and the Plan of Allah
by Abu Saalem
Anyone who has lived long enough in this world to
experience at least one mishap or even a twinge of
pain, knows that this world will never be the paradise
we strive to make it out to be.
With this, we all agree. The problem, however, is that
most of us still strive to make this finite world into a
paradise. But since no one can change realities, we suffer.
The more one lives in denial of the self-evident, the
greater the suffering. Even the newest innovations in
science and technology, the amenities of modern life,
anti-aging medicines, and cosmetic surgeries that aim
to make this world a paradise cannot overturn this grim
reality. It is like an old route you take five days a week to
commute between work and home. The route is pocked
with crater-like potholes but you never stop carping and
being upset about the terrible state of the road. This
embittered driver suffers in two ways. First, the actual
physical discomfort of the ride and second, the mental
distress that manifests in the incessant complaints. You
know the road is bad and get distressed about it (as if the
distress will fix the road), but if you don’t learn to adapt
to this reality, you will continue to suffer every time you
pass this route.
The fact is that this ephemeral world will never deliver
all the time, every time no matter how privileged our
life is. This is why our faith reminds us that the nature of
“this world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for
the disbeliever” (Tirmidhi; al-Dunya Sijn al-Mu’min). It is
a prison for the believer because the believer recognizes
the reality of the world and adapts himself to it. The
disbeliever, in contrast, strives to shape his reality into
something it is not and gets agonized because it rarely
lives up to that expectation. Imagine an inmate in a
prison who is deluded into thinking he is in a palace.
He sees himself in spacious halls with handmaids and
servants; he expects to see intricate designs, beautiful
architecture, high ceilings, bedecked rooms and sparkling
chandeliers, and luscious gardens. But he is surrounded
by drab concrete walls, armed guards, a regimented daily
schedule, a claustrophobic cubicle, a hard bed and lack of
basic amenities which is all he gets to see and experience
night and day. He quickly falls into depression because he
is unwilling to cope with his actual reality.
In essence, thinking that this world is a fantasy doesn’t
help when disasters strike or when things don’t go as
planned in life; adapting to its reality does because
6 May - June 2020 | AL-MADINAH