The Eighteenth Remedy

O sick person who complains instead of giving thanks! Complaint arises only when a right has been violated. No right of yours has been taken away, so you have no right to complain. Rather, there are many duties of gratitude upon you that you have not fulfilled. While you have not fulfilled the right of Allah upon you, you complain unjustly, as though you had a right to do so.

You have no right to complain by comparing yourself with those who have better health than you. Rather, you should give thanks by looking at the helpless sick who are less favoured than you in terms of health. If your hand is broken, look at those who have lost their hands. If one of your eyes is blind, look at those who have lost both eyes, and thank Allah.

Indeed, no one has the right to complain by comparing himself with those who have been granted greater blessings than himself. In times of hardship, everyone’s duty is to look at those who suffer more than he does, so that he may be grateful. This truth has been clarified in some treatises through the following example:

A ruler has a poor man climb a minaret. On each step of the minaret, he gives him a gift. When the man reaches the top of the minaret, the ruler gives him the finest gift of all. Although the ruler expects gratitude from that poor man in return for all those gifts, the greedy man forgets or neglects all that he has received. He shows no gratitude, looks upward, and begins to complain: “If only this minaret were higher, so that I could climb further. Why is this minaret not as high as that mountain, or that other minaret?” You can understand how ungrateful and unjust this man is.

Indeed, man has been brought from non-existence into existence. He was not created as a stone, a tree, or an animal, but as a human being. He has been honoured with Islam, has enjoyed well-being for much of his life, and has received many precious blessings.

If, because of certain reasons—such as being unworthy of such blessings, or misusing his will and what he has been given—he loses or cannot attain blessings such as health and well-being, and then complains, shows impatience, and criticises divine RubūbiyyaAllah’s lordship over all creation and His provision for all their needs. by saying, “What have I done to deserve this?”, he suffers from a spiritual illness far more serious than his physical illness. He worsens his illness through complaint, like someone fighting with a broken hand. Wise is the one who, according to the teaching of the verse

اَلَّذٖينَ اِذَٓا اَصَابَتْهُمْ مُصٖيبَةٌ قَالُٓوا اِنَّا لِلّٰهِ وَاِنَّٓا اِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ..... those who, when calamity strikes them, say, ‘Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed, to Him we shall return.’ – The Quran 2:155-156

submits to the decrees of Allah and shows patience, until that illness completes its task and departs.

The Nineteenth Remedy

As indicated in the Qur’an by the term Asmā al-HusnāThe Beautiful Names of Allah., all the Names of Jamīl-i Dhul-JalālAllah, whose beauty is infinite and whose majesty and exaltedness are boundless. are beautiful. Among created beings, life is the most subtle, the most beautiful, and the most comprehensive mirror of SamadiyyaAllah’s attribute of absolute self-sufficiency, upon whom all creation depends.. The reflection of what is beautiful is also beautiful. A mirror that displays the beauties of the Beautiful One itself acquires beauty. Just as whatever befalls that mirror from that beauty is beautiful, so too whatever befalls life is, in reality, beautiful. For it displays the beautiful manifestations of the Asmā al-HusnāThe Beautiful Names of Allah..