Provision comes from Allah

Worldly sorrow is God’s decree within the purity and bliss of this life; its joys and pleasures are marred by deficiency or absence, so that people do not become satisfied with this world and feel secure in it, thereby becoming losers in the Hereafter. Among the kindness and mercy of God toward His servants is that He has provided them with compensation for every loss, solace for every absence, and restoration for every deficiency, if they but understand His generous divine recompense. It is God’s unchanging custom with His creation that whoever leaves something for the sake of God, the Exalted and Mighty, or relinquishes something beloved to him while seeking God’s reward, God will compensate him with something better than what he left or lost. The story of Joseph (peace be upon him) bears witness to this: when the wife of the Aziz (the nobleman) sought to seduce him, closed the doors, and adorned herself with every means of temptation, he stood firm in truthfulness to God, cried out with a cry of chastity, and said, “God forbid!” [Yusuf: 23]. As a reward, God clothed him in the garment of purity, elevated him above the women of the palaces, and then above the men of the palaces. He left the desires of this world and accepted imprisonment, so God compensated him until he became a king entrusted with the storehouses of the earth. There is indeed a young woman who left displaying herself for the sake of God, and she was clothed in the dignity of modesty, and God adorned her with the beauty of chastity. There is indeed an employee who left a position involving injustice or suspicion, and God opened for him a door of provision he had never imagined. After this, do we still regret what we have left for God’s sake? Rather, be reassured when your desires struggle against you and your heart is drawn toward something beloved that angers God; remember that the recompense is coming from the Generous, and God does not disappoint those who are sincere to Him, nor does He let down those who turn to Him. Do not look back, nor regret the past in which you abandoned disobedience, suspicion, or desire. Indeed, whoever prefers God’s pleasure to his own self’s pleasure, God grants him a pleasure that is not followed by regret. O you who have left something for God’s sake, do not grieve, for the Generous has promised, and the promise of the Generous is never broken. God, the Exalted, says: “And whoever fears God – He will make for him a way out and provide for him from where he does not expect” [At-Talaq: 2-3]. Let your heart be at peace, for the recompense is coming, goodness is on the way, and the bounty of the Generous never ceases. Likewise, every act of obedience to God, which involves leaving desires, is compensated by God with a good reward. For example, one who leaves his food and drink during fasting is compensated by God with Paradise, whose width is the heavens and the earth. O God, help us to remember You, thank You, and worship You well; make us among the righteous, and compensate us with the Garden of Eternity as a reward and a destination.