Day by day, we are fed with one sadly tragic story after another.
Most days, we are not on the receiving end. But it is undeniable that we too experience hardships and heartbreaks in our own lives.
There is simply no escaping this rhythm of constant dance between life’s fortunes and misfortunes, just as how the Sun will inevitably set and the darkness of the night will cover the sky in its entirety.
Yet, just like the Sun is destined to sink in the horizon every nightfall, none of our circumstances is random.
All of them follow Allah’s (s.w.t.) decree and intention: to test us.
“We will certainly test you with a touch of fear
Surah Al-Baqarah 2:155
and famine and loss of property, life, and crops.
Give good news to those who patiently endure—”
Yet our Lord never abandons us for He is Al-Hadi (the Guide), whose guidance promises the believers with sabr the best of this world and the Hereafter.
And amidst our tested moments, He reminds us to be grateful, expressed through a single, recurring utterance: alhamdulillah.
Most of us learn it simply as “praise be to Allah,” an expression of thanks.
But if “thank you” is all it means, why don’t we just say shukrillah? How does saying it even make sense when we’re struggling in the first place?
The answer is that hamd is a praise offered not only for the good that reaches us like shukr.
Hamd is for our gratitude for all that Allah (s.w.t.) blessed us with even moments that feel like a wound.
In the end, He knows far more than we can even begin to comprehend.
Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you
Surah Al-Baqarah 2:21
and like something which is bad for you.
Allah knows and you do not know.
So what use is a phrase like this as we watch our circumstances unravel through no fault of our own?
It re-orients us.
Alhamdulillah is a reminder that He knows what we cannot yet see.
Perhaps the hardship in front of us, in truth, protects us from a far greater misery we were spared without ever knowing it.
Perhaps we had begun to drift from Him, and this very obstacle is the hand that redirects us home.
Even in deprivation, we are being saved in some way.
Similarly through blessings we are equally tested, so that we might remain on the path that leads back to Him or find our way back again.
Alhamdulillah is never reserved for only good news.
It is an utterance we are given for every season of life, one wide enough to hold both our sorrow and our relief, and steady enough to carry us through either.
Wallahu’alam.