Contentment and acceptance
Man tends to pass the responsibility of his troubles on external factors, including God, but he assigns his luck and wealth to his own genius. The situation is just the opposite. What is bad in the world is from man, and our abilities are from God. There was no war or suffering started by God, but by man. If we suffer from a natural disaster, an earthquake or a flood, the Signs behind them must be noticed and analyzed.
Acceptance of destiny, which is one of the foundations of faith, is built on contentment. This is called in Arabic Rida: الرضا .It has two elements. One is self-review, the other is the search, discovery, and acceptance of the message. If an epidemic spread and I get ill, I must first look for the cause in myself. Did I do everything in order to prevent it? Did I keep hygiene standards, distance from others, etc.? And if I did my best and still get sick, what is the Message? Because in everything there is the Message, the Sign. But whatever the Sign is, contentment in fate itself eases the troubles:
Acceptance of destiny also includes tolerating injustice from people within certain limits. Truth in the earthly sense does not exist, it is only a sense of justice what we feel. We experience changing truths throughout our lives, the internal content of many things changes, the system of internal context becomes different, which results other “truths” depending on the circumstances. The truth of a ruler and a servant may be different, too. They both see the world differently. Therefore, there must be a margin of tolerance within which we do not pass on our resentments and complaints to others. We may relieve by sharing a burden with others, but we may not know how sharing our burden casts a shadow over others. What will be the personal, social consequences? Complaining is often a sign of weakness and non-acceptance of fate. And this opens the way to further sins.
Jabir ibn 'Abdullah reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Fear injustice. Injustice will appear as darkness on the Day of Rising. Fear avarice. Avarice destroyed people before you and led them to shed one another's blood and to make lawful what was unlawful for them."
Grade: Sahih (Al-Albani)
Reference: Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 483
Book 28, Hadith 1
We live in a family, community, society. We are connected to each other by bonds of emotion, interdependence, subordination and supremacy. Those have rules and norms at all levels. In the case of a believer, however, each norm is overridden by man’s relationship with Allah. He is the Only stable, the other characters in life are changing. If I am not content with the destiny He has ordained, the order will be overturned in all my other relationships.
O ye who believe! seek help with patient perseverance and prayer; for Allah is with those who patiently persevere. (Quran 2:153)
