“Say, ‘Who is the Lord of the seven heavens and the Lord of the Mighty Throne?’”

“They will say, ‘To Allah.’ Say, ‘Will you not then fear Him?’”

“Say, ‘In whose hand is the dominion of all things, who grants protection while none can protect against Him, if you know?’”

“They will say, ‘To Allah.’ Say, ‘How then are you deluded?’”

And the Most High said:

“If you ask them who created the heavens and the earth and subjected the sun and the moon, they will surely say, ‘Allah.’ How then are they turned away?”

This is mentioned in several places in the Quran. Among the manifestations of Allah’s perfect favor toward His believing servants is that He afflicts them with hardship, suffering, and circumstances that compel them to worship Him alone. They then call upon Him with sincere devotion, place their hope in Him alone, and attach their hearts to Him rather than anyone else. Through this, they attain such reliance upon Him, such turning to Him, such sweetness of faith and experience of its savor, and such freedom from associating partners with Him, that these are a greater blessing for them than relief from illness, fear, or drought, or the attainment of ease and relief from hardship in their livelihood. Those are bodily pleasures and worldly blessings, of which a disbeliever may receive more than a believer.

But what is attained by those who worship Allah alone with sincere devotion is too great for words to express its true nature or for the mind to encompass its details. Every believer has a share of this in proportion to his faith. Thus, one of the early Muslims said:

“O son of Adam, you have indeed been blessed through a need that has led you to knock often at your Master’s door.”

One of the spiritual teachers said:

“At times I have a need that I ask Allah to fulfill. As I call upon Him, He opens to me such delight in knowing Him and such sweetness in speaking intimately to Him that I do not wish Him to hasten the fulfillment of my need, for fear that my soul might turn away