Page 56 - The Secret Behind Our Trials

THE SECRET BEHIND OUR TRIALS
[and respect] of Allah, so that, hopefully, you will be thank-
ful. And when you asked the believers: "Is it not enough for
you that your Lord reinforced you with three thousand an-
gels, sent down?" Yes indeed! But if you are steadfast and
guard against evil and they come upon you suddenly, your
Lord will reinforce you with five thousand angels, clearly
identified. Allah only did this for it to be good news for you,
and so that your hearts might be set at rest by it. [In any
case,] there is no help except from Allah, the Almighty, the
All-Wise, so that He might cut off a group of those who do
not believe or crush them, and they might be turned back in
defeat. (Surah Al `Imran, 123-27)
In addition to this support by angels, Allah also defends believ-
ers by an invisible army and bestows upon them a sense of security
and well-being. For example, the Qur'an describes the support Allah
provided to our Prophet (saas) during a difficult period of his mis-
sion:
If you do not help him, Allah helped him when the unbe-
lievers drove him out and there were two of them in the
Cave. He said to his companion: "Do not be despondent,
Allah is with us." Then Allah sent down His serenity upon
him and reinforced him with troops that you could not see.
He made the word of the unbelievers undermost. The word
of Allah is uppermost. Allah is Almighty, All-Wise. (Surat
at-Tawba, 40)
As we see in the above verse, an intense sense of relief follows
each period of difficulty. Actually, the fact that Muslims act as a unit,
their knowledge that every event contains a test and their awareness
of the need to prepare themselves for the eternal life give them a

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