Privilege and Adversity

I was sitting before Abu `Abd Allah al-Sadiq (AS) and a questioner asked him, “May I be your ransom, O son of the Messenger of Allah (SA)! How does adversity reach the sinners so that He punished them for their actions out of His Knowledge? Abu `Abd Allah (AS) replied, O questioner, Allah, the Mighty and High, knows that no one from His Creation can truly rise. When He knows this, He bestowed His lovers the strength for His recognition and took away from them the weightiness of the action with the reality of what they deserve. He gave the disobedient the strength through which they disobey. Due to His prior Knowledge, He did not prohibit them from accepting Him because His Knowledge is better about the reality of confirmation. They act in accord with His Prior Knowledge, despite the fact they ar able to desist from His disobedience. This is the meaning of `He wills what He wills’, and it is a secret.

O our Lord! Our adversity overcame us. He (AS) said: “They faced adversity as a result of their actions.”

I asked Abu al-Hasan Musa ibn Ja`far (AS) about the meaning of the Word of the Messenger of Allah (SA): “The adverse is one who had been adverse in the womb of his mother, and the privileged in one who had been privileged in womb of his mother.” So he (AS) replied, The adverse person is he who Allah knows from the womb of his mother that he will perform the deeds of the adverse. And the privileged person is the one who Allah knows from the womb of his mother that he will perform the deeds of the privileged. I asked him, ,”Then what is the meaning of his (SA) Word: `All of you act! Everything has been made easy when created.’” He replied, Verily, Allah, the Mighty and High, created the jinn and the human beings to serve Him and not to disobey Him. Hence, the Word of the Mighty and High: And I have not created the jinn and the men except that they should serve Me. Therefore, He made everything easy when He created it. Woe to him who preferred blindness over guidance.

The privileged will enter the path of the adverse until the people say: `He is so similar to them that he must be one of them.’ Then the privilege reaches him. And sometimes the adverse enters the path of the privileged until the people says: `He is so similar to them that he must be one of them.’ Then adversity reaches him. Verily, whoever Allah, the Exalted, knows to be privileged, He will bring his life to an end with privilege, even if the only time that remains tin the world is the hiccup of a she-camel.

Abu `Abd Allah al-Sadiq (AS) said: Verily, Allah, the Mighty and High, created privileged and adversity before He created His Creation. So whoever Allah knows to be privileged, Allah is never displeased with Him at any time. Even if he does an evil deed, Allah is displeased with the act, but not with him. If He knows someone to be adverse, Allah is displeased with Him at all times. Even if he does a good deed, Allah is please with the act, but displeased with him for what he will become. Thus, if Allah is pleased with something, then He never displeased with it; and if He is displeased with something, He is never pleased with it.

“He intervenes between man and the belief that falsehood is the righteous.” It is also said: “Verily, Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, intervenes between man and his heart through death.” Abu `Abd Allah (AS) said: “Verily, Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, brings people from adversity to privilege, but does not bring people for privilege to adversity.”