Why is there suffering??

كم من محنة في طياتها منحة — How Many a Trial Hides a Gift

How many a calamity, how often a trial, a difficulty — behind it is hidden some kind of a gift from Allah. How many times? Behind every child that passes in Palestine, behind every mother who wails over her dead son, brother, husband in Palestine, behind every destroyed building, there is a hidden gift from Allah. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

The Lesson of Musa and Khidr

We don't know the answer, so we are like Musa عليه السلام getting impatient. Why is this happening? I want this to stop. So much evil, so much destruction.

And Khidr is telling us: relax, you don't know the whole story. The evil bit you see — that's us. Allah, behind this, He has some good wisdom.

Attribute the Good to Allah

The good — always attribute it to Allah. The evil — you take responsibility for it. Allah doesn't will evil.

He is not pleased with disbelief and evil for His servants. Because behind everything that looks bad to you, there is some gift from Allah. That is the lesson of this story.

Flipping Our Perspective

Whenever we have something good, we take credit. "Alhamdulillah, I got a job today. Alhamdulillah, I got the offer letter. Alhamdulillah, I passed my driving test." Something bad happens? "Oh, Qadarullah — that was our Naseeb, our Qismat. That happened, Allah decreed it." So all the bad things are from Allah, and all the good things are from ourselves.

Allah says: flip it in perspective. When something good happens, attribute it to Allah. And when something bad happens — no, Allah did not will that because He enjoys evil. Behind it is something good.

Take the evil on your shoulders. Take the bad things on your shoulders. And say: there is a good behind this that only Allah knows.