The World as a Field of Trial
According to Islam, the worldly life is not designed for comfort and pleasure, but for maturing through difficult trials. The hardships, illnesses, and pains that a believer encounters in their life are actually instruments of spiritual training used by Allah to bring them closer to His Essence. Shaykh Geylani expresses this truth very clearly: “The world you find yourself in is full of disasters and misfortunes… There is no goodness without concealing calamity behind it.” Sufi travelers always face trials, and their degrees increase manifold with Allah due to their patience. Calamities are like fire that separates gold from copper, revealing the quality of a believer’s faith.
Abandoning Complaint and Transforming Burden into Blessing
Complaining about a calamity, lamenting, rebelling against fate – these are signs of weakness in faith and rudeness in complaining to Allah through His creation. Geylani (may Allah be pleased with him) states, “When calamity comes, being patient indicates the excellence of knowledge. Your face should not even wrinkle during times of hardship; do not cut the Truth with the people,” emphasizing that a perfect believer must maintain their dignity and composure in all kinds of difficulties. If a servant attains the secret of “when Allah gives me a calamity, do not be angry with Him, but worship Him and wait for it to pass,” then that calamity turns from being a punishment into a healing balm that purifies the soul.
The Sublime Ranks Brought by Patience
Those who patiently endure hardships without rebellion ultimately reach the highest ranks of divine grace. Just as Prophet Yusuf (Joseph) attained sultanate in Egypt by enduring being thrown into a well, slander, and imprisonment, so too every patient believer attains a spiritual sovereignty. The rule “Patience calls for help; it elevates man. It makes man noble” heralds that after dark nights, a bright morning will surely come. A servant who grits their teeth in the face of calamity and does not quarrel with their Lord successfully passes the worldly trial and throws wide open the doors to eternal paradise.