Why do bad things happen to good people?
This is a question that a lot of people grapple with.
This is a question that a lot of people in fact struggle with
and not being able to properly answer.
This question has led people to a lot of suffering, a lot of doubt,
and some people even go to the extent of disbelieving in God completely
simply because they cannot find a suitable answer to this question.
So this is a question that we we also are asked by others.
We are asked by by non-Muslims.
We're going to be asked by, perhaps by our children.
We have to know the answer to these kinds of questions,
not only for ourselves, but also to help others as well
to not get lost because
this is one of those essential issues that we see in our lives.
Sometimes we seem to see that bad
things are happening to good people and we also see the opposite.
Sometimes we wonder why are good things happening to bad people?
Why does the world seem unfair?
These are questions that are essential to be able to understand.
Why is it that bad things happen to good people?
Well, the answer to this question is actually that
the question itself is flawed.
In fact, we are told by the Prophet ﷺ
that bad things never happen to good people.
There is a very important hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ says,
[جَباً لأمْرِ الْمُؤْمِنِ إِنَّ أَمْرَهُ كُلَّهُ لَهُ خَيْرٌ]
So it's unusual. Why?
Because everything is good for a believer.
So that actually changes the question.
And now the the answer to
this question is that bad things don't happen to good people.
Everything that happens to a good person,
everything that happens to a believer is in fact good for them.
But the problem is in how we define good and bad.
Many of us define good and bad as simply being limited
to the dunya, simply being limited to the material world.
And so we start to think that any time someone
increases in the material world, that's something good.
And any time someone loses from the material world, that's something bad.
Now, if we limit our vision, if we limit our our timeline
in essence to only this world, then in fact we cannot answer this question.
But the reality is that our existence is not only limited to this life,
our existence is actually this life is actually just a blink of the eye
of our greater existence that there is a hereafter.
And so this that puts perspective
into what is happening in this in this light.
So then how can we change how we view good and bad?
And that really is what is the turning point in how we understand this question?
Anything that happens to a believer that helps them grow spiritually.
Anything that happens that brings them closer to Allah (swt),
is actually good for them,
even when it comes in the form of loss or pain or struggle.
And so this idea that bad things are happening is actually an illusion.
In fact, it is. It is a loss of panel to Allah doing good for the believer,
but sometimes again, it's packaged in
in the form of difficulty and in the form of loss and struggle.
But essentially, it is actually good for the believer.
And just a quick example of that
is that when you go to the doctor and you have to get a shot,
you know that shot, it obviously involves a prick of pain.
And yet and yet the greater good is that it's curing you.
The greater good is that it's treating you and it maybe even saving your life.
But it does come through a needle and we know this in life that, you know,
as they say, no pain, no gain, that sometimes
in order to grow, we have to go through some struggle.
You know, if you go to the gym and you want to grow
your muscle, you have to struggle, you have to lift weight
and you cannot become strong unless you do that.