THIS IS HOW YOU WILL HAVE PEACE OF MIND

Everyday we hear people banning sickness and death from their life and I sincerely wish them luck. Not only is death inevitable, as they will ironically agree, old age is a sickness that is inevitable especially when you don’t die; so really where are you escaping to?

This kind of paranoia and false hope is not there for a true Muslim and I will tell you why: Islam does not define good or bad from a materialistic perspective so that if you went for a job interview and didn’t get the job it is called evil and a self appointed “prophet” is readily available to tell you how your grand mother is a witch. As far as Islam is concerned that job you just lost may be the best thing that has ever happened to you only you do not know it and this is from the reasons I love Islam because it guarantees tranquility even in the worse of situations
For example, courtesy of the teachings of Islam a true Muslim who is sick will not go about looking for miracles neither will he lose his rest of mind because the Prophet of Islam says about the sick Muslim:

“Whenever a Muslim is afflicted by harm from sickness or other matters, Allah will drop his sins because of that, like a tree drops its leaves.”
So while others are banning and casting the devil over a man that may end up dead, a Muslim is trying his best as a human being to see to the end of the illness while knowing that if it happens that all his effort to get well fails then he will be rewarded for his patience during affliction.

This reward for affliction even extends as our beloved Prophet said about a Muslim who is going through hardship: “Hardships continue to befall a believing man and woman in their body, family, and property, until they meet Allah burdened with no sins” meaning a Muslim should know that the harder the situation the more Allah uses that hardship He has subjected him to to forgive him of some of his sins. Please is this not better than looking for the witch behind the hardship and suspecting everyone and banning imaginary demons?

We have seen from the example of the belief about a sick person and one going through hardship that Islam did not leave them to engross themselves in grief and search for cure, Islam gives them hope and comfort and they know that this, which seem bad, may even be a blessing in disguise
How else can a person be happy? He leaves home in the morning not knowing what will befall him. Even if he is sure he will be just fine what of his son, his daughter, his mother, his father, his friends? Just one phone call and he hears one of them is dead the rest is history which will not change anything. About this very situation Islam still provides true hope rather than witch hunting. The Prophet of Islam says whoever Allah causes to lose three of her children Allah will look upon that to forgive her her sins and admit her into paradise…there is hope, not witch hunting, fire sending and marine spirit bursting that will leave the fellow even more bereaved

Another area is with regards to how Allah answers prayers. Islam is unique in this area because it is only Islam that says Allah does not only answer prayers by granting what is requested but He answers in varied ways so that one may ask for a thing and get something else. The similitude is given that when a mother is holding a razor blade and her little baby is crying for it she definitely will not give the child because, being more knowledgeable, she knows the baby cannot handle a razor blade. The mother will rather give the child something else in place of the blade even though the child was to cry his or her lungs out. In this case the love is in the refusal
It is the same way God Almighty may hear you ask for a car and He knows you will become arrogant if you own one and in His infinite knowledge may choose to give you humility instead of a car even though He may also give you both; He may hear you ask for promotion in your office and instead He will permit that you be sacked because in His infinite knowledge He already knows that the promotion will draw you further away from Him and lead to your destruction, and He may hear that you want a house and simply don’t give you a house so that on the Day of Judgment this request that was not answered is used to forgive you your sins and it is said that some persons will come on the Day of Judgment and find in their account so many good deeds and when they enquire how come they are told that it is as a result of their prayers which Allah did not answer on earth and they, haven seen the reality of the afterlife, will wish none of their prayer was answered on earth which was temporary
So you see with this mindset the Muslim is never disheartened or sad because he knows if he gets what he wants from God it is good and if he does not get what he wants it is also good and may even be better so he loves and trust his Lord in ease and hardship, in ease and hardship he knows so far as he does right with God Almighty it is all good

It was this whole talk that the Prophet of Islam captured when he said:

“How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for his affairs are all good, and this applies to no one but the believer. If something good happens to him, he is thankful for it and that is good for him. If something bad happens to him, he bears it with patience and that is good for him.”

And all these are just evidences that the message brought by Muhammad (SAW) is from God Almighty. If the man wanted to forge a message he would have told you only good things will happen to you, he would have told you sickness is not your portion and you don’t have to expect hardship at all as soon as you become a Muslim, but he told you the truth as it is. This is how you know someone who is telling the truth; they don’t paint situations unnecessarily
How will you feel about a business man who tells you he is charging a hundred naira to produce your item and he explains that he will buy the 5 needed raw materials at 20 naira each just to convince you to pay 100 naira. You will know this is a liar because he is painting the picture that he has no profit when he is not a philanthropist. This is the nature of lies; they are painted unnecessarily
Napoleon as they call him of 2pac’s Outlawz when he accepted Islam said the first day he went to the Mosque he saw “grown up men hugging and smiling at each other”, he could not understand the source of this love and happiness even under hardship until he understood concepts like this in Islam then he knew why the Prophet of Islam was always full of life and smiles. Islam is divine and beautifully arranged; will you not join it and enjoy your life?
“Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest” (Qur’an 13:28)

Al Faruq