Lesson 4 of 6 · Living alongside it
What the tradition hands you to say and do
Islam does not leave a bereaved person to invent a response. There is a sentence to say, and there is a report about what it is met with.
The Qur'an gives the words themselves in 2:156, and the report below carries a supplication attached to it. Whoever is struck by a calamity and says it, asking to be rewarded in the affliction and given something better in its place, is given something better. Then the report that for the believing servant whose beloved is taken and who bears it, there is a reward with no lesser name on it than Paradise.
And two passages that are not about being told to cheer up. 93:1 to 8 was revealed to somebody in a state of abandonment, and it does not argue with the feeling, it enumerates what was given. And 94:5 to 6 says that with hardship comes ease, twice. Ease with the hardship, not instead of it and not after it. This platform takes its name from that surah, and we will say that once and not again.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Islam does not leave a bereaved person to invent a response. There is a sentence to say, and this is where the words come from.
ٱلَّذِينَ إِذَآ أَصَٰبَتۡهُم مُّصِيبَةࣱ قَالُوٓاْ إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيۡهِ رَٰجِعُونَ
those who say, when afflicted with a calamity, ‘We belong to God and to Him we shall return.’
Qur’an 2:156
The oath that opens a passage revealed to somebody in a state of abandonment, shown from its first verse because the passage does not argue with the feeling, it enumerates.
وَٱلضُّحَىٰ
By the morning brightness
Qur’an 93:1
The answer given to the pause itself, and notice that it is neither a rebuke nor an instruction to do more. It is a denial of the thing the person is afraid of.
مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَىٰ
your Lord has not forsaken you [Prophet], nor does He hate you
Qur’an 93:3
Here the passage starts enumerating what was already given, rather than arguing anybody out of what they feel.
أَلَمۡ يَجِدۡكَ يَتِيمࣰ ا فَـَٔاوَىٰ
Did He not find you an orphan and shelter you
Qur’an 93:6
The second item in that enumeration, and it is a record of what has already happened rather than a promise about what is coming.
وَوَجَدَكَ ضَآلࣰّ ا فَهَدَىٰ
Did He not find you lost and guide you
Qur’an 93:7
Three verses of enumeration, which is what it means to say this passage answers a state of abandonment without arguing with the person in it.
وَوَجَدَكَ عَآئِلࣰ ا فَأَغۡنَىٰ
Did He not find you in need and make you self-sufficient
Qur’an 93:8
With hardship comes ease, and the preposition is the thing. Ease with the hardship, not instead of it and not after it.
فَإِنَّ مَعَ ٱلۡعُسۡرِ يُسۡرًا
So truly where there is hardship there is also ease
Qur’an 94:5
With hardship comes ease, said twice over in consecutive verses. The repetition is in the text. This platform takes its name from this surah, and that is said once here and not again.
إِنَّ مَعَ ٱلۡعُسۡرِ يُسۡرࣰ ا
truly where there is hardship there is also ease
Qur’an 94:6
Whoever is struck by a calamity and says the words, asking to be rewarded in the affliction and given something better in its place, is given something better. This is the supplication attached to the sentence the Qur'an gives, so the words come with something to ask alongside them.
Umm Salama reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:If any Muslim who suffers some calamity says, what Allah has commanded him," We belong to Allah and to Him shall we return; O Allah, reward me for my affliction and give me something better than it in exchange for it," Allah will give him something better than it in exchange. When Abu Salama died she said: What Muslim is better than Abu Salama whose family was the first to emigrate to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). I then said the words, and Allah gave me God's Messenger (ﷺ) in exchange. She said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) sent Hatib b. Abu Balta'a to deliver me the message of marriage with him. I said to him: I have a daughter (as my dependant) and I am of jealous temperament. He (the Holy Prophet) said: So far as her daughter is concerned, we would supplicate Allah, that He may free her (of her responsibility) and I would also supplicate Allah to do away with (her) jealous (temperament)
Sahih Muslim 918graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
For the believing servant whose beloved is taken and who bears it, the reward named has no lesser name on it than Paradise. It is the second of the two reports here, and it is what the tradition says that response is met with.
Narrated Abu Huraira:Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Allah says, 'I have nothing to give but Paradise as a reward to my believer slave, who, if I cause his dear friend (or relative) to die, remains patient (and hopes for Allah's Reward)
Sahih al-Bukhari 6424graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.