before being beaten, do not be afraid of nothing, do not give non-being the colour of being. Think of the present hour; your power of patient endurance is enough for this hour. Do not act like the maddened commander who expects reinforcement on his right wing by an enemy force deserting to join him from his left, and then begins to disperse his forces in the centre to the left and the right, before the enemy has joined him on the right. The enemy then destroys his centre, left weak, with a minimal force. Brother, do not be like him. Mobilize all your strength for this present hour, and think of divine mercy, reward in the hereafter, and how your brief and transient life is being transformed into a long and eternal form. Instead of complaining bitterly, give joyful thanks.”

Much relieved, he said, “Praise and thanks be to God, my disease is now a tenth of what it was before.”

Fifth Point

FIFTH POINT consisting of three matters.

First Matter

F i r s t   M a t t e r: True and harmful misfortune is that which affects religion. One should at all times seek refuge at the divine court from misfortune in matters of religion and cry out for help. [^11] But misfortunes that do not affect religion in reality are not misfortunes. Some of them are warnings from the Most Merciful One. If a shepherd throws a stone at his sheep when they trespass on another’s pasture, they understand that the stone is intended as a warning to save them from a perilous action; full of gratitude they turn back. [^12] So too there are many apparent misfortunes that are divine warnings and admonishments, others that constitute the penance of sin; [^13] and others again that dissolve man’s state of neglect, remind him of his human helplessness and weakness, thus affording him a form of tranquillity. As for the variety of misfortune that is illness, it is not at all a misfortune, as has already been said, but rather a favour from God and a means of purification. [^14] There is a tradition which says: “As a tree drops its ripe fruit when shaken, so do sins fall away through the shaking of fever.” [^15]

[^11]: See, Tirmidhī, Da‘wāt, 79; Nasā’ī, al-Sunan al-Kubrā, vi, 106.

[^12]: See, Bukhārī, Īmān, 39; Buyū‘, 2; Muslim, Musāqāt, 107; Abū Nu‘aym, Ḥilyat al-Awliyā’, i, 11.

[^13]: See, Tirmidhī, Tafsīr Sūra 4:24; Musnad, ii, 303, 335, 402.

[^14]: See, Muslim, Birr, 52; Abū Dā’ūd, Janā’iz, 1; al-Daylamī, al-Musnad, i, 123; al-Ḥākim al-Tirmidhī, Nawādir al-Uṣūl, i, 286.

[^15]: Bukhārī, Marḍā, 3, 13, 16; Muslim, Birr, 45; Ibn Māja, Adab, 56; Dārimī, Riqāq, 57; Musnad, i, 381, 441, 455; iii, 152.

Job (Upon whom be peace) did not pray in his supplication for the comfort of his soul, but rather sought cure for the purpose of worship, when