Among my all-time favourite sections of the Quran is chapter 64, Surah At-Taghabun – its title meaning ‘loss/deprivation’ in English. I resort to reading that beautiful chapter whenever distress engulfs me and when I notice that I’m desperately in need of soothing guidance. By God, it has a therapeutic charm that no amount of verbalising could express and do justice to. Compassion, wisdom, direction and medicine for afflicted hearts is found in almost every verse. Besides its rhythmic flow that appeals to the lyricist side of me, I’m drawn to it on account of its combining of brevity and depth of meaning. Out of its 18 verses, the tenth speaks to me the most, which one could roughly translate to: [“No calamity befalls except by the permission of Allaah, and whosoever believes in Allaah, He guides their heart, and Allaah is All-knower of everything.”] 

مَآ أَصَابَ مِن مُّصِيبَةٍ إِلَّا بِإِذۡنِ ٱللَّهِ‌ۗ وَمَن يُؤۡمِنۢ بِٱللَّهِ يَہۡدِ قَلۡبَهُ ۥ‌ۚ وَٱللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَىۡءٍ عَلِي

In all likelihood, it may seem unsophisticated to the shallow mind who doesn’t pay much heed to stylistic features such as word choice and linguistic finesse. But once you start uncovering the hidden gems that it holds; you’ll develop a different kind of appreciation for the message behind it.

Allaah could have chosen the words “شراً” (harmful event), “ضُرٌّ” (hurtful event), “سُوء” (bad event), or even the word “كارهة” (detestful event) to allude to the mentioned calamities that befall human beings in all stages and walks of life. Yet He, blessed is His name, picked the word “مصيبة” (museebah/striking event), first and foremost to drive home a pivotal lesson. According to classical Arabic sources, this word stems from the four-letter root (أ ص أ ب أصاب يصيب) which originally referred to the act of accurately sharpshooting a target with bow and arrow. The term “correct/accurate” (صواب) of modern Arabic – often used to express certainty in the veracity of a statement – also emerged from that classical root. Thus, one can infer that divine trials are perfectly coordinated strikes that hit us exactly where they were meant to hit us, coming with a predetermined and well-defined calibration of magnitude. 

Truthfully speaking, many of us are often driven into numbing despair, a state of being wherein we think that the calamity comes with a pain that is beyond what we can bear. How many of us secretly feel that we were wronged by Allaah? Subhan Allaah. You see, the course of time never follows our whimsical imagination of what constitutes fairness in outcomes. There was this goal you so greatly wished to achieve and all your efforts were geared towards accomplishing it, yet you’ve failed just before reaching the finishing line. There was this ambitious, long-term dream you’ve had, but despite all your hard work and sacrifice, it eventually didn’t come to fruition. Or there was this girl/guy that you’ve loved for years, whose courtship required a lot of giving from your precious time, resources and energy, yet they chose to walk away at the last minute. Those scenarios are real examples of everyday life, and most of us have made acquaintance with manifestations of them. 

Sometimes, it’s also quite possible that one loses a great deal of hope and faith when such things happen, and they seem to not make any sense from a wisdom perspective. But fortunately, we’ve been endowed with the secret key to the puzzle: a heart containing unwavering faith in the divine plan, as the verse clearly indicates in the middle part. It is by the mercy of Allaah that we’re not left to our own devices, being constantly surrounded by His awareness, mercy and closeness to what we feel whilst experiencing the painful effects of blows of fate. We live, love, smile, grieve, struggle, and hurt until the stupor of death comes to us unannounced. There simply is no way around that and all we can do is to nurture open hearts that are receptive to guidance and tranquillity.