on foresight.  The connection of love that the Ultimate Beloved i.e. Allah Most High has with His slaves is expressed by it.  It is mentioned in the Holy Quran: Getting secluded from all, become Mine

 

Living in this world, a human being cannot subject all his other relationships to his relationship of Allah Most High all by himself.  Those who do so are considered stalwarts of this path.  The selfless love of Allah Most High does not desire that His bondsmen should be away from Him.  He makes loving overtures.  He puts them in various difficulties and teases them every minute.  He causes their hearts to tire of this world and the lovers of this world so that a human being remains with all of them but is cut off from all.  It is a rule that in times of difficulty and sorrow, a person remembers the one who is the most loving to him.  When we see that we are stuck in a web of difficulties, our heart is cut off from all and our relationship with Allah Most High is furthered, who is the most beloved of all.  That’s why it is mentioned in Hadith:  The Lord Almighty told the world: O world!  Be sour and unpleasant to my friends so that the thought that they have to meet me remains. 

 

It is really regrettable that we never care about Allah Most High.  He wants to take us unto Himself by giving us difficulties but we squirm away from Him back into the web of worldly relationships, the result of which is nothing but debasement in matters of religion as well as in this world.  Lucky are those people who understand this secret and further their relationship with Allah even more in times of difficulties and trials.

 

Translation of couplet: This world is a deep sea which has muggers and gavials.  Here only the A’arif (cognizant) are happy, as they took shelter on the banks of it.  The world is just a bridge of the path of hereafter and the intelligent ones don’t build houses on bridges.

 

[Mawaaiz-e-Hasana by Hadhrat Muhaddith-e-Deccan Abul Hasanaat Syed Abdullah Shah Naqshbandi Mujaddidi Qadri (May Allah shower His mercy on him), Vol. 1, Pg. No. 321]