THE THIRTY-FOURTH DISCOURSE On not resenting Allah

How strange that you should be angry with your Lord and blame Him and find fault with Him and ascribe to Him, the Mighty, the Glorious, injustice and delay in the matter of allotting sustenance and sufficiency and in the removal of calamities. Do you not know that for every course of events there is an appointed time and for every calamity there is a point of consummation? It can neither be made earlier nor deferred. The times of calamities do not change so as to give place to comfort and the times of difficulties do not change into that of affluence. Adopt the best of manners and stick to silence and patience and cheerful submission and reconcilement with your Lord, and repent for your angry attitude towards God and your accusations of Him in the matter of His action. In the presence of God there is no room for demanding one's due in full nor for retaliation without incurring a sin, contrary is the response to the urge of nature, such as is to be found in the case of mutual relationship between His servants. He, the Mighty and the Glorious, is absolutely alone from eternity, existing before everything, and He created the things and created their benefits and harms. So He knows their beginning and their end and their ultimate object and their sequel. He, the Mighty and the Glorious, is wise in the matter of His action and is firm in His fashioning of things and there is no contradiction in His acts. And He does not do anything without any meaning and does not create anything without any purpose or in a playful manner. It is not proper that any defect or blame should be ascribed to His deeds. Rather, you should wait for relief if you feel exhausted in your reconcilement with Him and in exhibiting a spirit of cheerful submission and of merging in His action, till the time of the decree of providence reaches its appointed time, and the trying conditions change into their opposite by the passage of time and the consummation of the course of events, in the same way as the winter attains its consummation and makes room for summer, and the night attains consummation and makes room for the day. Thus, if you ask for the light of day during the increasing darkness of the evening it will not be given to you; rather the darkness of the night will increase till it reaches its end and the time of dawn approaches; the day comes with its light whether you ask for and desire it, or keep silent over it and dislike it. So if you want the return of the night at that time, your prayer will not be granted because you have asked for an untimely thing. You will be left to lament and be deprived and be made disgusted and ashamed. So leave all this and stick to reconcilement and good faith with your Lord and graceful patience. What is yours will not be snatched away from you and what is not yours will not be given to you. By my faith it is so, provided that you ask from God and seek His help by prayer and entreaty, worshipping Him and obeying Him and carrying out His orders in pursuance of His commandment: Call on Me and 1 will accept your prayers (40:60). and another commandment of His: Apply to God for His favour (4:32), and of similar other verses of the Holy Qur'an and sayings of the Holy Prophet. You will pray to Him and He will accept your prayer in its appointed time and at the end of its appointed term and when He wills; and also if there is any advantage for you in this, in your worldly life and in the world hereafter or if the same accords with His dispensation and with the end of the fixed term. Do not blame Him when He delays the acceptance of your prayer and do not get exhausted in your prayer, for verily if you do not gain, you do not lose anything either. If He does not accept your prayer immediately in this world's life He will give you a deferred reward in the life to come. There is a tradition handed down from the Holy Prophet which purports to say that on the Day of Resurrection the servant of God will find in His book of deeds some good deeds which he will not recognise; then he will be told that these are in exchange for his prayers in his worldly life that were not destined to be accepted or something to the effect, as is narrated in the Tradition. The least of your spiritual state should be that you should be remembering your Lord, adhering strictly to your faith in His unity while asking anything from Him, and that you should not ask from anybody else and not carry your need to anybody except Him. So, at all times, during the night or day, in health or in illness, in adversity or in prosperity, in difficulty or in ease, you are in either of two conditions: (1) Either you refrain from asking and remain satisfied and reconciled and surrendered to His act like a dead body before one who gives it the funeral bath, or like a suckling babe in the hand of a nurse, or like a polo-ball before the polo-rider who makes it turn and revolve with his polo stick. Thus does Providence turn as it likes. If it happens to be a blessing, thanks and praise go forth from you, and an increase comes from Him, the Mighty, the Glorious, in the gift, as He has said: If you are grateful, I will give you more (14:7). But if it is an adversity, patience and reconcilement go forth from you with the help of the strength given by Him, and firmness of heart and help and blessing and mercy from Him. He, the Mighty, the Glorious, says: Surely God is with the patient (2:153). That is to say, He is with the patient with His favours such as help and strength, and as He also says: If you help Allah He will help you and make firm your feet (47:7). When you have helped (the cause of) God, by opposing your low desires and by giving up finding fault with Him and refraining from being displeased with His action with regard to yourself and you become an enemy to your ownself for the sake of God, ready to strike it with the sword whenever it moves with its unbelief and polytheism, and you cut off its head with your patience and reconcilement to your Lord, as also with your satisfaction with His act and promise and pleasure with both of them, when you do so, God will be your Helper. And as for blessing and mercy, there is His word: And give good news to the patient, who when a misfortune befalls them say: Surely we are Allah's and to Him we shall return. Those are they on whom are blessings and mercy from their Lord, and those are the followers of the right course (2:157). (2) The alternative condition is that you supplicate before God with prayer, and humble entreaties, regarding Him as great, and being obedient to His orders. Yes, do call on God, and it is keeping a thing in its proper place, because He, Himself, urges you to ask of Him and not to be angry with Him, in the event of the acceptance of your prayer being deferred to its appointed time. So, take note of the difference between the two conditions and do not go beyond the bounds of both, because there is no other condition besides these. Beware lest you should be among the unjust ones, who transgress the limits. In that case He will destroy you and He will not care, as He destroyed those people who have gone before in this world by intensifying His calamities, and in the next life by a painful chastisement. Glory be to God, the Great! 0 Knower of my condition! On You is my reliance.