Is the Grass Greener on the Other Side?

This is very simple, Allah (swt) created life as a test, and there is no human being that escapes other than being tested. Now a lot of times what happens is, we look at other people’s lives and we think that they’re not being tested. We say “wow, my life is so difficult but this guy’s making $50,000 more than me, he has no problems” Right, this is human nature. Human nature is to look at the other person and always think that the grass is greener on the other side. I will tell you that there is no way that the grass is greener on the other side. First of all I know that having bad enough experience living in this life and having enough people come and tell me their problems… that the millionaire has problems and the person who is at below the poverty level also has their own problems. Now are the problems the same? 

No, the millionaire has problems that you would think that ‘how a person with so much wealth ever has problems’ and they have the same number of problems as the person living at the poverty level. It’s just the way Allah (swt) created life, you can’t escape, it’s not that when you earn a certain amount of money, you’ve escaped or that when you have a certain number of friends you’ve escaped or when you have a certain number of square feet in your home you’ve escaped. So Allah (swt) created varying tests and they vary based on the amount that a person’s been given but everybody’s being tested. So it’s the foolish one that looks at another person’s life and says “well if I had that I would do this” that doesn’t make any sense, if you had that you would have your own set of tests and you might fail them miserably or you might succeed, it doesn’t make any difference. Allah (swt) is not going to ask you what He gave you. You won’t be asked “I gave you this or I gave you this, why was it?” No, Allah (swt) gives you whatever He gives you. You will be asked how you used what He gave you.

So if He gave you health you’ll be asked about how you used it. But if you weren’t given health you won’t be asked why you didn’t have health. If you had wealth Allah (swt) will ask how you attained it and how you spent it. But if you don’t have it, Allah (swt) won’t ask you why you didn’t have wealth, that won’t be a question on the Day of Judgment that your salary was $100,000 how come it wasn’t $120,000? Answer up! That’s not going to be a question on the Day of Judgment. So that’s the way Allah (swt) has created life and we should be very clear, we don’t ever need to look at another person and ask why we’re not that person. We’re comfortable with whatever Allah (swt) made us and we should recognize that every single persons in a test. The biggest mistake, in fact the way you fail the test is to complain. 

“How come I don’t have this?

How come I don’t have that?

How come my kids are like this?

How come my this is like that?

How come my boss is like this?”

Those are all complaints they don’t get you anywhere. Nobody wins the game by complaining, In fact the Prophet (saw) asked for protection from the complaining tongue. That’s the person who gets deceived, they start blaming the world for their circumstance rather than recognizing that their circumstances are an opportunity for them to convert the mundane into something much more special.

- Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar