THE DAILY ISLAMIC REMINDERS. Yaum As-Sabt, 14th day of Dhul Hijjah. (Saturday, 24th of July 2021).

ARE YOU FACING HARDSHIPS IN LIFE? IF YES THEN SAY ALHAMDULILLAH ALAA KULLI HAAL. BismilLah. 

The Messenger of ALLAH (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “We Prophets are like that: our pain is multiplied so our rewards will be multiplied.” 

[authenticated by Imam Ahmad]. He said this when he was suffering from a fever much higher than what normally afflicts people and the Sahaabah were surprised by this. In general though, this is true for all sincere believers, that their greater hardship is made a cause for their greater reward in the Hereafter.

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, its wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were ALLAH’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it could fly  once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon but the man in trying to help rather ruined the life of the butterfly. 

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If ALLAH allowed us to go through our lives without any difficulties it would cripple us and we would never be able to fly! Imagine achieving all we need without striving for it, how will we care for it? Think of how gold, diamonds and other natural wealth are acquired so lets not risk our eemaan in complaining about our difficulties. Let's strive hard with patience and our allocated sustenance from ALLAH will come to us with our little efforts. Some difficulties are actually blessings in disguise. May ALLAH (Azza Wa Jal, The Mighty and the Majestic) protect our eemaan and aid us to pass our test from HIM to become successful in dunya and Aakhira. Aameen.