My friend lost his wallet

My friend lost his wallet while on vacation. He looked everywhere. Filed a report with the police. Asked his friends to supplicate for him. An old lady in the village he had visited said that she would pray to the saints for him :) I prayed for him (to Allah). He had to find his wallet!

Days passed, and nothing. He decided to accept that he had lost it. He took the lessons and was constructive about the whole experience. He was preparing to cancel his cards, but decided to wait.

On the last day of his vacation, as he was sitting in his rented car, listening to a voice note from a friend, he remembered that there was a back pocket somewhere in his car. He jumped up and checked.

The wallet was there.

He was so joyful, ecstatic even, that Allah helped him find his wallet a few hours before leaving his holiday spot. It was the perfect end to the vacation.

While this is a heart warming story, it made me think about the joy one feels when one gets something after deprivation, or is saved after a test, or is returned something one lost - the joy that comes after pain. The feeling is uncontainable. It’s a high that keeps you going for days. It serves as a reminder of the good.

That specific high would not have been possible without the low that came before. Generally, we do not actively feel gratitude or joy everyday for simply possessing our wallet - it is something taken for granted.

But the pain - frustration, worry, fear - from losing the wallet actually paves the way for the joy when we get it back. There would be no joy without that initial pain, no hope except after hopelessness, and no gratitude except after loss.

This incident teaches us about the wisdom behind some forms of deprivation. There is a sweetness that can only come after one tastes bitterness. And for us to taste that sweetness, we have to go through the trial.

But there is something else: it is not just the opening after the hardship that is the blessing. It is the test in and of itself, if we frame it in the right way. It could be that the test teaches us how to search for solutions instead of being paralyzed. It is possible that the test forces us to let go when we are usually rigid in our desire for control. There are moments within the trial when we turn to Allah that are so sincere and beautiful - because we recognize our utter reliance on Him - that the benefit is just that: turning to Allah with all our hearts, when we may have been far.

Always look forward to the opening and the indescribable joy that can only come from an opening in the midst of hardship. And if you do not find what you lost in this world and suffer because of it, don’t forget that within the trial itself there is a blessing, and that Allah is saving for you the ultimate joy that cannot be measured: His company in Paradise.