He is Enduring and Persevering

He is Enduring and Persevering

The spiritual man seeks the infinite, the everlasting contentment that transcends the transient pleasures and stimulatory responses that the modern world often deems as life’s ultimate purpose. While the modern man may chase fleeting sensory experiences, the spiritual man looks toward the eternal realm, fulfilling an inherent need for boundless satisfaction that can never be met by temporary means.

And yet, the spiritual path is often laden with trials and tribulations, which serve as markers on the journey of truth. According to a Hadīth, when asked about who is trialled the severest, the Prophet ﷺ replied:

“The prophets, then those who come next to them, then those who come next to them.”¹⁹⁶

Those closest to the prophets in resemblance and emulation are tried more than anyone else, and yet those prophets, and indeed those who emulate them, possess the most contented hearts. This perspective fundamentally contrasts with the modern pursuit of happiness. There is a deeper, more enduring form of fulfilment appearing in the spiritual man, who submits to and accepts Divine Wisdom.

The modern world limits its paradigm to the temporal realm; the pleasures and pains, forging a paradigm of respective success and failure. For the modern man, fear, hunger, loss of wealth, life and fruit are indicators of failure, while for the spiritual man, bearing loss with patience is the necessary precursor to success.

Ironically, even the modern man recognises, though often in empty rhetoric that ‘greatness is born out of the womb of affliction’, contriving terms such as ‘no gain without pain’ and the ‘fruits of labour’. Yet, in the thick of difficulty, particularly those he experiences not out of his own volition, his forgetful mind often fails to recall these stated realities.

The spiritual man not only endures and perseveres under the strain of trials, he consistently recalls how earthly empowerment or ‘tamkīn’, and everlasting fortune in the hereafter is necessarily preceded by struggle and trial.

The Prophet Yusuf (Joseph ‘alayhi al-salām) was thrown in a well, sold off as a slave and spent years in prison. Little did it seem that if it were not for a deep well and a dark cell, he would not have become Egypt’s revered Minister, treading the same footsteps as his forefathers, Ibrahīm, Ishāq and Ya’qūb (‘alayhim al-salām), who themselves faced extraordinarily onerous trials. Their legacy was etched out by their blood, sweat and tears while in the hereafter, they are of the masters of mankind. Allāh says:

“We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. Give good news to those who patiently endure. Who, when faced with a disaster, say, ‘Surely to Allāh we belong and to Him we will (all) return.’ They are the ones who will receive Allāh’s blessings and mercy. And it is they who are (rightly) guided.”¹⁹⁷

In recounting this story, Allāh immediately follows it with another verse that seems to interject with a complete shift in subject. This is when He says:

“Indeed, (the hills of) Ṣafā and Marwah are among the symbols of Allāh…” 198

While the first verse speaks of the varieties of trials and those who patiently endure, the second marks the hills of Safā and Marwah, exhorting those on lesser and greater pilgrimages to the Holy Sanctuary in Makkah to walk between them.

But in carrying out one of the rites of this great event, the masses of pilgrims are, at once, recalling the mark of their mother Hāgar and her son, Ismaīl (‘alayhima al-salām), the father of the believers, reliving the event which inspired this injunction, her running impulsively between the mounts in a

desperate search for water after having been left in the arid Arabian desert by Ibrahīm (‘alayhi al-salām) at the command of God.

Never did Hajar imagine that her frantic footsteps on the Makkan barren plane would draw out the water of Zamzam nor did she anticipate that her story be perpetually retold through this unending ritual walk, conducting by millions every year. Property, life and crops in the Hijāz began here, at the ever- flowing spring of Zamzam which burst at her dusted feet, when, before it was a barren valley, hardly attracting the interest of shrubbery, let alone pilgrims.

Here, Ibrahīm was ordered to leave Hajar with nothing but her enduring trust in Allāh. When she overcame her fear, hunger, loss of wealth and deprivation of fruit with endurance, Allāh eulogised her struggle and gave the land upon which she walked its abiding bounty and abundance.

Often, when man sees the enormity of certain calamities, be they earthquakes, wars or famine, he shows a strange propensity to lose sight of the Most Wise’s Wisdom. Often, he is so tied to the depleting, transitory world, or so invested in its small offerings that if such petty gains are devastatingly lost, he deems to have lost everything.

“And there are some who worship Allāh on the verge (of faith), if they are blessed with something good, they are content with it; but if they are afflicted with a trial, they relapse

(into disbelief), losing this world and the hereafter. That is ˹truly˺ the clearest loss.” 199

The question, ‘why does God take away everything‘, comes from the questioner’s admission that he sees this depleting, material world as everything, even as it tends towards nothing. In the Hadīth, it amounts to less than a drop in an ocean as compared to the hereafter, while, according to another Hadīth it is limited and inherently cursed, “except whatever seeks the countenance of Allāh Almighty”²⁰⁰. Had he seen the world for what it actually is, he would have better fared under trialling circumstances.

Tribulations intend, not deprivation from what will ultimately perish at some point, but guidance towards perpetuity. As such, trials are actually gifts. In one striking verse speaking about when the companions were trialled at the famous Battle of Uhud, Allāh speaks of their calamitous ordeal and their distress, not as an ‘affliction’, but as a ‘reward’, reassuring them that it is for their ultimate gain:

“(Remember) when you were running far away (in panic), not looking at anyone, while the Messenger was calling to you from

behind! So Allāh rewarded your disobedience with distress upon distress.” 201

Any sane man already concedes that everything material will one day perish. Thus, when he complains about losing out now on what will eventually deplete, he is, in reality, only hoping for it to last a little longer. Did he expect it to last forever?

Man’s tendency and desire for perpetuity in fact proves that his inner nature is not geared towards this transitory world but towards an everlasting hereafter which is the call of his soul. How else can he so passionately desire something that, according to the deniers of God and the hereafter, does not exist?

Man is not only aware of the everlasting, but the strength of his inclination towards it, though having never lived it in a bodily sense, is so great that it reflects a vivid experience that he so passionately wishes to relive. The call of his soul is loud and vivid. When he feels pain at loss, he is in fact yearning towards his everlasting heavenly origin to which he is homesick because in that life of perpetual bliss, there is no loss. This is why after the loss of worldly fodder, the spiritual man is quick to remind himself of that everlasting reality, reciting the words:

“Surely to Allāh we belong and to Him we will (all) return.”²⁰²

Tribulations, thus, should never be cursed, for they serve the greater purpose of existence, the real purpose of existence, to realign towards God and His Glorious Presence in the paradise of eternal bliss. In the Hadīth, the Prophet ﷺ says:

“My nation is the one to which mercy is shown. It will have no punishment in the next world, but its punishment in this world will be trials, earthquakes and being killed.” 203

Moreover, tribulations, for the perseverant, forgive them of their sins, teach them patience, gratefulness and selflessness.

When the companions faced that grave setback at Uhud, losing 70 of their brothers, a great proportion of what constituted the entire nation of believers at the time, Allāh reminded them that:

“If you have suffered injuries (at Uhud), they suffered similarly (at the Battle of Badr). We alternate these days (of victory and defeat) among people so that Allāh may reveal the (true) believers, choose martyrs

from among you, and Allāh does not like the wrongdoers. And distinguish the (true) believers and destroy the disbelievers. Do you think you will enter Paradise without Allāh proving which of you (truly) struggled (for His cause) and patiently endured?” 204

Through setback, the verse outlines numerous greater outcomes; distinguishing the true believers, granting martyrdom, cleansing the believers of their sins and destroying the deniers. The virtues and lessons of this setback better served the companions of the Messenger ﷺ on their journey towards their Creator than even the benefits reaped by the earlier victory at the Battle of Badr. In the Hadīth, the Prophet ﷺ says:

“Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer for if he has an occasion to feel delight, he thanks (God), thus there is a good for him in it, and if he gets into trouble and shows resignation (and endures it patiently), there is a good for him in it.” 205

Just as some begin to develop an unhealthy attachment to this limited world of unfulfilling desires, tribulations come to remind us that this world is to dust. It means so little to the Almighty that the righteous can face trials, while many of the most wretched, or even perpetrators of injustice can live in material extravagance.

“Know that this worldly life is no more than play, amusement, luxury, mutual boasting, and competition in wealth and children. This is like rain that causes plants to grow, to the delight of the planters. But later the plants dry up and you see them wither, then they are reduced to chaff. And in the hereafter, there will be either severe punishment or forgiveness and pleasure of Allāh, whereas the life of this world is no more than the delusion of enjoyment.” 206

When the Almighty eventually annihilates the earth and folds it up His right, it will become but a faded, distant memory, leaving nothing but the actions that man sent ahead.