Maryam Hamza Sometimes you have the best of intentions.
So, when things go drastically wrong, it feels like a double blow.
If a creamy pasta dish infused with nai miris (the Sri Lankan term for the very spicy and flavorsome bird chili) sounds good to you, it certainly got my mouth watering, and I just had to make it for dinner!
As I prepped all my ingredients, I made sure to renew my intention to make sure it was for the sake of Allah’s Pleasure - that this simple act of cooking a meal that my family would enjoy would be an act of worship with immeasurable rewards.
Our Prophet ﷺ taught us,
“Verily, deeds are only with intentions and every person will have only what they intended. Whoever emigrated to Allah and His Messenger, his emigration is for Allah and His Messenger. Whoever emigrated to get something in the world or to marry a woman, his emigration is for that to which he emigrated.”
[Sahih Al Bukhari 54]
Little did I know that this fun cooking experiment was about to turn into a lesson on pain. Just a few minutes after I started to chop up the tiny red and green nai miris, my hands had caught on fire - or so it felt.
That night I learned of my dramatic allergy to this super-hot chili variety.
But while my heart sank for a moment or two, and I had to spend around four hours with my hands immersed in cold water to stave off the excruciating pain, I don’t regret all that Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى taught me through this experience.
Let’s dive in.
Allah Knows- so know Him
When we get to know Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى through His beautiful Names and Attributes and put our trust in Him based on these, what we think of our all-too-human selves doesn’t matter. All that matters is who He is.
Let’s touch upon just a handful of Allah’s Perfect Names.
Allah is Al-Aleem, The All-Knowing; your pain and turmoil may be invisible to those around you, but know that Allah knows every throb of your heart and the reasons behind it.
For the excruciating intensity of the pain that I felt, I honestly expected my hands to turn a flamethrower red! But they were tinged a faint pink, barely even visible, though my skin stung like a thousand hornets and pierced through, SubhanAllah.
What I was experiencing and struggling with wasn’t visible, it was beyond the comprehension of those around me. But Allah knew exactly what I was going through, just as he knows the great and minuscule details and depths of your life.
Our Lord is also Al Hakeem, the Most Wise.
We will cover what this beautiful Name signifies a little further on, but it’s One of immeasurable comfort. What I’m going through- it’s not some cosmic accident, some random event without meaning.
Why?
Because Allah allows things to happen, he sends us blessings and tests, with Infinite Wisdom behind them.
It’s not pain without a purpose.
Al Lateef is The Subtle, The Kind; not only does every single event and experience in our life have meaning behind it, whether we perceive it or not, Allah also plans towards our good.
He plans for us, not against us. Whatever we go through has khair, and oftentimes, when we look back at our past struggles, we realize how much good they have brought and how much harm they have averted. As the saying goes, we see the pixel, but Allah sees the big picture.
An Naseer is The Giver of Support. The fact is, not only does Allah know your struggles, but He also created you as a human being who is going to have these struggles.
Now, we’ve already established that Allah gives us trials (and blessings) out of his Knowledge, Wisdom, and Subtle Kindness, so how can we possibly assume that we have to face them all alone?
Unlike the tests of this Dunya, we aren’t just given one-off knowledge, brief guidelines, and then left to face everything by ourselves.
In the ultimate test of fulfilling the purpose we were created for, we are allowed to raise our hands (literally) and ask for help – from Allah in the form of du’a.
Beg from the Lord who is too shy to return us empty-handed [ Al-Tirmidhi 3556].
“O you who believe, seek help through patience and prayer. Surely, Allah is with those who are patient.”
[Al-Baqarah: 153]
This verse indicates that there will be moments in life where we feel vulnerable and helpless. But in the very same verse, SubhanAllah, Ar-Rahman tells us how we can be guaranteed of His Help.
It is through adopting Sabr; patience and resilience. And the most intimate act of worship- salah.
Yet Sabr, too, is an act of worship. It’s not passively sitting around and waiting for the storm to pass.
And what gives us the strength to seek a way out with hope in our hearts?
It’s having good expectations of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى.
Holding on to the promise of all His Perfect Names and Attributes.
Having complete conviction in what He has revealed to comfort and strengthen us in His book and through the character-enriching life story of His incredible Messenger to Mankind.
One hardship; many eases
Allah promises us,
“For indeed, with hardship [will be] ease [i.e., relief].
Indeed, with hardship [will be] ease.”
[Ash-Sharh: 5-6]
First, all my senses could register was pain. My heart felt sore and heavy.
Ya Allah, I was trying to do a good deed for Your sake but-
Then I caught myself, remembering that a true believer never questions the Decree of her Lord, the Most Merciful, The Most Wise.
When we complain, we complain to Allah, never about Him – may Allah protect us!
After this initial twinge of darkness in my heart, that, by Allah’s Help Alone, I chose to shine a light on, everything started to shift in my favour.
SubhanAllah, Allah opened my eyes to all the eases that surrounded me comfortingly during this severe time.
Never will I take for granted the coolness of water that soothed my raging hands. Never will I cease to be thankful that the very air no longer hurts my tender skin.
Bi’idh Nillah.
My family showed me the utmost care and consideration, even though their dinner plans were delayed and I could not keep my commitment to them. Alhamdulillah.
I was incapable of doing anything with my hands in a water bath for a couple of hours. So I made dhikr and du’a. I asked Allah to make me stronger and better and to expiate my sins as a result of this pain.
I reflected on the advice I have heard from the amazing Ustadhs and Ustadhas, reminding me of the examples of beautiful patience in the Qur’an and Sunnah.
There was also this comfort; Allah made sure that I renewed my intention before starting the dish so that it was to make my family happy for His sake.
I wasn’t looking to be complimented or regaled as a MasterChef-worthy cook, or to gain favours through the effective bribe of delicious food! I genuinely felt the need to do something to prove my love for Allah by bringing smiles to others.
And so, I trust that Allah will give me all that is beautiful in my intention, even though the action was not an apparent success.
Every experience has a purpose
As believers, we know that the pain we face in this life is not an accident, it is profound with purpose.
SubhanAllah, imagine the plight of those who don’t believe in Allah and experience the agonies of this Dunya, believing it is a series of terribly random events that have befallen them. How can they carry on with such a hopeless belief?
A believer not only accepts their hardships with good grace, as a Sign of Allah’s Wisdom, and hopes for the good that will definitely come out of it, they are also ready to actively transform.
We need to ask ourselves, how am I going to use this experience to grow and get closer to Allah?
For instance, I decided to write my reflections on the Nai Miris Disaster and, Bi’idh Nillah, give beautiful souls a dose of strength when going through an inevitable struggle.
We know that one of the miraculous qualities of the Qur’an is embedded in its linguistics.
The term that Allah uses for extreme difficulty (Al Ankaboot: 1-3) about those who say “We believe” is Fitnah, and one of the linguistic connotations of this word [see references] conveys the purification of gold.
This is so beautiful because just like gold is subjected to extreme temperatures to allow the metal’s impurities to rise to the surface and froth away, our trials are a way of removing the diseases of our hearts, whether they be arrogance, greed, selfishness, jealousy, etc.
And this also tells us that despite having been stained with such impurities, we are still valuable and worthy like lustrous gold.
Our trials do not dim our worth.
If responded to in the right way, our pain makes us more precious. SubhanAllah.
May Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى ease all of our affairs and enable us to worship Him with ihsan in every state we find ourselves in. And I pray that the dark clouds part in no time, and you experience the answer to all your prayers and more, in this world and most especially in the Hereafter.
Allahumma Aameen.
References:
Fitnah Purifies Iman by Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan-
