A believer may face many trials and tribulations testing his faith, patience and endurance. In a world full of conflicts, wars, disasters and personal and family problems, Shaytan can cause a person to question a great deal.
This work by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah addresses the wisdom and the benefits behind trials, with an appendix drawn from the work of al-Imam al-'Izz bin Abdul-Salam.
The Question It Actually Answers
Not why does suffering exist in the abstract, which is a philosopher's question — but why is this happening to me, which is what a person in difficulty is really asking.
Ibn Al-Qayyim's answer is that trials are not an interruption of Allah's care but an expression of it, and that they perform work nothing else performs: exposing what is in a heart, removing sins, raising a person's station, and breaking an attachment to this world that comfort never breaks.
Why the Framing Changes the Experience
Because the same event is endured differently depending on what a person believes it is.
Read as random misfortune, hardship produces bitterness. Read as something measured, purposeful and temporary, it produces patience — and the difference is not in the circumstances but in the understanding brought to them.
A Word on When to Read It
Ideally before it is needed. A person in the middle of a crisis has limited capacity for a book; a person who read this last year has something to draw on.
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