Why do the beloved of Allah Most High face difficulties in this world?

Once Hadhrat Yahya Razi (May Allah shower His mercy on him) said in a supplication: Lord!  If any worldly person loves someone, he gives a lot to that person, grants bounties and comfort.  Contrary to this, whomever You love, You involve that person in difficulties and hardships.  What is this?  A crier said: We know our secrets well! Difficulties and hardships come on Our friends, so that they turn to Us alone and don’t pay attention to anybody apart from Us.

 

Those spiritual stations that cannot be achieved by good deeds are achieved by bearing hardships.

 

Translation: When Allah Most High desires to give some station to a person and that person cannot achieve that station by performing good deeds, then Allah Most High embroils that person in hardships like disease, pain, etc. or hardship through wealth i.e. he makes that person needy by loss of wealth or the children face some hardship i.e. they fall ill or die.

 

When that person is patient on them, then the station which could not have been achieved by performing good deeds is achieved by being patient in the face of difficulties.

 

Friends, there are very high stations for those who face hardships.  Others who live in peace cannot achieve them.

 

For this reason the Cognizant (A'arif) i.e. those who remain in pursuit of the closeness of Allah Most High move forward to buy insult and humiliation wherever they see it.  When they see the slap of hardship, they offer their cheek to it.  When they see the dagger of difficulty, they happily lower their head.

 

They are bursting with happiness on the glad tiding:

 

Be patient in carrying out the orders of Allah Most High, verily We are before your eyes.

 

A certain person went to call upon a saint who was ill.  He saw that this saint was having a lot of different ailments.  To console him he said, the one who is not patient on the hardships given by a friend is not a true dervish.

 

The saint said: Friend! You are wrong.  Being patient is no big deal.  Instead, who does not feel the pleasure in the hardships given by a friend is not true in love.

 

The saints have taken hardships by repeatedly asking for them.

 

Anecdote:  Once Hadhrat Mansur (May Allah shower His mercy on him) said in his supplications: Lord! On oath! Open the door of tribulations on me.  Put me in various kinds of hardships.  Give me sorrow and sadness at every step of life.  Then see!  If there is any difference in your love, then defame me as a defector of the path of mysticism (Tariqah).  Lord!  By You!  Even if you shred my body into pieces with a scissor, your love will keep increasing.  It will not decrease.

 

Friends! This eagerness for hardships took Hadhrat Mansur (May Allah shower His mercy on him) to the gallows.