THE GROUPS OF PEOPLE THROUGH WHICH ALLAH ACTS

Allah treats His people according to their group. Allah does not expect everything from everybody. This may be contrary to what everybody thinks, but it is so. Allah is Just. If Allah gave you a certain amount of intelligence, then Allah asks only so much in return relative to your intelligence. If you want to be Sufi, then Allah will do things for you that will help you succeed in your path. Allah gives all this information to us in the Holy Qur’an. We read the Holy Qur’an, but we do not pay attention. We need to.

Allah acts through different groups of people. One group is the ahli dunya, the people of this world. They are subject to different rules and regulations than the ahli akhira (the people who want Paradise). Allah says in Qur’an-i-Karim,

“…whoever desires the harvest of this world, We give them of it, but they have no share in the hereafter.” (42:20, translation by author)

If you choose this worldly life, then Allah will give it to you. That is why Allah helps certain people in whatever they do, such as in their business. All their successes happen in this life only. But the ahli akhira have to work hard to gain the degree that Allah will give them in the hereafter. If the ahli dunya will work once to gain something, the others have to work twice or three times as hard. They do not expect anything in this world, but expect their reward in the hereafter.

Another group is the Sufis, who want Allah only, except that we want Allah both here in this world, and we want Allah there in the hereafter. The rules and regulations are different for us than for the others. Allah’s expectations of us are different than His expectations of the ahli akhira and His expectations of the ahli dunya. Because you registered for a different program, the rules and regulations are different.

Your expectations have to be aligned with your program, not with someone else’s. You say it is hard, and it has to be because your reward is not going to be here. Allah may also give you a reward here, but this is only temporary. Why do you want something temporary? Allah saves most of His grace and blessings and generosity for the hereafter because that will be forever and ever.

We are all here on this earth camping. This is not our home. We are going to camp here and then move on. We have to calculate our actions according to our expectations. We cannot act like a Sufi and expect rewards like the ahli dunya. You do not qualify because you did not sign up for that. Your contract is this, so this is what you are going to get.