Question

You regard the afflictions that befall your sincere friends as signs of warnings, and as a kind of reproach for their slackness in the service of the Qur’an. Yet those who are truly hostile to you and to the service of the Qur’an remain unharmed. Why is the friend struck, while the enemy is left untouched?

The Answer

According to the mystery of:

اَلظُّلْمُ لاَيَدُومُ وَالْكُفْرُ يَدُومُOppression does not endure, whereas disbelief may endure.

the faults of friends are struck quickly because, with regard to our service, they are in a certain sense a form of wrongdoing. They receive a merciful warning and, if they possess understanding, they awaken.

As for the enemy, his opposition and resistance to the service of the Qur’an is counted on behalf of misguidance. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, his attack upon our service is counted on behalf of unbelief. Since unbelief continues, they generally do not receive a warning swiftly.

Just as those who commit minor offences receive their punishment in lower courts, while those who commit grave crimes are referred to higher courts, so too the relatively small faults of believers and sincere friends are punished quickly and partly in this world, in order to purify them.

The crimes of the people of misguidance, however, are so great that their punishment cannot fit within this brief worldly life. Therefore, in accordance with Divine justice, they are referred to the Supreme Tribunal in the eternal realm, and for the most part they are not struck with punishment here.

Thus the noble hadithA report of the sayings, actions, or approvals of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh).:

اَلدُّنْيَا سِجْنُ الْمُؤْمِنِ وَجَنَّةُ الْكَافِرِThe world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever.

also points to this truth.

That is, because the believer partly receives the punishment for his faults in this world, the world is for him a place of punishment. In comparison with his blissful Hereafter, this world is for him a prison and even a hell.

And since the unbelievers will not leave Hell, and since they receive part of the reward for their good deeds in this world while their great sins are deferred, this world, in comparison with their Hereafter, is like a paradise for them.

Otherwise, the believer, even in this world, is far happier than the unbeliever from a spiritual and true point of view. The īmānFaith; belief in the six articles of faith: Allah, His angels, His revealed scriptures, His prophets, the Hereafter, and divine decree (qadar). of the believer becomes, as it were, a spiritual paradise within his soul, while the unbelief of the unbeliever ignites a spiritual hell within his very being.

سُبْحَانَكَ لَا عِلْمَ لَنَٓا اِلَّا مَا عَلَّمْتَنَٓا اِنَّكَ اَنْتَ الْعَلٖيمُ الْحَكٖيمُGlory be to You. We have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, You are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. – The Koran 2:32