“A human will, however strong it is, can never pierce through the veils of destiny.”
When you start your journey and a new resolution to Allah Almighty, you’re full of energy, inspiration and enthusiasm.
One sometimes tries to change himself/herself, the family, the society, the country, the whole world in one night or in one day or in one month…
People sometimes forget what Ibn Ata’ here calls “the veils of destiny”. The veils of destiny, are what Allah calls in the Quran the Sunnah of Allah:
You will never find a change in Allah’s universal laws, and you’ll never find a deviation in Allah’s universal laws.
These universal laws are the laws by which Allah created the universe.
The Law of Trials
One of them, for example, is the law of trials. We always have to be on test and on trials. Allah Almighty says:
People think that they can say, ‘we have attained faith’ but they are not put through tests?
Of course, they have to be put through tests. No one can avoid tests because this is a Sunnah of Allah, this is a universal law. It’s one of those veils of destiny that Allah Almighty has put.
The right attitude here is to be calm, to be patient, and to know that this is an integral part of my journey.
Gradualism
Another veil of destiny is gradualism and the laws of change. Nothing will change overnight. And if I try to memorize the Quran in one week, I will forget it in one week.
If I try to pray all night for five days, then after five days I’ll give up… Because another law is gradualism, it’s to take things gradually and to give things time.
The Duty of Time
There is also another veil of destiny which is called ‘the duty of time’.
I would like to give more time to pray, or to go to Hajj, or to do something, but there is something that is hindering me from that. There is a sick parent, or a disabled child, or a friend who needs help urgently, or one of these requirements that I have to do. And these are parts of the veils of destiny.
The right attitude is to treat every circumstance with the same will, but to move with the circumstances as they move and to try to please Allah in every situation and not to insist on only one way of pleasing Allah Almighty.
These veils of destiny are actually the second step of the journey. Once we repent, we will be tried, we will see priorities in things that we have to do. And the test here is to actually go through the trials and the priorities properly, and to be calm and to be patient… And that will take us to the next step.
The words of wisdom taught us to hope at the beginning, and then this word of wisdom is teaching us to have patience and perseverance.
When we have hope and perseverance, then we advance in the way of Allah Almighty, and we move to the next step of our journey.