AL-SUNAN.org - Fuwa'id ul Fawa'id - Benefits of the Benefits

All praises is due to Allah , we praise him we seek his help and we seek his forgiveness and I bare witness that none deserves to be worshiped other than Allah, alone without any partners. I bear witness that Muhammad (Sallalahu Alahi Wa Sallam) Is his slave and messenger

Ibn ul Qayyim (Rahimahullah) mentioned in his monumental book Fuwa'id ul Fawa'id "Benefits of the Benefits" Pg. 83

Your Provision and Your Life

If Allah, by His wisdom, closes one path of provision for you, He opens, by His Mercy, another path more beneficial for you. Consider the state of the fetus in the womb of his mother and how his provision comes to him in this premature stage while he is just mere blood. His provision comes to him from one path, which is through the umbilical cord, however when the fetus exits the womb of his mother, this path is cut off and two other paths are opened for him. And through these two paths he receives a provision that is more wholesome, healthier and sweeter, milk from the two breasts. When his term of breastfeeding is finished, these two paths are cut off, by weaning the child off of the breast and Allah opens four other paths for him which are more ideal and complete. These four paths include two types of food and two types of drink. As for the food, meat from the animals and fruits and vegetables from the earth. As for the two drinks, fresh water and pure milk and whatever is derived from them

And when he inevitably dies, these four paths are cut off from him, but if he is of those who will be successful and prosperous, Allah Subhannahu opens up eight more paths for him, which are the eight doors to paradise, he can enter through any of them as he pleases!!Likewise, Allah does not prevent His slave from anything of this dunya (i.e. transient things of this life), except He will give him what is more beneficial for him from it. Nevertheless this is only for the believer, for he is prevented from his lowly portion of this life, while Allah is not pleased with it for him, in order to give him a greater and more superior portion (i.e. in the hereafter)

Free your mind from the grief you experience as a result of worrying about your life and provision and make room in it to preoccupy yourself with the things you have been commanded with. Do not preoccupy yourself with those things that are inevitable regarding your life and provision, as both of them are linked to one another. So as long as your life continues, your provision will continue to come to you

However, the slave, due to his ignorance of what is, in fact, beneficial for him as well as the munificence of his lord, His wisdom and gentleness, he doesn’t comprehend the difference between what he was prevented from and what is actually stored for him (i.e. in the hereafter). Instead, he is ardently in love with the transient enjoyment of this life, even if it is lowly and appalling and less interested in the home of the hereafter, even if it is