• For this reason, one of the loftiest virtues granted to the followers of the messengers is that they emulate the messengers in this very trait. In return, Allah—by His grace—bestows upon them elevations in this world and the next that far surpass anything for which the people of the world compete.

• Another lesson: to impugn the believers’ intentions, to belittle the favors Allah has granted them, or to presume that Allah will withhold His bounty from them—all this is an heirloom of the enemies of the messengers. Because of such presumption, Noah said to his people when they swore that Allah would not honor the believers and used that claim to denigrate them: “I do not say of those whom your eyes disdain that Allah will grant them no good; Allah knows best what is in their hearts” (Hud 31).

• A further teaching is that one should seek help from Allah, mention His name when mounting or dismounting and in every change of state and movement, and lavish praise and remembrance upon Him for every blessing—especially when rescued from hardship and distress. Allah the Exalted says, “Board it; in the name of Allah be its course and its anchorage” (Hud 41), and He says, “So when you and those with you have settled upon the ark, say, ‘All praise belongs to Allah, who has saved us from the wrongdoing people’” (al-Muʾminun 28).

Likewise, one ought to supplicate for blessing when arriving at temporary lodgings—such as stops made during travel—and at permanent dwellings such as houses and residences, for He says, “And say, ‘My Lord, cause me to disembark at a blessed landing place, for You are the best of hosts’” (al-Muʾminun 29).

In all of this—keeping Allah’s remembrance ever present, gaining strength for movement and stillness alike, reinforcing trust in Allah, and ushering in His blessing, the finest companion a servant can have in every circumstance—lies something no servant can dispense with for even the blink of an eye.