Ridha’ of the Salik

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Shaykh Najm ad-Din Abu al-Jannab Ahmad ibn ‘Umar al-Kubra’ (q.s.) said that the salik should always have ridha’. acquiescence, accepting Divine Dispensations without questioning though they be bitter.  The common believers take recourse in patience, swabr, when a calamity befalls.  But the state of the elect in a similar situation is that of ridha’. 

The difference between swabr and ridha’ is that the swabir, the patient person, by virtue of his faith, faces calamity with forbearance; his faith remains unshaken and he does not get disturbed in times of calamity; he will not deviate from the path of servitude, howsoever great and unbearable the calamity should be but his heart resents the calamity.  But the radhi, the acquiescent person, is the one whose heart is always in the state of acquiescence and happiness.  Calamity and affluence do not affect him, for whatever he Receives from Allah (s.w.t.) he considers it as a Gift from a Friend.  He enjoys hardships inflicted upon him by his Beloved and Friend with the same pleasure as others enjoy favours. 

Sayyidina ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib (k.w.), in a famous sermon, Khutbat Hammam, described the qualities of the pious, saying, “They are as happy in the face of calamity as others are in the state of comfort.”