- Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say, “Allah, Exalted is He, said: ‘When I try My servant by taking his two beloved ones and he remains patient, I will give him Paradise in exchange for them.’ (9) — He meant his eyes.” Reported by al-Bukhari.
In this hadith the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) relates that his Lord, Blessed and Exalted, said: “When I test My servant with his two beloved ones”—that is, his eyes—so that he loses his sight, and he then shows patience, Allah will replace them for him with Paradise. The eye is dearly loved by a person, yet if Allah, glorified be He, takes it and the person bears the loss seeking His reward, Allah grants him Paradise in return. Paradise outweighs the whole of this world; indeed, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “The space occupied by your whip in Paradise is better than the world and everything in it.” In other words, a single meter of ground in Paradise is better than the entire world and all it contains, because what is in the Hereafter endures forever and never perishes, whereas the whole world is destined to vanish. For that reason, even this small portion of Paradise surpasses the world and all that is in it.
Know as well that when Allah, Glorified and Exalted, takes away one of a person’s senses, He usually compensates him through the remaining senses, easing the pain of what has been lost. Thus the blind person is often granted heightened perception and awareness: you may see a blind man walking through the market as though sighted, sensing the bends of its alleys, the slopes and rises—so much so that some of them even make arrangements