How to understand trials and tribulations in Islam - and to get through them

We are living in extremely difficult times. COVID-19 and its devastating impact still continues to affect millions of people, who have suffered from a loss of income, a loss of health, or worst still, even a loss of life of loved ones. This in conjunction with the fact it is an extremely confusing time, unprecedented in the amount of strange things that are going on and the madness shows no sign of unrelenting any time soon.

This has had the effect of seeing many people down and out. Practically begging for mercy. Some people are wondering how much more can they even take and why is this even happening to them.

So I wanted to look at difficulty in Islam and try and understand it better*. I realised it's actually quite a simple thing to comprehend.

Essentially, there are two types of difficulty in Islam.

There is museeba which translates as misfortune. This is difficulty that comes from Allah directly, and therefore is out of your control.

There is another type which is called muskhila. This directly translates as difficulty and it comes out of the wrong doing that you personally do.

Both are part of the tests and trials of being Muslim. But it's important to know the distinction, even for the sake of your own sanity.

A Museeba is not your fault. It's out of your control. It's a trial from Allah. Think of an act of God, a natural disaster. COVID can be put down to this.

A Mushkila is something you caused. You may have consumed too much food and now you have a stomachache. That pain you're now undergoing is your own fault.

This actually reminds me of the quote I once heard in personal development circles saying there are two things you should never get upset about in life. The things you can't control (as it's pointless) and the things you CAN control (as you can do something about it).

So, in that spirit, what do we do?

For mushkila, it's easy. Self-reflect. Ask yourself difficult questions - is there anything I've done here, that could have caused this issue I'm going through? Then stop the excess or the wrongdoing and do something about it. Look deep within yourself at what you could have done wrong, do istighfar and stop doing it and take positive action. (Easier said than done, of course but the important point is that it is within your own control to overcome it.)

For museeba, it's a bit more difficult. This is a trial from God. What can you do? Well, the Islamic response is simply to be patient and persevere. To have sabr, etc.

Oh.

Nothing groundbreaking or overly empowering there, right? So, are we supposed to just take the pain and ride with it?

Why can't God make it easy for us and take the difficulty away?

But there is really quite a beautiful simplicity in such a response. It's for an important reason.

The Islamic dua to be used is for all kinds of difficulty is actually "Innalahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon" - that's supposed to be the correct response. It's not just the dua for when someone dies as it's come to be known. This is actually the dua that a difficulty has afflicted you, and for us to remember that nothing in life is permanent. Nothing really belongs to us after all, it is all temporary and transient and we just need to get on with it.

Going to the Quran, Surah al Asr encapsulates this perfectly.

"By Time! Man is indeed in loss. Except those who have believed and done righteous deeds, and advised each other to truth and to patience." [Al-Asr: 103]

What is interesting is that truth is emphasised and done so BEFORE patience.

Why? Because when you're on truth… you will need patience. You WILL be afflicted with tests, trials and hardship. Look at the stories of the Prophets, and the greats who came before us. Their lives are full of difficulty and strife. The Prophet (SAW) had challenge after challenge - pretty much from birth.

Our issues pretty much pale into insignificance in comparison.

'Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one' - Bruce Lee

As a Muslim, if you are on truth - your life should NOT be easy. Properly practising, life will undoubtedly be more difficult and so you need to be able to understand the nature of difficulty and embrace it as a core component of your own development.

Let's look at an example. When you go to the gym, you know you've had a damn good workout when you're in pain the next day. If you've had no pain, and it's easy - essentially you've gone and ritually lifted weights but it's not had any benefit for you. Life is like that. If your life is easy peasy and you're not having any difficulties as a result, then perhaps things are not quite right? Same with your Islam. Perhaps you may not be practising your Islam in the correct way?

Struggle maketh the man.

Without struggle, you're a snowflake.

On a side note, it's no coincidence we call the current generation snowflakes - but we don't ask why that may be the case. With an unprecedented level of convenience available in every aspect of our lives, throughout our childhood and beyond - there simply hasn't been enough struggle. That's why they moan at the most minor of things. They haven't even been given the opportunities to toughen themselves up, because we've diluted all difficulty. We've protected them from persistence. We've saved them from struggle.

The chickens have come home to roost.

Growth happens out of your comfort zone, etc. You know all the sayings.

A caterpillar goes through its metamorphosis in the cocoon only because it struggles and flaps and tries to release itself. That period of struggle is what develops the wings and eventually transforms it into a butterfly. Without that struggle - the wings don't form and the caterpillar doesn't develop.

Not only does struggle and striving develop and build your resilience and polish you, it also SHOULD lead to the main objective of being afflicted with trials - which is to return and to remember God - and to take the lesson from the hardship. It is supposed to strengthen you mentally and especially spiritually.

After all, as the hadith goes: 

"If Allah desires good for someone, he afflicts him with trials" [Bukhari]. 

He knows this will make you stronger and it should bring you closer to Him.

And of course, 

"Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear…" (Qur'an, 2:286). 

I know this is often the go-to 'cliche' which is rolled out when someone is struggling - but it is an absolute promise by God in the Quran. That means it is cast-iron, guaranteed, bet your house on it. It may not feel like it right now, but trust me, God knows you better than you know yourself. You have an inner strength which you can discover.

If we're practising as we should, there are things in life, in society that are extremely difficult to accept, that we have to stand for or stand against. We simply have to do what is right, stay on the path of truth - even if life is made difficult for you. Maybe your stance will mean you lose your job. But the golden rule is there is no power except with Allah. He will bring relief and barakah when the time is right. Have trust and full faith in that and it will give you ease.

“For indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.” (Qur’an, 94:6)

It has been promised. When difficulty happens, just know that ease is just around the corner. When you’re in ease, that gives you the time recharge and go again, before the next difficulty which is imminent. Our lives are a constant switching between these two states, hardship and ease. And we must respond with patience, or with gratitude.

After all, life is a marathon, not a sprint. In a marathon, sometimes you pace yourself and slow down. And sometimes you speed up when you have the energy. It’s the same between hardship and ease.

Do you have to enjoy the pain? No. Is it easy? Of course not. It may even be something that almost breaks you. But in terms of how much you need to go through it - Allah knows and you do not know.

"And it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know." [Al-Baqarah, 2:216]

We also must remember that things are probably going to get worse in the time to come. Abdullah bin Mas'ud narrated that the Messenger of Allah said: 

"Indeed Islam began as something strange and it will return to being strange as it began. So Tuba [good tidings] is for the strangers." Someone asked, "Who are the strangers?" He said, "The ones who break away from their people (literally, 'tribes') for the sake of Islam." [At-Timirdhi]

Fitnah, trials and tribulations are part of life. The stronger your deen, it is likely the stronger the trial you'll be afflicted with. Stay patient. Stay grateful that Allah has good in mind for you. If it's a museeba, there's nothing you can do but pray. And if its a mushkilla, look within at your own wrongdoing and remember life has its ups and downs - it is simply a reminder to turn back to Allah.

So, what do you get for all of these difficulties and trials? Well, the greatest gift of all. Allah has promised us the gift of mercy - which is that is that our biggest tests and trials are primarily in this temporary, transient life. These trials are time-bound and tiny - and in that context, compared with an eternal difficulty in the afterlife - our stomachache or job loss certainly appears to be more bearable, insha'allah.

A good practice is to look towards the past and what did our predecessors do when times were hard (and they were hard, often). Whenever the people of the past suffered, they would actually follow up with dhikr. That's what we can do and should do.

Abdullah bin Abbas (RA) narrates that Prophet Mohammad (SAW) stated that if a person constantly makes "Istighfar", then Allah removes every difficulty, frees him from every sorrow and makes a means for him to receive sustenance from places that he never thought of. [Mishkat from Ahmad]

I pray Allah gives us the strength to endure the museeba's and mushkilla's we're all going through and makes it a means of purity and barakah for us, ameen!

*I'd like to acknowledge Shaykh Abu Jaf'ar al-Hanbali for aiding this understanding and inspiring this article!