“Just consider your ma’mulaat the purpose, and zikr itself is what is desired. The zaakir has the company of the One whose name he is mentioning, is this something to be taken lightly? In a hadith qudsi Allah says, “I am in the company of one who remembers Me.” Every person who makes zikr of Allah, they get that special connection and proximity with Allah, because Allah is right by you when you are mentioning Him. When you have this bounty and blessing, then don’t worry about other secondary things.”

“Sometimes we make dua’ for things and they don’t turn out the way we want them to be. But whatever situation we are in we should understand that is what we can handle, and that is probably what is best for us. For example, your tire can go flat and that would not be something good. But maybe that was a minor difficulty, and Allah was preventing something major from you. And sometimes Allah wants to teach an individual that no matter how much you do to attain a certain goal, your actions are futile, and Allah is the One who actually does.”

“Our job is to get in tune with what Allah ta’ala wants and what He has decided. There was once a person who whenever anyone would ask him, “how are you doing,” he would say: “Alhamdulillah, everything is great. Why would anything be wrong when everything I want happens?  I have decided that whatever Allah ta’ala wants is what I want, and whatever Allah doesn’t want I don’t want, so things go exactly how I want them to go because whatever Allah ta’ala wants, happens.”

To be pleased with what Allah ta’ala has decided for a person, is extremely difficult. I acknowledge its difficulty; you’d be a fool not to. But it’s not impossible. It’s possible to be happy with the way Allah ta’ala makes things, and it’s possible to see a benefit in what He has decided. The same thing you see as a museebah will be the same exact thing that saves you from other calamities. A lot of things are problematic, but we need to find something positive in that, and that’s our job.”