To Allah we belong and to Him we return

"On what patience and gratitude share and how they are connected: On the way patience and gratitude come together concerning a single matter: You might wonder, does every existent thing have a blessing from Allah, implying that affliction does not truly exist? What then is the meaning of patience? If affliction does exist, then what is the meaning of gratitude for affliction, particularly as some have claimed that we thank for affliction in addition to gratitude for blessings?"

"particularly as some have claimed that we thank for affliction in addition to gratitude for blessings? How is it conceivable to be grateful for affliction? And how can one be thankful for what they endure patiently, as patience regarding affliction entails pain and gratitude implies joy, and these are contradictory? Know that affliction exists just as blessings do."

"Three Cases of Supplication for the Noble Supplication is the foundation of the religion and the light of the heavens and the earth. It has three positions in relation to affliction. The first, it is stronger than the affliction and thus repels it. The second, it is weaker than the affliction and the affliction overpowers it, affecting the servant."

"This was recorded by Muslim and Al-Tirmidhi. Another hadith discusses the foolishness of ignoring the truth, noting that the affliction of knowledge is arrogance. Though the compiler mentioned it this way, the known saying is that the affliction of knowledge is forgetfulness and the affliction of beauty is arrogance. This is how al-Qudāʿī narrated it in the Musnad al-Shihab, from the hadith of Ali, though with a weak chain of transmission."

"A grateful believer, what does affliction do to him when he is closer to well-being than affliction, and he is in a position to receive more because he is grateful. God Almighty said: "If you are grateful, I will surely increase you." Surah Ibrahim 14:7. Your faith extinguishes the flames of the fire in the Hereafter, which is the punishment for every sinner, so how can it not extinguish the fire of affliction in this world?"

"Although His mercy towards those adhering to the literal wording is greater than His mercy towards the interpretative strivers, for mercy corresponds to the extent of affliction. The affliction of the former is greater, even if they both share the affliction of being deprived of the true matter. The truth is the bounty of Allah, given to whom He wills, for Allah is the Possessor of great bounty."

"He used to say oh how wonderful is bachelorhood in the key and a home through which the wind pierces without noise or uproar. This is a widespread affliction though less so than the first. Only a wise sensible person with good character knowledgeable about women's habits can navigate it successfully. Such a person patiently endures refrains from whims fulfills rights overlooks faults and manages temperaments with wisdom. Most people however are characterized by foolishness harshness and poor character expecting complete fairness without offering it. For them solitude is safer. The third affliction less severe"

"reverence and esteem from others — you are then like one struck by affliction upon whom the affliction has left no mark of admonition or restraint, while he asks others to take heed and be restrained by the sight of his own calamity. The blow has worked no restraint in him, yet he desires that whoever looks upon his beating be restrained — like one who hears of exemplary punishments and chastisements and of the signs shown against others. And God is not to be reckoned with — how is it with one who has seen them plainly in others, let alone one who has found them in himself?"

""...the evils have departed from me" — indeed he is exultant and boastful. So He censured him for despair and ingratitude when tested with affliction, and for exultation and boasting when tried with blessings, and for substituting, in place of praising God and thanking Him and extolling Him when He lifted the affliction from him, his saying: "The evils have departed from me." Had he said, "God has driven the evils away from me by His mercy and from Him," he would not have been censured for that; rather he would have been"

"Even if wealth is present with money, status, servants, and security from enemies, he is in a state of blessing as if there is no affliction in existence, and in a state of affliction as if there is no blessing in existence, all due to his ignorance of his Master, the Almighty. If he knew that his Lord, exalted and glorious, is the doer of what He wills, altering and transforming, sweetening and embittering, enriching and impoverishing, elevating and lowering, honoring and humiliating, giving life and causing death,"

"The sign of affliction for expiation and purification of sins is the presence of beautiful patience without complaint, and showing distress to friends and neighbors, and being discontent with performing commands and acts of obedience. The sign of affliction for the elevation of ranks is the presence of contentment and agreement, and the tranquility of the soul and calmness with the actions of the Lord of the earth and heavens, and vanishing in them until the unveiling occurs with the passage of days and hours."

"more so than they are warned against snakes and scorpions. The affliction of loving gold and silver and being greedy for them is more harmful to children, and even adults, than the affliction of poisons. They should be accustomed not to spit in their gathering places, nor to blow their noses or yawn in the presence of others, and not to turn their backs on others, nor to rest one leg upon the other, nor to place their hand under their chin, nor to lean their head on their arm, as this indicates laziness."

"and His beneficence to him through the very affliction, even if he dislikes the affliction itself. And his servanthood in the decree of faults is to hasten to repent of them, to disown them, to stand in the station of apology and brokenness, knowing that none can lift them from him but He, and none can shield him from their harm but He; and that if they persist they will drive him far from his Lord and expel him from His door. So he sees them as an injury that none can"

"Absolute gratitude is for absolute blessings. Absolute affliction in this world does not require patience because unbelief is an affliction, and patience regarding it is meaningless. The rightful act for the unbeliever is to abandon unbelief, and similarly, the disobedient must abandon disobedience. An unbeliever may not recognize his unbelief, similar to someone with an ailment who does not feel pain due to obscuration or other reasons, so patience is inapplicable."

"And do not ask from Him for the world, nor for the removal of poverty and affliction to wealth and well-being; rather, be content with what He has apportioned and decreed, and ask Him for constant protection in what He has established you in, placed you in, and tested you with, until He transfers you from it to something else or its opposite, for you do not know where the good lies, whether in poverty or in wealth, in affliction or in well-being."

"the acknowledgement of His attribute of mercy and that He is the Most Merciful of the merciful, seeking a means to Him through His own attributes, glory be to Him, and through the intensity of his need, which is his poverty. Whenever one afflicted finds this in himself, his affliction is lifted from him. And it has been tried and proved that whoever says it seven times, especially together with this knowledge, God lifts his affliction from him."

"patient through these calamities is promised the reward from Allah the Exalted, as he said, and give good tidings to the patient. Those who, when disaster strikes them, say, Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to him we will return. This verse reminds us of our mortality and the ultimate return to Allah's judgment. In this world, some people are given authority, but when that authority is removed, everything returns to Allah the Exalted."

"After the steps, all who say, No utterance does he utter, but there is by him an observer ready. There are two great afflictions of the tongue. If it is spared from one, it is not spared from the other, the affliction of speech and the affliction of silence. Each can be more sinful than the other at its time. The silent about the truth is a mute Satan, disobedient to Allah, a hypocrite, and a flatterer if he does not fear for himself."