“He is the Almighty, the All-Wise.”
Al-Hashr, 24
A person often judges what happens to them according to how it makes them feel at that moment.
If it brings comfort, they regard it as good.
If it causes pain, they regard it as evil.
If it happens immediately, they see it as a favour.
If it is delayed, they believe they have been deprived.
Yet the human being sees only the moment in which they stand.
Al-Hakīm knows the beginning, the path and the outcome together.
Wisdom seeks not the servant’s immediate comfort, but the outcome that will ultimately be for their good.
For this reason, not everything good appears beautiful when it first arrives.
Some forms of goodness come behind the veil of hardship.
Some answers are given in the form of delay.
Some doors close not to deprive a person, but to protect them from a harm they cannot yet see.
The Human Being Sees the Moment; Allah Knows the Outcome
A person believes that they know what is best for them.
They want a door to open.
They want someone to remain beside them.
They want a hardship to end immediately.
They expect a prayer to be answered in the particular way they desire.
When this does not happen, they are disappointed.
But human knowledge is limited to the moment being lived.
A person cannot know what the thing they desire today will bring them tomorrow.
They cannot see which ability may be developed through the hardship they wish to escape today.
They cannot understand which greater loss may have been prevented by what they now regard as a loss.
Trusting the name Al-Hakīm does not mean claiming to know the reason for everything that happens.
It means not turning away from Allah when the reason is not yet understood.
Certainty means knowing that Allah exists, trusting His justice, and not turning away from Him even when you cannot understand His wisdom at every moment.
The Verdict of the Well Is Not the Verdict of the Whole Journey
If the life of Prophet Yusuf were viewed only from the well, we would see an abandoned child.
If we looked only at the day he was sold as a slave, we would see a young man who had lost his freedom.
If we looked only at the prison, we would see someone who had been slandered and forgotten.
But when the whole account is considered, the well, the palace and the prison are not disconnected events.
They are all parts of the same path.
The dream was a sign of the outcome given at the very beginning.
The well appeared to be a fall.
The prison appeared to be deprivation.
Yet Yusuf’s knowledge, patience and abilities matured in the prison.
In the well, he learned to endure solitude.
In the palace, he learned to protect himself from temptation.
In the prison, he learned to wait.
He reached the duty that would eventually be entrusted to him not by an easy road, but by a road upon which he was nurtured.
The completion of a blessing is sometimes prepared beneath the veil of hardship.
If a person sees only the well, they ask, “Why?”
If they could see the whole journey, they might understand that even the well was part of the preparation.
Delay Is Not Always Loss
While waiting, a person may believe that they are losing time.
They think their prayer has been delayed,
their life is being wasted,
others are moving forward,
and they themselves remain in the same place.
But not every period of waiting is an emptiness.
Some periods of waiting prepare a person.
Some purify the intention.
Some break impatience.
Some protect a person from a mistaken outcome.
And some form a heart capable of carrying the blessing that is yet to come.
Prophet Yusuf’s being forgotten in prison appeared to be a loss.
But if he had been released immediately, only he would have been saved.
His delayed release enabled the knowledge he carried to become a source of much greater benefit.
A delayed favour may be an expanding mercy.
This does not mean that we know the reason for every delay.
It only reminds us that delay is not Allah forgetting.
The Hard Shell of Adversity
Adversity is something a person encounters in life but does not welcome:
Illness,
loss,
injustice,
loneliness,
waiting,
being unable to attain what one desires…
A person sees only the outward face of adversity.
Its outward face is hard.
But the measure found in our notes is this:
Every adversity is either a purification, an elevation or a redirection.
Sometimes adversity cleanses a person of their mistakes.
Sometimes it brings forth the patience, courage or surrender that lay hidden within them.
And sometimes it turns them away from a mistaken road onto another path.
A person may not immediately understand which of these meanings their hardship carries.
But they do not have to read what has happened only as punishment or abandonment.
Adversity may be the hard shell of destiny, with mercy concealed within it.
The hardness of the shell does not mean that the meaning inside it is also bad.
Wisdom Is Not an Escape from Responsibility
Believing in Allah’s wisdom does not mean abandoning one’s own responsibility.
Destiny is not an excuse to conceal sin or negligence.
Destiny is not a door of excuses; it is a window of wisdom.
When a person makes a wrong choice, they cannot escape responsibility by saying, “Allah willed it this way.”
The servant possesses a will.
A person decides, works, takes precautions and fulfils their duty.
Once the outcome appears, however, they do not attribute everything to their own strength.
The right measure is this:
Our duty is not to concern ourselves with controlling the outcome; our concern is to fulfil the duty before us.
A person fulfils their duty.
They defend what is right.
They work.
They take precautions.
They pray.
But they do not try to force the outcome into the form they desire.
For the outcome belongs to Allah.
Trusting Al-Hakīm is not laziness. It is being able, after making every effort, to leave the burden of the outcome to Allah.
Patience Gives Wisdom Time to Appear
At the first moment of hardship, a person feels only the pain.
They may not see the wisdom immediately.
This is why patience is necessary.
Patience is not denying pain.
Nor does it mean that a person must not cry, grieve or grow tired.
Patience is not losing one’s direction before an event whose meaning has not yet become visible.
Adversity gives birth to patience.
Patience reveals wisdom.
Wisdom leads to contentment.
When a person is impatient, they see only the shell.
When they are patient, they begin to notice what is changing within the event.
Perhaps the event has not changed, but the person has.
Their anger has diminished.
Their dependencies have been broken.
They have recognised what they valued more than it deserved.
They have seen their own helplessness and felt their need for Allah.
Sometimes wisdom is not learning why an event occurred.
It is recognising how that event has nurtured us.
Surrender and Contentment
Surrender means not resisting Allah’s decree, even when it is difficult.
Contentment means drawing nearer to peace by recognising the wisdom within what has been experienced.
Surrender is the beginning.
Contentment is a higher station.
Everyone may submit, but not everyone can reach contentment.
For contentment does not mean loving pain.
It means not harbouring a bad opinion of Allah even within pain.
Gratitude is seeing the blessing.
Contentment is seeing the wisdom.
A person may be grateful when beautiful things arrive.
The deeper test is not losing hope in Allah’s wisdom when difficult things arrive.
The key of the heart is this:
Whatever comes is either a blessing or bears a wisdom.
A blessing calls for gratitude.
Difficulty calls for patience, reflection and trust.
Both can draw a person nearer to Allah.
The Heart Key of This Lesson
You may not be seeing the whole of what you are experiencing today.
You may be seeing only the well.
Only the closed door,
the delayed answer,
the lost opportunity,
or the prolonged waiting.
But the path is not limited to the part you can see.
Wisdom does not mean understanding everything immediately.
It means continuing to trust Allah where you do not understand.
Your lack of comfort at this moment does not mean that your good is not being watched over.
Your delay does not mean that you have been forgotten.
Your loss does not mean that the road has ended.
Perhaps what makes you ask “Why?” today is the beginning of a road that will one day make you say, “I am grateful it happened this way.”
Prayer
O Allah,
protect me from judging everything only by the moment I am living.
At doors that do not open,
in prayers whose answers are delayed,
through loss and waiting,
teach me not to lose hope in Your wisdom.
Grant me the ability to fulfil my duty,
to take the precautions available to me,
and to leave the outcome to You.
Enable me to recognise the mercy behind the hard shell of adversity,
the preparation within delay,
and the redirection concealed within loss.
Even when I cannot understand everything immediately,
protect me from losing my trust in You or departing from Your door.
Make me one of Your servants who is grateful in blessing,
patient in adversity,
and content when wisdom becomes visible.