When we consider the good and evil we learn that there are many disasters that are seemingly taken as evil but they have within them scores of goodness and well being. Many incapacities and failures often become the cause the hidden talents to come to the fore and perform great deeds because somehow or the other man takes steps to overcome his deficiencies using all his energies and these efforts become the base of educational and social development. So many failures become the cause of great inventions and many deficiencies and mistakes become the cause of great benefits.

The herbs that grow on stony soils and the trees that grow up in the deserts where there is a scarcity of water have wood that is solid and good for the hearth. The herbs and trees that grow on alluvial soil are not the same; there wood is soft and not good for the hearth. The same rule is applicable for humans. The desert people are stronger than the people of the fertile plains. The desert dwellers that are always facing hardships and live among wild beasts are very brave. But those who live in the cities enjoying the best of food and fruits lose their wit when they are faced with hardships.

In verses 5 and 6 the Qura’n describes this very lucidly. It says:

“So verily with hardship there is relief; verily with hardship there is relief.”

The verse says that there is such a great closeness at times between hardship and leisure as if they both exist together as is understood from the word “Ma’” the word Alasr with Alif and Laam has come with Yusr in a negative sense but here it means the elevated status or that poverty and hardship are followed by a state of leisure and ease.

Some historians have attributed the hardships in the beginning of Islam to be the cause of development and this was because they had to defend themselves with swords while the cause of the Muslim decadence in the later centuries was the life of leisure full of good things.

We conclude our discussion by the witnesses of some elder statesmen and wise men:

One Arab compiler says: I do not believe that every person should necessarily face hardships but I understand that hardships have a silver lining of benefits or it is a need for man but with the condition that he must know how to face the hardships and then he should count these deeds as the lessen giving exercises of life. (1)

It is a profound idea that man should not move towards hardships or remain silent about facing them and not face them. But we should not forget that some unpredictable disasters that we have no strength to face become from which evolves the development of our lives.

The famous French thinker Alexis Karl in his book “Man the unrecognized being” says: Those who are wealthy and have power accordingly spend their lives in ease and comfort and it can so happen that their sons use the wealth of their fathers and move away from business and in this way through their weaknesses pave the way for the destruction of their talents

And their lives. (2)

On the other side there are many people whose sons face poverty and hardships in their lives but they attain great goal and successes. We would like to end our discussion with the saying of Amirul Mumineen who said:

“He was asked: How is it possible that you eat such tasteless food and have faced the great warriors of the Arabs? The Imam responded “Be aware that the wood of the desert trees is hard but those evergreen trees that live along the riverbanks have weak barks. The shrubs that do not get any water except rain in the desert are good to burn for they burn longer and their flames rise high and for long.”

1. The Secret of Being

2. The unrecognized human existence page 152