It’s not about how hard the fall is. It’s about how beneficial the rise is.

Have you ever felt so down that there’s nothing that motivates you to get back up? That feeling when you look up and there’s no bright light, so you would prefer not to move at all. Have you ever felt like in these moments there is no one in this whole entire world that could relate to you. The feeling when you feel like you have nothing to live for so you choose to give up. Everything is so negative; you don’t even want to be you. You don’t want to live the life you have.

I want you to know something. What you feel is not only normal, but it’s extremely common. You aren’t alone, in fact there’s millions out there who are feeling just as alone as you are. Remember what Islam teaches us? If we have nothing; we always have Allah, and when we have Allah - we have everything. As long as you have Allah, nobody can take anything away from you. Everything you desire exists with Allah!

Masjid Nabawi

The most amazing man to walk this earth, the teacher of ALL teachers, the scholar of ALL scholars, the man of all MEN, the Habib of Allah, the NABI of Allah, the Rasool of Allah, the receiver of divine revelation, the man with the most certainty of Islam - even HE experienced a taste of sadness in his life just like you. He didn’t just go through a moment of grief, he didn’t even just pass through a phase of sorrow. Prophet Muhammad (saw) experienced depression to such a degree he actually considered ending his life.

This is a man who was faultless. He was amazing in his character and conduct, literally the “chosen one”. If our beloved Prophet could feel sadness being as perfect as he was, we should realize it’s only our human nature to feel both good and bad. I want you to take one lesson out of this; you should NOT feel ashamed for feeling the way you do. Shame is an emotion that is from the shaytaan.

You and I are people who have messed up plenty in life. Our scales are full of sin and a lot of the time when we look at Nabi (saw), we feel like we can never be as good as he was because we aren’t Prophets. We disobey Allah (swt) a lot in comparison to him so living up to his standard seems impossible. Let’s remember that Allah sent Muhammad (saw) down because he was the perfect role model and example that we would be able to follow. And we can see in this example that feeling emotions aren’t a sin. They aren’t a sin as long as they don’t get acted upon. If Muhammad (saw) didn’t rise up after his fall, there would be no Islam. His rise was extremely beneficial, not just for him but for the whole of human kind. Don’t underestimate the special abilities Allah put in every person to make them different from one another. With the help of Allah, your rise will be beneficial not just for yourself but for the people around you aswell, inshaa Allah.

Islam isn’t here to extinguish sadness. Allah put it there for a reason. What Islam does do though, is it navigates it in a healthy way. And the fact of life is your going to get tribulations because that is the nature of the dunya. Nothing ever happens to you that wasn’t specifically meant for you. Your problems were distinctively meant for you, and that difficulty hit its target. But don’t forget a musibah isn’t always necessarily a bad thing. It’s something Allah wanted to happen to you. Don’t forget that it is by Allah (swt)’s permission that you are going through whatever you are going through.

“That to your Lord is the final goal; that it is He who grants laughter and tears. And that it is He who grants death and life” (Quran 53:43-44)

Masjidilharam

So just be patient. Remember that there are hidden mercies in suffering. Remember that it is okay and you are going to be okay. You want to know why? Because even though it is by Allah’s will you might be hurt right now, Allah never burdens a soul more than it can bear. That is one of the marvelous promises of Allah (swt)

“Verily, with every hardship comes ease” (Quran 94:6)

Allah doesn’t leave any of his slaves. At times like this you just need to open your eyes and see that Allah is actually standing right in front of YOU reaching his hand out to YOU waiting for YOU to take it. Allah understands when you fall, but it’s not about how hard the fall is. It’s about how beneficial the rise is.