Do Not Worry About Losses

Taken from Muhyi din Ibn al-‘Arabi's, The Mysteries of Bearing Witness:

Do Not Worry about Losses

Do not worry about losses which God causes to your property and those of your family dear to you, which are customarily termed calamity and loss. Say, “We belong to God and to Him we return” when that happens to you. Say as Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “No affliction befell me but that I saw that God gave me three blessings in it. One blessing is that it was not a disaster to my faith. The second blessing is that it (the affliction) was not a greater one and so by it God averted a greater one. The third blessing is what God includes in it of the expiation we are commanded for our evil actions.”

Know that in this world the believer experiences many losses because God desires to purify him so that he will meet Him pure and purified of the filth of acts of opposition committed in this world in which God has written that he must reside. The believer continues to suffer loss in his states in general. It is established by the Messenger of God (may God bless him and grant him peace) in, “The metaphor of the believer is that of a fresh tender plant. No matter which direction the wind comes from, it bends and when the wind stops, it stands straight again until it is blown away.”