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Reaction to apparently
negative happenings
Various difficulties can happen for a person throughout the
day. But no matter what difficulties he may encounter, a believer
puts himself in Allah's hands and thinks: "Allah tests us in every-
thing we do and think in this earthly life. This is a very important
fact that we must never lose sight of. So, when we encounter dif-
ficulty in anything we do, or think that things are not going well,
we must never forget that our Lord has put this difficulty in our
path in order to test our reaction."
In the Qur'an, Allah says that every difficulty a person meets
comes from Him:
Say: "Nothing can happen to us except what Allah has or-
dained for us. He is Our Master. It is in Allah that the be-
lievers should put their trust." (Surat at-Tawba: 51)
Everything we encounter in our experience is decreed by
Allah and is beneficial for the believer in this world and the world
to come; this is clear to everyone who observes with faith (For de-
tails, see Harun Yahya;
Seeing Good in All,
Islamic Book Service,
2003
)
. For example, there is much benefit when a believer loses
some possessions he loved. Outwardly, this appears to be a mis-
fortune but it can be the means whereby a believer may see his
mistakes, increase his awareness and realise that he must take
much more precaution in some areas. Another beneficial side of
this kind of misfortune is that it reminds a person that he does not
own anything; that the owner of all things is Allah.
This is valid for every thing, great and small, that happens in
the course of daily life. For example, as a result of a misunder-
standing or someone's neglect, a payment may be wrongly made;
a job on which someone has been struggling with a computer for
24 Hours in the Life of a Muslim
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