When in Pain and Distress, Remember Allah

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Allah Almighty has Himself commanded the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) to tell the disbelievers of Makkah that it is Allah alone who would deliver them from every other distress or anxiety they may face in their lives. But, the problem was that, despite having seen open signs and having found comfort after distress, they would go back to Shirk (associating others with Allah) and start indulging in the worship of false gods. Strange betrayal and fatal ignorance indeed!

قُلْ مَن يُنَجِّيكُم مِّن ظُلُمَـٰتِ ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ تَدْعُونَهُۥ تَضَرُّعًا وَخُفْيَةً لَّئِنْ أَنجَىٰنَا مِنْ هَـٰذِهِۦ لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلشَّـٰكِرِينَ ﴿٦٣﴾ قُلِ ٱللَّهُ يُنَجِّيكُم مِّنْهَا وَمِن كُلِّ كَرْبٍ ثُمَّ أَنتُمْ تُشْرِكُونَ ﴿٦٤

Say, "Who rescues you from the darkness of the land and sea [when] you call upon Him imploring [aloud] and privately, 'If He should save us from this [crisis], we will surely be among the thankful.' " (63) Say, "It is Allah who saves you from it and from every distress; then you [still] associate others with Him." (64)

[Qur'an, Al-An'am 6:63-64]

Not only Allah Almighty tells us about His perfect power which delivers human beings from their hour of distress, He also emphasizes that the removal of all sorts of hardships, troubles and anxieties is also in the hands of Allah alone, as evident from the behavior of diehard disbelievers who are ultimately compelled to turn to Allah when there is nothing left to turn to.

This behavior of the disbelievers, despite its being a major crime in view of their betrayal, has a certain lesson for us. That they do turn to Allah in the hour of their distress, as their confession of reality under duress, has for us Muslims a lesson to learn with the rasp of a lash - here we are still not prompt enough to remember Allah in moments of trials despite having faith in the absolute power of Allah Almighty.

What happens is that all our attention is riveted only to material support which we hope would get us out of trouble. No doubt, we do not take idols, icons and images as our saviors, but the tragic fact is that the many material support systems, logistics, mechanized rescuing squads on land, sea and in the air, and the backup of spot and distant instrumentalities, have become no less than idols for us. So impressed with them and so engrossed in them, we somehow do not seem to think of Allah and His most perfect power.

Take sickness as an example. When we get sick, we think of nothing but our doctors and physicians. Take the example of a storm or flood. Once in it, we look forward to being rescued with material help and material means. We think on them depends our destiny, and in doing so, we just do not seem to remember the very Master of the universe in Whose control lies our destiny. We tend to do this, despite that the Qur'an has, time and again, stated it very clearly that hardships and accidents of the world are generally the outcome of the evil deeds of human beings themselves, and a mild sampling of the punishment of the Hereafter.

We should take a lesson from this reference to disbelievers that they too remembered Allah when in distress. It is the duty of a believer that he should, in order to remove his pain, anxiety and distress, first rely on and turn to Allah, not simply rely on and turn to the material solutions for his trying situation.

May Allah remove all our pain and distress, and make us His thankful slaves. Ameen.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.

And Allah knows best and He alone grants success.

Wassalaam