We must also realize that nothing happens without a purpose. Nothing. Not even broken hearts. Not even pain. That broken heart and that pain are lessons and signs for us. They are warnings that something is wrong. They are warnings that we need to make a change. Just like the pain of being burned is what warns us to remove our hand from the fire, emotional pain warns us that we need to make an internal change. We need to detach. Pain is a form of forced detachment. Like the loved one who hurts you again and again and again, the more dunya hurts us, the more we inevitably detach from it. The more we inevitably stop loving it.

    And pain is a pointer to our attachments. That which makes us cry, that which causes us the most pain is where our false attachments lie. And it is those things which we are attached to as we should only be attached to Allah which become barriers on our path to God. But the pain itself is what makes the false attachments evident. The pain creates a condition in our life that we seek to change, and if there is anything about our condition that we don’t like, there is a divine formula to change it. God says, “Verily never will God change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves.” (Qur’an 13:11)

Reclaim your Heart - Yasmin Mogahed

How often do we ask of Allah without tying our “camel”? Sometimes we forget that we have to do our part as well. We want to ease our suffering, but we do nothing to change our situation. We want to do well in school but we don’t study as hard. We want to find a halal job but we know its easier to aim for the shops that sell haram. We want to pray on time but we hit snooze. We want to be more pious but we don’t want to cut out the people who influence us negatively. We want a pious spouse but just not right now.

Allah opens the doors, but we have to be willing to take the steps. We ask Allah for guidance, now we need to have faith that His guidance is the best solution.