Two kinds of people…

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Assalamu Alaikum.

[Sorry, this post might seem like a ramble…]

I realised today that everyone that I’ve met can be divided into two camps:

1) Those who view an opportunity as a disaster and

2) Those that view a disaster as an opportunity.

Huh, you say?

Okay, let’s take an example:

A man loses his job. If he is part of Group 1, he views this as a great disaster. He thinks that this is the end of the world.

He sits, sulks and complains about his sad life to all those who care to listen. He wastes his time instead of taking advantage of this opportunity.

If he is part of Group 2, he remains positive and uses his free time to do something constructive. He takes classes, does social work and maintains a cheerful countenance.

Group 2 has a simple name: the true believers*.

[And no, I’m not claiming that those I’ve met who seem to fit in Group 2 are true believers because only Allah knows whether they are or not. However, this attitude is something that true believers need to have.]

We all get different trials in life, whether it is the car refusing to start (on the day of an important meeting), someone close to us passing away, financial problems, etc.

Most people just seem to complain and complain and complain. They don’t seem to realise that all these trials are great opportunities.

Great opportunities for what, you ask?

Well, to come closer to Allah and to become “well-rounded” Muslims.

The shariah (Islamic law) is a complete way of life. We’ve been taught  how to pray, fast, give charity, deal with our families, be clean, display good manners, etc.

The one who applies the entire shariah will become a well-rounded person, excelling in every aspect of life. The Prophet (salallahu alaihi wasallam) and the Sahaabah (radiallahu anhum) were like this.

The different trials that we face every day and every hour are there to help us to become all-round people.

Think of the human body and its various muscles. Each muscle has a different exercise to strengthen it. Strengthening each muscle eventually leads to the whole body being strengthened.

The various aspects of the shariah are those muscles. The trials are the exercises that strengthen those muscles. Each trial improves us in a certain aspect of the shariah – thereby making us excellent slaves of Allah in every way.

We all have strengths and weaknesses. Well, these trials strengthen the strengths (if you will) and also decrease the weaknesses.

Of course, all of this can only happen if we view these trials as an opportunity and not as a disaster.

So, when the car fails to start, we remain positive and try to ponder over what we can learn from this situation.

When someone dies, we remain positive and try to derive the good that might come out of this situation.

So, a true believer can increase in iman (faith) after any situation and at any time due to his/her attitude, not just at times like Ramadan and Hajj.

Remaining positive implies that one has good thoughts about Allah – and this is a very important part of tawheed.

Many of those who constantly complain about everything have bad thoughts about Allah.

Why? Because they assume that all these trials will lead to a bad end, instead of realising that Allah wants them to turn to Him during these trials.

So, each of us needs to look into that mirror and ask ourselves which group we wish to belong to…