Allah (swt) guides those who pursue His pleasure to the ways of peace and brings them out from darkness into the light. The light of values is related to inner peace, and inner peace is not experienced by man while he is surrounded by grief, calamities and trials:

 وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُم بِشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ

(And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient,) (Al-Baqara: 155)

A person lives in an inner concern when he thinks about those persons surround him as his father, mother, brother, neighbours and when the disease strikes him, he thinks that he will die and be thrown under the dirt, so he feels distress. He always lives in the concern of disease and in the concern of sustenance, and if he has authority, he lives in the concern of how to keep his authority. So his whole life revolves within the circle of trials, and no one can say: I will not die, or I will not get sick. Allah (swt) says:

} لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ فِي كَبَدٍ {

(We have certainly created man into hardship.) (Al-Balad: 4)

Hence, how will a person live at peace with himself? How will he live in the light of knowledge and in the light of values? The answer: He must deal with the issue of anxiety through values, for the Holy Qur’an has eliminated worry and distress, so whoever says that he is a believer in Allah (swt), he must follow the teachings of Allah (swt) to reach true faith in Him (swt); to be certain that nothing harms nor benefits, lower nor raise, connect nor cut, and nothing gives life or death except Allah (swt), and knows that what befell him was not to miss him, and what missed him was not to befall him, and  to remember that if all the people gather to benefit him, they will not be able to benefit him except that which Allah had foreordained for him; and if all of them gather to do harm to him, they will not be able to afflict him with anything other than that which Allah (swt) had pre-destined against him. Accordingly, Allah (swt) has given us light and guidance through the Holy Book, and if a person cannot overcome anxiety, he will not be able to live in peace with himself, and therefore he will not live in peace with others, and his evil will be greater than his good, and we repeat the saying that the call of Islam is a call of good, and faith overcomes anxiety and it makes your certainty in Allah (swt) alone.

There is a Surah in the Holy Qur’an known as the Surah of optimism, it is Surah at-Talaq; because it has eight verses talks about the peacefulness of the humans with himself that dismiss any state of gloomy even if this condition relates to health or death, the eight sentences are:

لَا تَدْرِي لَعَلَّ اللَّهَ يُحْدِثُ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ أَمْرًا

(You know not; perhaps Allah will bring about after that a [different] matter.) (at-Talaq: 1)

Whatever happens to you, make this sentence a symbol in your life.

  وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُ مَخْرَجًا

(And whoever fears Allah – He will make for him a way out) (At-Talaq: 2)

Fearing Allah (swt) makes you a way out of troubles and misfortunes.

 وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَحْتَسِبُ

(And will provide for him from where he does not expect.) (At-Talaq: 3)

Providence is not just in money rather it is in health, knowledge and others.

 وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُ

(And whoever relies upon Allah – then He is sufficient for him.) (At-Talaq: 3)

 قَدْ جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدْرًا 

(Allah has already set for everything a [decreed] extent.) (At-Talaq: 3)

 وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِ يُسْرًا

(And whoever fears Allah – He will make for him of his matter ease.) (At-Talaq: 4)

This light makes you live in inner peace.

 وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يُكَفِّرْ عَنْهُ سَيِّئَاتِهِ وَيُعْظِمْ لَهُ أَجْرًا

(and whoever fears Allah – He will remove for him his misdeeds and make great for him his reward.) (At-Talaq: 5)

Your grief and hardships will remove your sins and increase your reward.

 سَيَجْعَلُ اللَّهُ بَعْدَ عُسْرٍ يُسْرًا

(Allah will bring about, after hardship, ease.) (At-Talaq: 7)

Do these sentences not make the light enter the hearts! Do they not bring man into the peace ways! When man fear Allah (swt) and trust His words, definitely he will live in peace in his inner self and his soul.

(  وَيَهْدِيهِمْ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ … ) (and guides them to a straight path…): This is the shortest path to gain Allah’s (swt) pleasure with us which leads to Paradise. The Prophet (saws) said:

“Strange are the ways of a believer for there is good in every affair of his and this is not the case with anyone else except in the case of a believer for if he has an occasion to feel delight, he thanks (God), thus there is a good for him in it, and if he gets into trouble and shows resignation (and endures it patiently), there is a good for him in it.”[1]

Man goes through patience and gratefulness; indeed faith is two halves, patience and thanking.

[1] Sahih Muslim: The Book of Zuhd and Softening of Hearts, Chapter: The Believer’s Affair Is All Good, hadith No: 2999.