The second: the servant’s ultimate destination and return is to his Lord and Master. Whoever truly grasps this neither exults over what he gains nor grieves over what he loses. And when a believer knows with certainty that whatever has struck him could never have missed him, and whatever has missed him could never have struck him, the calamity becomes easy to bear.
Ibn al-Qayyim said: “Part of his ﷺ practice was composure, contentment with the divine decree, praising Allah, and uttering the words of istirjāʿ.”
Shaykh al-Islām said: “The scholars hold two views regarding satisfaction (riḍā) with the decree—whether it is obligatory or merely recommended. The sounder opinion is that it is recommended.”
11 – It is stated in Mukhtaṣar Kifāyat al-Akh̲yār, a Shāfiʿī manual:
– When a person comes to realize that ‘to Allah belongs what He gives and to Him belongs what He takes,’ no misfortune burdens him, for the property is Allah’s and He disposes of it as He wills.
– If he falls short of that and his natural impulse prevails, the religious impulse will still drive him to patience and seeking reward.
– If he fails even in that, the calamity will multiply against him. Such distress arises only from a heart void of Allah; whereas a heart filled with Him sees wealth and children as a trial that cuts one off from the Lord and distances one from the ultimate goal.
13 – The scholars have differed over the permissibility of setting aside adornment, fine clothes, and similar comforts for three days by a bereaved person other than a widow. Many jurists—including the Ḥanbalīs—allow it, citing the report of Umm ʿAṭiyya in al-Bukhārī 303 and Muslim 938: “No woman is to observe mourning over a deceased person for more than three days, except over her husband—for four months and ten days.”
Shaykh al-Islām rejected this, stating that the early generations did none of it: they would not alter their appearance after a calamity, nor would they abandon the practices they maintained beforehand, for such conduct contradicts true patience.