Thesametrialismercyforoneandlossforanother—thedifferenceiswhereitturnsyourheart

A rule from Ibn al-Qayyim (Tarīq al-Hijratayn):

When the affliction comes, does it drive you back to your Lord?

• It doesA purification, a mercy, and a completionThe sign of his felicity, and of good intended for him. The affliction was the very essence of blessing, even if it hurt him, even if his nature disliked it.
• It does notA burden, a punishment, a diminishmentThe sign of wretchedness, and of evil intended. It scatters his heart away from Him, drives him to created things, and makes him forget his Lord’s remembrance.

When Allah tries His servant with any kind of affliction, and the trial drives him back to his Lord, gathering his scattered heart upon Him and throwing him down at His door, that is the sign of his felicity, and of good intended for him. Hardship is short-lived; it has no permanence, however long it drags. And when it lifts, it lifts having paid him the noblest of compensations: his return to Allah after he had strayed from Him, his turning to Him after distance, his casting himself at His door after he had turned away and gone knocking at the doors of others. For this man the affliction was the very essence of blessing, even if it hurt him, even if his nature disliked it and his soul recoiled. What souls hate may carry them to what they love by a route nothing else could:

وَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تَكْرَهُوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌۭ لَّكُمْ ۖ وَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تُحِبُّوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَهُوَ شَرٌّۭ لَّكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ

Wa-ʿasā an takrahū shay'an wa-huwa khayrun lakum, wa-ʿasā an tuḥibbū shay'an wa-huwa sharrun lakum, wa-llāhu yaʿlamu wa-antum lā taʿlamūn

"…But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not." — Sūrah al-Baqarah 2:216

But if the trial does not return him to Allah: if instead it scatters his heart away from Him, drives him to created things, and makes him forget his Lord’s remembrance, the pleading and humbling before Him, the repentance and the return — that is the sign of wretchedness, and of evil intended. When the trial lifts from this man, it hands him back to the rule of his nature and the sway of his appetites, his revelry and his glee; power finds him full of insolence and ingratitude, turning from thanks in ease just as he turned from remembrance and pleading in hardship.

So his trial was a burden upon him, a punishment, a diminishment; the first man’s trial was a purification, a mercy, and a completion. And Allah is the giver of success.