Breeze of Magic | Episode (5) | The art of happy conversion

0:02 The dawn breeze.

0:08 The art of happy transformation.

0:14 When a sensible, resilient person is struck by a calamity,

0:18 or is overcome by sadness, grief, or anxiety,

0:22 they do not lose the ability to think of a way out of their pain,

0:26 or a valid reason to alleviate what has befallen them.

0:31 As for the ignorant and weak person,

0:33 if one of the aforementioned afflictions befalls them,

0:37 they close off the channels of their mind,

0:40 shroud the horizons of their thoughts,

0:43 and collapse into their own pain, suffering and lamenting.

0:47 The world darkens before their eyes,

0:51 and they see no path to salvation or relief.

0:55 Hence, for the ignorant and weak, the pain is doubled,

1:01 and one calamity becomes two.

1:05 I say to you,

1:07 O you who are suffering from some affliction:

1:11 Exert your effort in patience,

1:14 to transform that grief into joy,

1:17 and that adversity into goodness.

1:20 Compel yourself through patience to change the course of the calamity

1:26 into a benefit for your own soul.

1:30 It has been said:

1:32 "Make sweet lemonade out of sour lemons."

1:36 The art of happy transformation

1:39 can be found in the Qur'an in several places.

1:42 Allah the Almighty says:

1:44 “O ye who believe! It is not lawful for you forcibly to inherit the women (of your deceased kinsmen), nor (that) ye should put constraint upon them that ye may take away a part of that which ye have given them, unless they be guilty of flagrant lewdness. But consort with them in kindness, for if ye hate them it may happen that ye hate a thing wherein Allah hath placed much good.” (4:19)

1:51 And He says:

1:53 “Think not of those, who are slain in the way of Allah, as dead. Nay, they are living. With their Lord they have provision.” (3:169)

1:58 “Think not of those, who are slain in the way of Allah, as dead. Nay, they are living. With their Lord they have provision.” (3:169)

2:02 Observe how Allah has given you in the first verse

2:06 a general rule for transforming hardships into blessings.

2:11 It is as if He is saying to you:

2:14 "If a hardship befalls you,

2:16 transform your bleak outlook toward it

2:19 into an optimistic one,

2:22 sensing that there is goodness for you within the womb of this evil."

2:27 And in the second verse,

2:30 observe how He made life out of death.

2:34 And what a life it is!

2:36 It is a happy life, free of distress, in the presence of Allah the Almighty.

2:42 It is as if He is saying:

2:44 "Erase from your mind the previous image of death;

2:48 for this death in the path of Allah is another life in the guise of death."

2:54 In the Musnad of Ahmad, with a sound chain of narration,

2:57 on the authority of Mu'awiyah ibn Qurrah from his father:

3:00 A man used to come to the Prophet, peace be upon him,

3:06 accompanied by his son.

3:07 The Prophet, peace be upon him, said to him,

3:11 "Do you love him?"

3:13 He replied, "O Messenger of Allah,

3:15 may Allah love you as I love him."

3:18 Then the Prophet, peace be upon him, missed the boy,

3:22 and asked,

3:24 "What happened to the son of so-and-so?"

3:26 They said, "O Messenger of Allah, he has died."

3:30 The Prophet, peace be upon him, said to his father,

3:34 "Would you not love that you do not come to any of the gates of Paradise

3:39 except that you find him waiting for you?"

3:42 A man asked, "O Messenger of Allah,

3:46 is this for him specifically, or for all of us?"

3:49 He said, "Rather, for all of you."

3:53 And in Sahih al-Bukhari,

3:55 on the authority of Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, who said:

3:58 Harithah was struck down on the day of Badr while he was a youth.

4:02 His mother came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and said,

4:08 "O Messenger of Allah,

4:10 you know the place Harithah holds in my heart.

4:13 If he is in Paradise, I shall be patient and seek reward,

4:17 but if it is otherwise, you shall see what I do."

4:21 He said,

4:23 "Woe to you! Have you lost your mind?

4:26 Is it only one Paradise?

4:29 It is many gardens,

4:32 and he is in the Paradise of Firdaws."

4:35 Observe in the first hadith

4:39 how the Prophet, peace be upon him, transformed the father's tragedy

4:44 of losing the son he loved so dearly

4:48 into a happy piece of news awaiting him.

4:51 And how he transformed the grief of the mother bereaved of her son

4:55 into a great happiness that exceeded what she had hoped for that son.

5:01 Human reality is full of examples

5:05 that tell of the resolve of noble souls to transform a trial into a gift.

5:11 And that gift would never have existed

5:15 were it not for the trial that gave birth to it.

5:19 We shall take two examples:

5:21 one from the ancient era,

5:24 and one from the modern era.

5:27 In ancient times,

5:29 the Hanafi Imam al-Sarakhsi was imprisoned,

5:32 who passed away in the year 483 AH.

5:37 He authored his great book, *al-Mabsut*, while in prison.

5:42 He recorded the circumstances of his writing it while imprisoned

5:46 in several places in the book.

5:49 In the section on the completion of acts of worship, he said, may Allah have mercy on him:

5:53 "This is the end of the explanation of acts of worship,

5:56 with the clearest meanings and the most concise expressions,

5:59 dictated by one imprisoned, away from Friday and congregational prayers,

6:04 invoking blessings upon the Master of Masters,

6:07 Muhammad, sent with the messages."

6:11 And at the end of the book of Divorce, he said:

6:14 "This is the end of the explanation of the book of Divorce,

6:17 with poignant and subtle meanings,

6:21 dictated by one confined, away from freedom,

6:24 afflicted with the loneliness of separation."

6:27 And at the end of the book of Emancipation,

6:30 he said:

6:32 "The explanation of the book of Emancipation is finished,

6:35 from the issues of disagreement and consensus,

6:38 dictated by one looking forward to being freed from his trials,

6:42 confined in a corner of the horizons,

6:45 praising the Protector, the Provider,

6:48 and longing with yearning for the meeting with the Almighty."

6:53 And following the book of *al-Mukatab*, he said:

6:56 "The explanation of the book of *al-Mukatab* is finished,

6:59 by the dictation of the confined and reproached,

7:02 the imprisoned and punished,

7:05 who for two years has been steadfast in patience,

7:08 watching for salvation through the subtle handiwork of Allah."

7:14 And when he finished the book of *al-Wala'*,

7:17 he said:

7:19 "The explanation of the book of *al-Wala'* is finished,

7:22 by way of dictation,

7:24 from one tested with various afflictions,

7:27 asking Allah the Almighty to replace the affliction,

7:30 and the exile with honor and loftiness,

7:33 for that is easy for Him,

7:36 and He is capable of whatever He wills."

7:39 As for the example from the modern era,

7:42 it is Shaykh al-Albani,

7:44 who passed away in the year 1420 AH.

7:48 He was imprisoned for several months,

7:51 and he produced the *Mukhtasar Sahih Muslim*.

7:54 He says, may Allah have mercy on him:

7:57 "Allah decreed that I should have nothing with me there,"

8:00 meaning in prison,

8:03 "except my favorite book,

8:06 *Sahih* of Imam Muslim,

8:08 a pencil, and an eraser.

8:12 So I devoted myself to fulfilling my wish

8:15 of summarizing and refining it,

8:18 and I finished that in about three months,

8:21 working on it night and day,

8:24 without weariness or boredom."

8:27 Thus, what the enemies of the Ummah intended

8:30 as a revenge against us turned into a blessing for us,

8:33 under whose shade students of knowledge

8:36 from the Muslims everywhere take shelter.

8:39 So praise be to Allah, by whose grace

8:42 righteous deeds are completed.

8:45 So, O person, transform

8:48 the torrent of hardships flowing toward you

8:51 into small streams

8:54 that extend to the oasis of your life,

8:57 until they water your beautiful aspirations,

9:00 causing a lush garden to grow,

9:03 whose splendor delights your eyes.

9:06 And say: "If I am afflicted,

9:09 I will not falter before my trial,

9:12 nor become broken, a prisoner of my calamity.

9:15 I shall remain, in the heat of the trial, a creator,

9:18 turning the burning ember of fire into light."

Breeze of Magic | Episode (5) | The art of happy conversion

Transcript