It Takes Something More Than Intelligence To Act Intelligently. ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime And Punishment

As soon as you realise that everything, truly, is controlled by Allah you will be happier.

You need to internalise it. Every little thing is controlled by Allah so if something goes wrong, something will go right-

and if you’re sad today, tomorrow you will be happier

   — Susan Sontag, Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1964

[text ID: I must change my life so that I can live it, not wait for it.]

i have a little switch in my head. its two settings are “do everything immediately” and “do nothing at all”. i do not control what the switch is set to, and there is no third setting

There’s a brother who says

والى الله ترجع الأمور Wa ilal-lāhi turja'ul umoor And to Allah returns all affairs

When someone would hurt him or try to have a meaningless argument with him

A habit I picked up as well

The Prophet ﷺ said:

“When a person does not have enough good deeds to reach a certain level in Jannah, but Allah wants him to attain that level, then Allah tests him and puts him through difficult trials so that Allah may make him reach that level (in Jannah).”

[Sahih Ibn Hibban; Al Ihsan, Hadith: 2908]

Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله:

“Lofty ranks cannot be reached except with trials.”

[Majmu’ al-Fataawa v25, p302]

I realized that if I wanted a different experience, I needed to choose differently.

For starters, I had to stop returning to the same environment or energy that presented me with the same experiences.

“Bear patiently, my heart — for you have suffered heavier things.”

- Homer, Odyssey

Stephanie Garber, Once Upon a Broken Heart

ʿAlī b. Abū Ṭālib (رضي الله عنه)said:

“I will be patient even until my patience tires of my patience.”

Timeless seeds of Advice/Chapter 49