2:155 And We will indeed try you with something of fear and hunger, and decrease of wealth, souls, and fruits; and give good news to the patient.
The custom of the Lord is that whenever He threatens the servant and shows harshness in a verse, then, right after that or before it, He caresses the servant and gives him hope. Thus in this verse He breaks the servant by mentioning those harsh things and varieties of trial. Then He gives good news, He caresses, and He says, "and give good news to the patient." And, at the beginning of these verses He says, "Surely God is with the patient" [2:153]. Glory be to Him! How gentle and how merciful He is to His servants!
And We will indeed try you. He says, "We will test you, sometimes with fear, sometimes with dread, sometimes with poverty, sometimes with hunger, sometimes with outward affliction, sometimes with inward sorrow." The outward trial and evident affliction are in fact easy work, for sometimes they are there and sometimes not, like the trial of Abraham and the trial of Job. The complete trial is inward sorrow, which does not leave its place for a moment. When someone is closer, more worthy of friendship, and more suitable for union, his sorrow is more. Such was Muṣ?afā's sorrow. He had no capacity for it on the highest horizon, nor did he have any rest from it on the expanse of the earth. He was like a moth before a lamp: It does not have the capacity to stay with the lamp, nor the remedy of staying away from the lamp. With the tongue of his state he was saying,
"In separation I make do because of shame before Your image,
in union I burn in fear it will cease.
Such is the state of the moth with the candle-
in separation it burns and in union it burns."
"Yes, everyone who seeks union with Me and wants proximity with Me has no escape from taking on the burden of tribulation and tasting the drink of sorrow."
Āsiya, the wife of Pharaoh, sought for the Real's neighborhood and asked for His proximity. She said, "My Lord, build for me a house with Thee in the Garden [66:11]. O Lord, I want a room in Your neighborhood, for it is beautiful to have a room in the lane of the Friend."
"Yes, it is beautiful, but its price is very expensive. Everything is sold for gold and silver, but this is sold for spirit and heart."
Āsiya said, "That's nothing to fear. And if its price were a thousand spirits instead of one, there would be no holding back."
So they crucified Āsiya and drove iron nails into her eyes. But she, in that chastisement was laughing and happy. This is as they say:
When it's the heart-taker's desire,
one thorn is better than a thousand dates.
Bishr Ḥāfī said, "I was passing through the bazaar in Baghdad. They were whipping someone with one thousand strokes, but he did not let out a sigh. Then they took him to prison. I went in his tracks and asked him, 'Why all those blows?' He said, 'Because I am entranced by passion.'
"I said, 'Why did you not weep so that they might lighten them?' He said, 'Because my beloved was watching. I was so drowned in the contemplation of my beloved that I had no concern for weeping.'
"I said, 'If you had been gazing on the Greatest Beloved, how would that have been?' He cried out once, then he died."
Yes, when passion is truly there, trial takes on the color of blessing. This is great good fortune: the beauty of the Beloved gives you access to itself so that in contemplating Him, you will take all severity as gentleness. But,
Not just any piece of straw comes near You-
in suffering grief for You it needs a man.