“You may dislike something which is actually good for you, and you may like something which is actually bad for you.” (Qur’an 2:216).
What appears to be a real disaster may actually be a great blessing in disguise. Our incarcerated brothers may provide a perfect example.
Discovering God and joining His kingdom is the greatest achievement any human being can achieve. If incarceration is what it takes for anyone to attain this precious goal, it is a small price indeed for such a great treasure.
The Qur’an teaches us that if a disbeliever possesses all the treasures of the world, even twice as much, he would readily give it all up in exchange for a believer’s achievement (10:54, 13:18, & 39:47).
If you are a prisoner who discovered the true path to God, and have decided to follow God’s true religion, you are far more fortunate than a billionaire who has failed to discover God.
If you discovered Islam in prison, then incarceration was the greatest blessing that ever happened to you.
It is established that this life is insignificant, when compared to the real life of the eternal Hereafter. Mathematically, when you divide any number by infinity, the product is zero. So, even a thousand years in this world equal a zero when compared to the infinite Hereafter.
With this Qur’anic understanding, we realize that it doesn’t really matter whether we are poor or rich in this world, fat or thin, tall or short, black or white, male or female, beautiful or ugly.
This life, no matter how long, passes like the blink of an eye (16:77).
When God loves someone, He may afflict him or her with a temporary problem just to get his or her attention. This is what Qur’an teaches in Sura 6, Verse 42 and in 7:94.
THE MUSLIM PRISONER
Blessing in Disguise?
Incarceration may be God’s way of blessing you, and getting your attention. It means that God cares about you. If you respond positively to God’s care, and decide to join His kingdom, then He makes it up to you manyfold. He will appoint you a King on Earth. This is God’s inviolable promise as we see in Qur’an 24:55.
There is one important catch: you must be absolutely positive that you have found the pure Islam, not the Islam that is distorted by traditions and superstitions.
By: Rashad Khalifa as Editor of Muslim Perspective, February, 1985
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